That is an annoying one to lose, especially when you are used to it. Since the advanced shortcut setting is already on, a few checks are worth trying:

First, try turning the advanced keyboard shortcuts setting off, restarting Opera, then turning it back on again. A setting can look enabled after an update without actually taking effect until it is toggled.

Second, check whether another application or a system shortcut on the Mac is now capturing the 1 and 2 keys, and try the shortcuts with the browser window itself in focus, rather than with the address bar or a text field selected.

Third, open Settings and look at the Shortcuts section to see whether 1 and 2 are still assigned to cycling tabs, or whether they have been changed or left blank. If they are listed differently, reassigning them there should restore the behaviour.

As a workaround in the meantime, Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab should still move forward and back through tabs.

It would also help to know which Opera version this started with, and whether it stopped straight after an update, as that would point to a change in that version rather than a local setting.

I understand the frustration — in Opera GX that combination does not always behave as a hard refresh, especially if another shortcut or extension is intercepting it. A couple of reliable alternatives are worth trying first: press Ctrl+F5, or click into the page first so the browser window has focus and then try Ctrl+Shift+R again. If you still see the old cached page, open the developer tools with Ctrl+Shift+I, then right-click the reload button and choose the hard reload option that clears the cache for that tab. It is also worth checking Settings, then Shortcuts, to see whether Ctrl+Shift+R has been reassigned, and testing briefly with extensions disabled to rule out a clash. Let us know which of those worked for you, and on Windows or Mac, as the expected shortcut can differ.

That looping identity confirmation is a known pain after a fresh Windows install. The key thing to understand: formatting wiped the local encryption key the old Windows installation used to protect the password vault, so Sync can no longer unlock it on its own. That is why bookmarks come through fine while the passwords stay locked — Sync can see the encrypted data but cannot decrypt it, hence the cryptographer error and the "Needs passphrase" flag.

A few things worth trying before you go near any reset option:

1. In the sync settings on the laptop, make sure password syncing is actually ticked, then log out of your Opera account inside the browser, close Opera completely, and log back in. A fresh login often breaks the loop where the confirmation tab just closes.

2. When the confirmation prompt appears, try the password your Opera account had around the time the vault was created, not necessarily the current one — the vault may have been encrypted under an older password.

3. Check opera://sync-internals after each attempt. While it still says "Needs passphrase", the vault is locked and no local step will reveal the passwords.

Honest heads-up: if none of the passwords you can remember unlocks it, and there is no other device holding the original data, those passwords cannot be recovered without resetting the synced passwords on the server. That reset only clears the passwords, not the bookmarks — but you would have to save them again. So it is worth a proper effort on the password attempts first.

If you do get it unlocked, consider setting a custom sync passphrase and keeping it somewhere safe — it makes surviving the next reinstall far less painful.

First make sure you are signed in to the same Opera account on your phone and on your new laptop, and that Sync is switched on with tabs included on both devices. On the laptop, open the Tab Menu (the icon in the top-left corner of the window) and you will see your phone listed there with its open tabs. You can open several of them at once by holding Ctrl and clicking the ones you want, or by middle-clicking them, which opens each one in a new background tab, so you do not have to click through them one by one. Give the sync a few minutes to finish if the list is empty at first, and keep both devices online while it transfers.