Q: I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts.  They keep restoring.

Thank you, LookInToMyEyes! Your step-by-step instructions solve this ridiculous keyboard shortcuts problem.

I apologize for going off-tangent right now but I was wondering if you've come across an issue with the iOS App Store search field not clearing under the 'Purchases' and 'Updates' pages. For some odd reason, I'm unable to erase the last search entry I made when I updated my iPad to iOS 7. My iPhone does not exhibit this problem. Just like the keyboard shortcuts issue, I've given up hope on Apple to provide a solution, haha.

I hope this works for you, as someone says above -- but I fear it won't.

I thought I'd cleared the darn things from at least my Air. With no direct phone connection, they stayed gone for more than two weeks. But, after checking in on this thread today, I decided to check -- and they are creeping back, one by one it seems, starting with Apple's cursed On my way! (which I cannot even type here in its abbreviated form because the text substitution kicks in regardless of whether I want it to do so, and cannot be controlled by deletion).

It simply has to be related to some kind of desiccated old backups in iCloud, but in such a place that they are out of end-user control. None of us -- NONE OF US -- can seem to get this to hold across devices.

Every time I try to type the alternative word for marry (w e d), my substitutions turn it into the word for the day of the week -- and I can't stop the text from doing that in any native app (not sure about the MSWord I run on the Air).

Apple, please diagnose and fix this, for crying out loud!

The friendly Apple guy I've been dealing with - Julius - has asked me to turn iCloud Drive off for all iDevices and Macs, so that the mythical engineers can manually delete all Shortcuts. After the engineers have done this, I will turn iCloud Drive on again, and supposedly start with a clean slate. Julius and the engineers are confident that this will get rid of all shortcuts. Of course, I'll let you know when the first zombie shortcut reappears.

Good luck, of course, but it seems to me that's one of the things "we" did on all my machines. Granted, I've gone in many circles, and supposedly have my own engineers working on this as well, but we'll see. Let us know if it works.

Sigh...

Peter take a look at the post at the top of p 7. The problem lies locally with your iOS device and I'm sure turning iCloud on and off will not fix anything.

Apples lack of knowledge about this problem which is been going on for 12 months now is astounding

Thanks pagemakers4. I'm just playing their game. I'm not exhausted (yet), and want to keep going with this Apple guy until he/they realise what the problem is.

My latest email:

Hi Julius.

Have the engineers been able to manually delete the shortcuts yet? I'm very keen to move onto the next step. When I posted our current attempted solution to the forum, one user said that the answer is on page 7 of the discussion. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6656922?start=90&tstart=0

I didn't try this because it involves a third-party application, but perhaps the information in that post might give the engineers a hint about what is causing the problem.

If the shortcuts stay deleted (which I doubt), do the Apple engineers think that the underlying problem will be gone? That is, what happens next time we change a shortcut and want to delete it? Are the Apple engineers actually looking for a solution (making sure that deleted shortcuts stay deleted), or are they only looking for a work-around (e.g. manually deleting the shortcuts in the vain hope that they won't reappear)?
One more thing: what is the most effective way of providing feedback to Apple about its communication with users - the sort of feedback that is not anonymous and that someone at Apple will respond to?

Thanks,

Peter

Sent from my iPhone

The Apple advisor emailed me:

"I have been told that once they finish, the shortcuts will not return to the various devices that you use. Once they have confirmed removal of the shortcuts you will be able to turn iCloud drive back on and create new shortcuts as needed."

I asked him:

"To confirm: are you saying that the engineers believe that they will SOLVE my problem, that if in the future I delete a shortcut, it will stay deleted?"

And he replied:

"Yes. That is what I was told by the engineers. They have informed me that once they are finished, all future deleted shortcuts will stay gone."

The previously-friendly-and-helpful Apple advisor still has not replied to my question (now asked 4 times):

"What is the most effective way of providing feedback to Apple about its communication with users - the sort of feedback that is not anonymous and that someone at Apple will respond to?"

Great! Now just repeat that 5,000,000 times over Apple. Why in the F would any "competent" Apple engineer be spending his time resolving one mans issue when there are 5,000,000 others suffering with the same issue. Regardless if they all know it or not.

Peter it must be some fix if it's taking the engineers 3 days to accomplish!

My good friend Julius from Apple initially said it would take them 30 minutes or so! (Deleting all the shortcuts from one iDevice took me about 10 minutes.)

Luckily, I don't desperately need access to iCloud Drive.

Peter do you back up to iCloud?  I don't and I still have the zombie problem. I'm just not convinced this is going to fix the problem either.

pagemakers4: Yes, I do have automatic iCloud backups switched on.

My email to Julius from Apple:

"I've had iCloud Drive turned off for 3 days now. Initially you said to me that you thought the engineers would take 30 minutes or so to clear the shortcuts. Are you able to ask them what the new estimated timeframe is? If it's much longer, can I get a pro-rata rebate on my annual iCloud fee?"

Email from Julius from Apple:

"Hello Peter. I am in contact with the engineering team and they say they have ran into a few problems that have delayed their progress. They have not told me what the issue is, but they have assured me that they are working on the problem. As soon as I have confirmation from them that he shortcuts have been removed I’ll let you know. I will also speak to Consumer Relations about a pro rated refund for your monthly iCloud Storage. Thank you"

I still don't know if the delay is likely to be hours, days, weeks, months or years. Wouldn't it be great if the delay is because the engineers have found that it isn't as simple as they thought, and then they find what the problem is, and then they re-code to remove the problem, and then they tell all of us that they have solved the problem, and then a flying pig smacks me in the face and wakes me up?

Do you guys have IPhone drive & Back Up ON?? For ZCs to be synced I believe this must be on. MINE was off and the procedure I used didnt work. I turned it on and eureka. I could watch ZCs disappear and be added from one platform to another. I also didnt want to back up to ICLoud. This doesnt mean that you cant sync to your OSX platform anymore. Of course you can. You can also choose what not to back up which most likely you will have to do. I had a long list of things not to back up.

DELETE the backups in CHRIS' procedure inside this thread and follow the rest. This should work as mine works great now and I have maybe 500+ shortcuts. Helps with dual language situations as I have mandarin & English shortcuts

And as someone said before Apple cant help with issues that are independent of IOS such as our issues. They are however well aware of our kicking screaming crying and whining. They are also aware that the procedure given by Chris here in this thread.... thanks again Chris because I was fed up like everyone else since I emailed it to them. Now I am zombie cut free. Killed em all with a swipe and a stroke.

Sorry that was obviously iCloud Drive being on and not IPhone Drive.