--- title: "Your playlists and progress on every Apple device · Kanema" description: "Kanema syncs your playlists, favourites, Watch later and where you got to through your own iCloud account, with no Kanema account. What syncs, and what to check if a device is missing." url: https://kanema.app/blog/icloud-sync updated: 2026-10-17 --- # Your playlists and progress on every Apple device 17 October 2026 Kanema keeps your playlists, favourites, Watch later and where you got to the same on every Apple device signed in to the same iCloud account. Add a playlist on your iPhone and it appears on your Apple TV, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro; stop a film on one and pick it up on another. It all goes through your own private iCloud database. There’s no Kanema account to make and no Kanema server in between. ![iCloud in Kanema’s Settings on Apple TV, close up: iCloud sync on, then three devices, this Apple TV synced just now, an iPhone 17 Pro Max synced a minute ago and a MacBook Pro synced 59 minutes ago, and Can’t find your other devices?](https://kanema.app/media/apple/tv-sync@small.png) Demo playlist: the films are Blender open movies ([credits](https://kanema.app/licences#films)) and the channels are made up. Kanema comes with nothing to watch. ## What stays the same everywhere - Your playlists, with every detail you entered. The password travels in an encrypted field. - Favourite channels and categories, favourite tags, and Watch later. - Recently watched, and where you got to in each film and episode, including what you’ve finished. - Your arrangements: hidden and locked categories, hidden channels, renamed and merged categories, and the order of categories and channels. - Guide fixes you’ve made for channels that showed the wrong programmes. - The parental code, the film queue, and which rows Home shows. - A few settings, such as text size, subtitle size, autoplay and Pause and rewind live TV. While you watch, your position goes up at most once a minute, and straight away when you stop. ## What stays on each device Some choices only make sense for the screen in front of you, so they don’t sync: which playlist is active, what Kanema opens on, whether it starts muted, the player engine, the reminder lead time, Multi-view’s last set of channels, and the previous channel. Reminders stay on the device that set them. ## When two devices change the same thing If you favourite a channel on your iPhone and another on your Mac before they’ve heard from each other, both stay. Guide fixes, category names, favourite tags and channel orders are merged one entry at a time, so a change on each device keeps both. For a single choice, such as the order of your categories, the newer change wins. Reset everything, in Settings, only clears the device you press it on. Your other devices keep their playlists and choices, and with sync on, they come back to the reset device the next time Kanema opens. ## Carry on from another device Start a film, an episode or a channel on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Vision Pro and carry on from the same moment on another of them, with Handoff. Apple TV isn’t a Handoff device, so instead, whatever you were watching elsewhere in the last few minutes waits at the top of its Home screen, ready to play from the same point. On an Apple TV shared by a household, each person has their own Kanema, synced with their own iCloud account. ## Checking that it works Settings › iCloud shows whether sync is on and lists every device syncing with this one, with when each last synced. If one has stopped, it says so and tells you where to look. If a device is missing, choose Can’t find your other devices? under the list. It comes down to three things: 1. Every device is signed in to the same Apple Account. On Apple TV, that’s the current user’s iCloud account under Users and Accounts; the account for Media & Purchases doesn’t count. 2. Restart the device that’s missing. 3. Give it a minute after it opens. ## Questions ### Do I need a Kanema account to sync? No. Kanema syncs through your own iCloud account. There’s no Kanema account and no Kanema server. ### Is my playlist password safe in iCloud? It’s stored in an encrypted field in your own private iCloud database, which belongs to your Apple Account. Kanema’s maker can’t read it. ### Why isn’t my Apple TV syncing? Check that the Apple TV’s current user is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account as your other devices, under Users and Accounts. The account used for Media & Purchases doesn’t count. Then restart the Apple TV and give it a minute. ### Can I keep everything on one device? Yes. Sign out of iCloud, or turn iCloud off for Kanema, and everything stays on the one device. ## Kanema doesn’t come with channels Kanema plays the playlist you add from your own provider, and nothing else. Only add services you’re entitled to use. Coming soon to the App Store