18,000 Browser Favorites

In my playing around with Windows 8 I found a small issue that can come up if you attempt to sync your IE favorites using both Windows 8 browser sync and iCloud.

My current setup is a Windows 7 PC at work, a Windows 8 laptop, a Windows 8 Surface, an iPhone and an iPad.  Before Windows 8 came along I used iCloud to sync IE favorites between my work PC, laptop, iPhone and iPad.  When I added my Surface Pro I turned on the browser sync through my Microsoft account and I setup iCloud so my pictures would still appear on my Surface and my favorites would come forward.

Turns out if you do this you are setting yourself up for a bit of trouble.  I understand I could just use Chrome everywhere but for various reasons I still use IE for some things.

Apparently the iCloud browser sync causes the Windows 8 sync to keep creating duplicates favorites.  I would end up with Shortcut (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) and so on.  Same would happen to folders.  It didn’t stop until I turned off the Windows 8 browser sync.  Once I did that things went back to normal and I now have me IE favorites on my Surface, laptop, Windows 7 desktop, iPhone and iPad – all through iCloud.

Granted turning off the browser sync means my history and passwords don’t sync with IE but that’s why I use Chrome and that’s better than having 18,000 favorites.

I’ve searched the net and tried to find documentation on this and maybe even a work around but so far I haven’t found anything.  The fix is simple enough but I was hoping for a way where I could have my cake and eat it too.  Since I still use IDevices I still need iCloud but I guess it’s too much to ask that they play nice together.