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  • Unpredictable iCloud Drive Synchronization - Tabs randomly reappear when Orion crashes

  • BugsDesktopDone

This bug report should collect the recent observations and user experiences shared on the Discord server (see Orion sync - unpredictable in orion-discussions)

This issue appears when enabling iCloud Drive synchronization for tabs and saved window.

Issue Description

Me and other users have reported unexpected behavior when using iCloud Drive synchronization for tabs and saved windows in the Orion browser. This issue manifests as previously closed tabs reappearing randomly, particularly after certain events such as:

  • Crashes caused by the "Check for Updates" routine
  • Waking a Macbook from sleep -> Orion crashes
  • On random occasions while browsing

Observations

  • Reappearing tabs can be up to a week old
  • Tabs reappear out of order, despite being part of a tab tree
  • Recent tabs are still available, but it's cumbersome to close older ones to return to the desired state
  • The issue is difficult to reproduce due to its unpredictable nature

Current Workarounds

Applying the steps from the Troubleshooting Syncing Data Issues when closing Orion manually for updates or rebooting works in most cases but still is ineffective in the case of a crash.

Potential Cause

@Vlad already suggested that iCloud Drive may be lagging behind and enforcing an outdated state on Orion. This could explain the reappearance of previously closed tabs.

Orion is expected to provide flawless synchronization, even in the case of crashes and between devices, such as Safari and Firefox.

0.99.128.2-rc (WebKit 619.1.11.111.2)

Sonoma (14)

  • Vlad replied to this.

    oxi_moron Is there a single reproducible scenario that we can look at?

        This is a straightforward scenario that does not occur every time.

        1. Close current Orion application
        2. Reopen it

          10 days later

          I encounter this most frequently, but not exclusively, after Orion crashes.

          I don't know if it's significant, but I have iCloud's Advanced Data Protection enabled.

            a month later

            Orion appears to be confused at times with the number of tabs that are actually open vs the number of tabs which it thinks are open in a workspace. I can regularly reproduce this discrepancy when in vertical tab mode. To the left I might have 12 tabs open, but when viewing the workspace's contextual menu it thinks there are 41 tabs open in this example. This particular browsing session can be open for hours on end with plenty of time for iCloud to finish syncing. No other copies of Orion are open elsewhere.

            When I open Orion on another Mac to the same workspace it will show all 41 tabs in the sidebar. The moment I close one of tabs not currently open in the sidebar on the first Mac, that first Mac's copy of Orion crashes instantly. I have submitted a number of these error logs.

            Now that I have a better awareness of this syncing and crashing issue I could try gathering additional details if I know where to look or what to try.

              denleschae Would you be able to reproduce this on new clean orion profile and post simplest steps to get to the issue/crash?

                  4 days later

                  Vlad I want to try a new profile however it doesn't seem possible to enable iCloud sync on a new profile. I made a new one and set it as the default, but moving the sync preference over to it isn't happening or available.

                  With my existing iCloud sync profile I have been experimenting with how the sync might break. It has taken a lot of back and forth between my 3 Macs, iPhone and iPad to ensure all tabs are closed in each tab group (I called them workspaces earlier). To do so I would go through each tab group one device at a time making sure Orion is closed on all others. Quite often long closed sets of tabs would reappear, along with entire tab groups I had deleted in the process. After about 3 or more rounds of closing tabs and tab groups across all devices everything appears to be closed and not returning.

                  In this process of cleaning up my tabs I found that when I got to the 4th or 5th of my devices they would have an old copy of the synced tab groups. When the tab groups would open the old set of 40+ tabs would remain on the device and thus load them back up into iCloud to then show up on all of the devices where they had been closed and synced.

                  With a seeminly clean tab & tab group slate I would open two devices to the same tab group and watch as a new empty tab would open on one device and automatically pop up on the other. I'd visit unique sites on each tab and watch as the other device would do the same close to instantly, though not all of the time. On occasion a new tab or change of a tab wouldn't sync instantly. In those unpredictable events a stray tab would be on one device, but not another. I could move on to creating new tabs and they would sync across devices instantly. Unfortunately like the bug title says, it seems to be unpredictable.

                      2 months later
                      20 days later
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