Sync with iCloud

Tern keeps your Spaces in step across your Macs through your own iCloud. Make a Space, pin a tab or add a folder on one Mac, and it's there on the others a moment later.

What syncs

• Your Spaces, with their names, icons, colours and order.
• Pinned tabs and folders, including the order you keep them in.
• Open tabs. A tab opened on another Mac arrives asleep and loads when you open it. A tab you close on one Mac closes on the other.
• Desks, with their pages and layout.

What stays on each device

• Sign-ins. You sign in to sites on each device.
• History, including each tab's back and forward pages, and each Desk's history.
• Spaces for your day. A Space's hours and link rules are set on each Mac.
• The agent's memory for each Space, unless the Space is shared.
• The split on screen and which tab is selected.

Turn it on

There is nothing to set up on the Mac. Sign in to the same iCloud account on each Mac and open Tern, and your Spaces come across. A Mac that has never synced waits for your other devices' Spaces to arrive before it sends its own, so its empty starting Space doesn't get in their way.

Your Spaces are kept in your own private iCloud, readable only by your devices. Nothing goes to Tern. The Privacy page has more.

Tern on iPhone

Tern for iPhone is coming soon to the App Store. It needs iOS 26 and the same iCloud account as your Mac. Your Spaces, pinned tabs and folders come across on its first run, and stay in step from then on. On iPhone, sync has its own switch: Settings › Sync Spaces with iCloud. Turning it off keeps what's on that iPhone.

Sync also carries tabs you send between your devices. See Send a tab to iPhone and Tern on iPhone.

If it isn't updating

Check that each device is signed in to the same iCloud account and has a connection. Tern asks iCloud for changes when you bring it to the front, so switching away and back can help. Sync isn't updating has more to try.