# Article Status not syncing between devices using iCloud

**URL:** <https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399>\
**Category:** Syncing\
**Created:** [September 26, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399 "2026-09-26T02:06:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/ba8739/32.png) [@YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/YoghurtDork)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/1 "2026-09-26T02:06:16Z")

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Using the latest version of NetNewsWire (7.1.4 Build 7213) on two devices (iPad and iPhone), synced using iCloud. Lately, the article status (read/unread, star) has not been in sync across both devices, no matter how many times I refresh the feed list.

On iPad:

 ![IMG_0018](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/uploads/default/original/1X/dc1c1a880c0d113d9f31df55944bc5c0886f68f8.jpeg)

On iPhone:

 ![IMG_7621](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/uploads/default/original/1X/221285ac4417a7cafb1c4a6b4d5044f8f945c8e5.jpeg)

(Feed names are censored for privacy)

Is there a way to force a refresh that makes sure the article status is identical across devices?

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**Author:** ![YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/ba8739/32.png) [@YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/YoghurtDork)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/2 "2026-09-27T13:45:45Z")

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After a bit of trial and error, I can confirm what does _not_ work is

1. Setting the “iCloud” account to “Not Active” and back again (this does nothing for the article status)
2. Removing the “iCloud” account from NNW and re-adding it (this zeros out the unread count to whatever the current RSS feed provides, which is usually limited to the first 30-ish articles for my particular feeds, thus making the two devices even more out-of-sync)

The only solution that did work was using a third-party solution (iMazing) to back up app data from one device and restore it on the other, which while successful is a very time-consuming process that does nothing to ensure that the article statuses will not go out of sync again after some time.

Perhaps an app option to back up and restore all settings (including article status) would be work looking into? I know that this has been mooted and rejected for cross-service imports and exports, but perhaps limiting it to this app exclusively would be more doable? Just an idea.

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**Author:** ![Melwan](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/user_avatar/discourse.netnewswire.com/melwan/32/12_2.png) [@Melwan](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/Melwan)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 11:35am UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/3 "2026-10-02T11:35:57Z")

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I have the same problem and I gave up trying to fix it. I tried everything I can think of including nuking and resetting the iCloud data for NNW. Once I import all my feeds, it goes out of sync immediately. When I check the iCloud status within the app, the numbers match between macOS and iOS, but the unread count is always off. I do not sync article contents (the option is turned off on both devices).

I have always used the iCloud sync in NNW since it was introduced with zero issues. The current problem is happening after development has resumed on the app recently.

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**Author:** ![YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/ba8739/32.png) [@YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/YoghurtDork)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 11:44am UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/4 "2026-10-03T11:44:41Z")

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Thanks for your reply; good to know that it’s not just me. I’ve only begun to use NNW’s iCloud sync function recently in the past two months, so I can’t say if it’s always been like this or not. Hopefully it gets addressed soon.

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**Author:** ![CommodoreCycling](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@CommodoreCycling](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/CommodoreCycling)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/5 "2026-10-03T12:55:52Z")

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I have the same problem and am thinking about setting up a FreshRSS account. I’m unsure if this sync issue will get resolved or if it’s just how iCloud works.

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**Author:** ![brent](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/user_avatar/discourse.netnewswire.com/brent/32/7_2.png) [@brent](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/brent)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 10:41pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/6 "2026-10-03T22:41:12Z")

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Unread counts may not match for a couple of reasons.

Syncing isn’t immediate, for one thing. A change you just made might not have made it to the other copy of NetNewsWire yet. (It might be quick but it might take a half hour or more.)

Also: you might not have the same articles in each copy of NetNewsWire. If you use one copy of NetNewsWire more often than another, you might find that the less-used copy misses articles that came and went before it had the chance to see them.

**Things to check**

Are the read/unread statuses consistent? That is, when an article appears in each copy of NetNewsWire, does it have the same status? (You might find, for instance, that this is true — it’s just that one copy has articles the other doesn’t have.)

Also check the Error Log and Activity Log for any issues. If the Error Log shows no iCloud related errors, see if the Activity Log is doing the expected status refreshing. You should see entries with titles like “iCloud: Sending statuses” and “iCloud: Refreshing statuses” with additional information.

If you’re seeing iCloud-related errors in the Error Log, definitely let me know what those are!

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**Author:** ![YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/ba8739/32.png) [@YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/YoghurtDork)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 5:44am UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/7 "2026-10-04T05:44:52Z")

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> [@brent](#):
>
> Also: you might not have the same articles in each copy of NetNewsWire. If you use one copy of NetNewsWire more often than another, you might find that the less-used copy misses articles that came and went before it had the chance to see them.

Thanks for the reply! If this is indeed the case (the feeds which are most out of sync are from daily newspapers, and I did not use one of the devices for a few days), then would turning on article content sync fix it?

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**Author:** ![brent](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/user_avatar/discourse.netnewswire.com/brent/32/7_2.png) [@brent](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/brent)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 5:14pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/8 "2026-10-04T17:14:38Z")

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Yes, turning on article content sync would fix it, though not immediately. (It would sync the content of new articles, but not existing articles.)

But I don’t recommend turning that on. It makes sync times much longer and uses way more iCloud storage. (Sometimes syncs can even take hours.)

It’s a trade-off for sure, but I think way faster syncing plus far less iCloud data use is a good trade-off for unread counts not always matching.

(Mine don’t always match either! I just don’t compare them because I know why they don’t match.)

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**Author:** ![YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/y/ba8739/32.png) [@YoghurtDork](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/YoghurtDork)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 11:46pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/9 "2026-10-04T23:46:12Z")

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Thanks for the confirmation that unread counts are not intended to match between devices if article content syncing is not enabled; perhaps this has to be mentioned more explicitly in the documentation to avoid confusion from users like myself.

While I can see the rationale for the decision, a part of me still wonders if there is a way to achieve this without massively increasing sync durations. While uploading article content from a device to iCloud as part of the sync process is probably unavoidable, would it be possible for a device that is pulling article content from iCloud to only download articles that are not already present (by comparing hashes, say)?

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**Author:** ![brent](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/user_avatar/discourse.netnewswire.com/brent/32/7_2.png) [@brent](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/brent)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 9:39pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/10 "2026-10-05T21:39:30Z")

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Yes, there are probably some optimizations like that that may be do-able — but the problem really comes with a new device (or using a device after an absence). Syncs could still take hours in those cases.

And, regardless of optimizations like this, there would still be the issues of unexpectedly large amounts of iCloud storage and of the battery and networking use needed to compress and upload all those articles.

I wish iCloud were the perfect choice — it’s free, after all, or at least not an extra charge only for RSS syncing. But it’s just not as efficient as a dedicated-to-RSS sync system like Feedbin and the others.

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**Author:** ![CommodoreCycling](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@CommodoreCycling](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/u/CommodoreCycling)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 12:57pm UTC](https://discourse.netnewswire.com/t/article-status-not-syncing-between-devices-using-icloud/399/11 "2026-10-06T12:57:19Z")

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Thanks for your replies. I did not know that using a new device and/or using a device after an absence was creating major sync problems. I tried to sync a new device and started using one after absence again. At least I now know why I have these issues.

I’m looking into using NetNewsWire with FreshRSS, hope that I won’t be having any sync issues anymore as I enjoy NetNewsWire so much ☹