Open tabs and bookmarks gone on iPhone shortly after updating to iOS 26

After updating to iOS 26 on my iPhone 11 earlier this week, there was a glitch and I lost all open tabs, Safari bookmarks and Reading List items. Even though I had a lot of open tabs, I’m not worried about those—one of my other devices are still showing them in the iCloud Tabs section. Reading List items are still showing on other devices. However, I do need to get my bookmarks restored. I believe that they were all showing right after I updated, but if I remember correctly something caused the Safari app to crash/close and when I opened it back up I had lost all open tabs. On further inspection, I noted that the bookmarks and reading list items were gone also. Tab groups are still visible across all devices including the iPhone. The bookmarks are still showing on other devices (iPad, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini), so I know they are safe. Settings>iCloud>Safari is still checked ON.

To summarize:

—Tab Groups are fine and visible on all devices.

—Favorites and other bookmarks are gone/empty on the iPhone, but still visible and okay on other devices

—Reading List is empty on iPhone, but visible on other devices.

—Open tabs (that were there before the crash/glitch) are gone, but still visible on another device—so I’m not worried about them.

—Settings>iCloud>Safari is still turned ON.

Initially, I tried the following things: force closing Safari and opening it back up, but the above items were still gone/empty. I also tried rebooting the iPhone in both the regular method of power off/power on, as well as force rebooting (volume up button, volume down button, side power button until apple logo appears). None of those things fixed the issue.

I believe that I know what I have to try, but wanted to check to see if anyone had any other ideas. The two other solutions/fixes that I believe I need to try are as follows:

Fix Attempt #1-Turning the Settings>iCloud>Safari switch OFF. I believe that prompts me to keep items (bookmarks and I’m not sure what else) on the device locally or delete/trash them. I’m assuming that after I wait a few minutes and turn it back on that it will ask me if I want to merge with iCloud. Since the “local” bookmarks are empty, it shouldn’t matter whether I keep or delete. However, either way, I would choose Merge when turning it back on. How long should I keep the switch off before turning it back on? Should I reboot the phone in between?

This is the least destructive method so I think it’s what I’d try first unless someone has other suggestions. If that doesn’t work, my next attempt would be as described below.

Fix Attempt #2-Completely sign out of iCloud to turn it off, then signing back into iCloud. I’m hoping not to have to do this since it affects so many components—photos, iMessages, Passwords, iCloud drive, Notes, Mail, Health, Calendar/Contacts, etc.).

If I do have to turn iCloud off by signing out, I’m assuming that it will prompt me to keep data on the local device (for ALL iCloud related apps/settings) and then ask to “merge” them when I turn iCloud back on again? This part always makes me nervous—that’s why I rarely ever sign out of iCloud. I don’t want to lose anything, but I don’t want to end up with duplicates of items like photos, bookmarks, contacts, calendars, etc. And sometimes the prompts are not as clear as they could be to explain exactly what happens.

I am also having a separate iCloud related issue on my iPad since the OS 26 update (Passwords/Keychain sync turned itself off and won’t turn back on), but posted about that issue separately ( iCloud passwords and keychain sync won't … - Apple Community ). However, I will not attempt to resolve both issues simultaneously since they are both iCloud related. I don’t want to turn iCloud off on multiple machines at once if I don’t have to. I’ll fix one of the two problems and then tackle the other one.

Let me know if anyone else has ideas to try before I try my above Fix 1 and 2. And please let me know if my description of these fixes is incorrect in any way. If I have wrong assumptions of what would happen or incorrect prompts, I’d rather get those things clarified before I go down that road.