Windows settings no longer sync across devices

Thought I’d post this here in case anybody else is in the same boat (or has run into this and solved it). My settings no longer sync across my devices.

Things such as Edge favourites, desktop backgrounds, Edge Reading List and other settings no longer get synced between my PCs (A desktop PC and a Surface Pro 4) or my phone. App settings (such as cloud sync on a Podcast app I use which uses app sync) also no longer roam.

I’ve tried a few things:

I’ve tried changing my Windows user accounts to local accounts and then back to Microsoft Account accounts.

I’ve tried turning sync off, and restarting, and turning sync back on.

I’ve even tried the old OneDrive Windows 8 “clear synced settings” website which is still online, with various restarts (turn sync off on all machines, restart them, visit the OneDrive clear sync settings site, turn sync back on, etc.).

And finally, I even tried reinstalling Windows on the Surface Pro 4, just in case.

So I’m guessing it is an issue with my Microsoft Account itself but I dread the idea of trying to phone Microsoft to get support on this (I had an issue last year where the same PC was listed several times in my Groove account so I couldn’t add new devices and I spent hours on the phone and got nowhere).

So thought I’d try posting here first :).

Incidentally, the date this stopped working seems to fall in line with the Anniversary update being delivered to my machines.

Ali

Conversation 4 comments

  • 656

    Premium Member
    14 November, 2016 - 12:10 pm

    <p>That is annoying issue.&nbsp; One thing to check- and forgive me for suggesting this if you already have is to verify sync is turned on – on any machine that you have.&nbsp; I had an older one that had a different setting that only gets powered up for testing once a month or so and I could not figure it out till I powered that device up and everything started working.&nbsp; Also- here is a link I found to "troubleshoot" your Microsoft account- no idea as to how well it works- but worth a shot anyway,&nbsp; http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/2/4/F24D0C03-4181-4E5B-A23B-5C3A6B5974E3/microsoftaccounts.diagcab</p&gt;

  • 5501

    Premium Member
    14 November, 2016 - 12:42 pm

    <p>I wish I knew the answer to this as well. &nbsp;Most of the time my stuff syncs, but there are times when it doesn’t. &nbsp;I moved all my browser favorites to Firefox for this very reason since it seems to be a bit more reliable in my experience. &nbsp;Another example, when I create an entry in the Windows built-in calendar app, it can take a couple of days for it to appear on my other machine. &nbsp;Thankfully I’m not having any problems syncing e-mail lately, but now it’s my desktop background that doesn’t appear to be syncing, even though it used to work just fine. &nbsp;Very weird and frustrating.</p>

  • 1570

    Premium Member
    15 November, 2016 - 4:14 am

    <p>Thanks for everyone’s suggestions so far.</p>
    <p>The more I get into this, the more certain I am it’s an account issue. Which is frustrating as I’ve had account issues before and trying to call somebody to get it resolved is near impossible (especially as I’m in the UK where support calls are routed elsewhere – I tried calling US support but they said they couldn’t help me as I was in the UK, so I was rerouted to a call centre&nbsp;where I&nbsp;felt I knew more about Windows than they did).</p>
    <p>I’ve tried clearing all my favourites&nbsp;and reading lists on all my devices, just in case that might jump start things (turning sync off, restarting, turning sync back on in between). Likewise, I’ve checked all devices are running the same build. And I’ve tried silly things like resetting all my desktop wallpapers to the default in case there was an issue with a particular image file…</p>
    <p>The Microsoft Account&nbsp;CAB (thanks jt5) is *maybe* no longer supported. I get all sorts of weird errors and, when I’ve searched online, people using this tool seem to get the same "error" messages no matter what their issue. First I get "Can’t connect to the sync service", and then when I click Next, I get a message saying "Installed Apps" has its sync settings turned off, followed by some more issues (Can’t connect to sync service, Rootcauses found and created logs, Some settings have sync turned off). Initially I thought you may have cracked it, but when I searched online for some of these messages, people seem to be getting them no matter what is wrong. I hate to ask, but could somebody else run the tool and see if they get the same messages?</p>
    <p>Frustrating.</p>

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