Fix Edge Pinned Tabs Forgetting Order on a Different PC After Sync

Quick fix: Sign out of Edge on the new PC, clear the local sync state with edge://sync-internals/ → Reset, then sign back in. The pinned-tab order is stored in the same sync entity as bookmarks, and a partial sync from a previous session can scramble the order on a fresh device.

You set up Edge on a new PC, signed in with your Microsoft account, and waited for sync. Your bookmarks come over fine. Your extensions come over. But your pinned tabs are in a random order, or some are missing. On the original PC the pinned tabs are still in the right order. The new PC pulled a partial state or an older snapshot of the pinned-tab list.

What syncs in Edge and where order lives

Edge sync covers nine categories: favorites, settings, history, open tabs, passwords, addresses, payment info, collections, and extensions. Pinned tabs are part of the Open tabs category, with a per-position index. When sync writes the list, it sends each pinned tab as a record with a position field. If the new PC fetches the records out of order (network jitter, partial sync) or merges with an older local state (Edge installed from an OEM image with sample tabs), the resulting order doesn’t match the source.

The sync state lives at %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Sync Data. Resetting it forces a clean re-pull from the server.

Method 1: Reset sync and re-sign-in

1. On the affected (new) PC, open Edge.
2. Type edge://sync-internals/ in the address bar.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Reset. Confirm.
4. Edge clears its local sync database. Close Edge.
5. Open Edge again. Click your profile icon → Sign out. Close Edge.
6. Reopen Edge, sign in fresh with the same account.
7. Wait 2–3 minutes. Check edge://favorites and the pinned tabs.

The reset forces a full sync from the server, which usually fixes ordering issues. If the order still doesn’t match, the server-side state is itself wrong — see Method 2.

Method 2: Re-establish order from the source PC

If the server has scrambled order, push a fresh list from the original PC.

1. On the original (correct-order) PC, manually re-order the pinned tabs by dragging them. Even if they look right, drag each tab one position over and back — this forces a sync write.
2. Close Edge on the original PC cleanly (right-click taskbar icon → Close window).
3. Wait 60 seconds.
4. On the new PC, open Edge and check the pinned tab order again.
5. If still wrong, reset sync on the new PC as in Method 1.

This is most often needed when both PCs were online at the same time and both pushed conflicting orders. The conflict resolution picks an order arbitrarily, and you need to declare a winner.

Method 3: Disable Open Tabs sync on the new PC

If you only want bookmarks and extensions to sync but want pinned tabs managed locally, exclude tabs from the sync set.

1. Open Edge → profile icon → Manage profile settings → Sync.
2. Find Open tabs. Toggle it off.
3. Manually pin the tabs in the order you want on the new PC.
4. The new PC keeps its own pinned-tab order, which doesn’t sync back to the original. Use this if you have different workflows on different PCs.

This is the workaround for users who hit recurring sync conflicts and don’t want the order to change unexpectedly.

How to verify the fix worked

• Open Edge on both PCs. Pinned tabs appear in the same order on both.
• Reorder a tab on one PC; wait 30 seconds; check the other PC; the change synced.
• Open edge://sync-internals/ and verify Sync state shows Sync active with no errors in the Bookmark Hierarchy section.

If none of these work

If sync resets don’t resolve it, your Edge profile may have corrupted sync metadata at the account level. Visit https://account.microsoft.com/privacy, find Browsing data, and click Clear. This wipes the cloud-side Edge sync data; then sign in on the original PC first and let it re-seed the server before signing in on the new PC. For work or school accounts, sync may be restricted by tenant policy — check with your IT admin if certain categories show as “managed by your organization.”

Bottom line: Pinned-tab order desync is a partial-sync artifact. A sync reset usually fixes it; if not, push a fresh order from one PC and let it propagate. For chronic desync, disable Open Tabs sync and manage pinned tabs locally per device.