Text Replacement Not Woking (macOS Monterey 12.3)

Question

Text Replacement Not Woking (macOS Monterey 12.3)

I have been suffering from this issue for years now and every single update, I truly wish it will be fixed. The issue is simply that some (not all) text replacement shortcuts are not working. I simply type them and they never get replaced. They are working fine and fast on my iPhone and iPad. But on Mac, they are not. I am using a MacBook Pro 16in, 2019 edition. I have tried the following:

Signing out of all devices and signing in again.
Removing the shortcut and adding it again.
Same as the previous one but restarting the Mac before adding the shortcut again.
Removing the whole list of shortcuts by creating a plist, restarting the Mac, and adding the list.
Booting in Safe Mode.

The only thing I have never tried is wiping out the Mac and reinstalling the OS. I will not do that - it doesn't make any sense to do it. I really want to fix this. It saves me a lot of time in my work. I don't want to use 3rd party software because I want the shortcuts to be synced with my iPhone and iPad Pro as well. One may think that I can choose another shortcut that's working. That helps for some keywords but others require specific shortcut otherwise I will have to memorize a big deal of non-sense shortcuts.

Similar questions on the Communities talk about them not working at all. I have many shortcuts that are working fine already. I am talking about others that never work.

Has anyone managed to solve this issue?

Posted on Mar 24, 2022 3:58 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

abdalrahman-shatou Author

Level 1

27 points

Apr 17, 2022 2:14 AM in response to abdalrahman-shatou

Finally, managed to have a work-around. It works fine but requires extra step for shortcuts that won't work.

Let's assume you have a shortcut "wow" to be replaced by 🤩. If "wow" is not working, just add another shortcut "woww". Note the extra "w" at the end. This shortcut should be replaced by 🤩 as well.

Now, the old shortcut "wow" will be working! "woww" will, of course, work but you don't have to type the extra "w" - the old one just works.

This works in other languages as well. I really don't know why the issue happens but for some reason, some shortcuts are not registered while you type until you add an extra letter!

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

85,801 points

Mar 24, 2022 7:10 AM in response to abdalrahman-shatou

1 - Suggest restarting in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal.

2 - Does the issue present in this mode ?

3 - If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.

4 - If the issue is present in the dummy account - then this appears to be a System Wide issue.

5 - Suggest downloading the Application Etrecheck directly from a well Respected ASC Contributor. And Safe to use.

The application is free or paid from added features.

Run the application with Full Disc Access ( Security & Privacy - Full Disc Access ).

It will take a Snap Shot - both the hardware and software.

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.

Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last )

We can have a look at the report for possible issues and may have possible suggestions to resolve the issues.

Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS, alter, modify, remove or delete or attempt to do so is an invitation for disaster and may require a Reinstallation of the OS in-order to replace any modified, altered, removed or corrupted elements of the OS this software has inflected on this computer

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions

This includes AntiVirus, Disk Cleaners, Disk Optimizes, UnInstaller etc.

This will include CleanMyMac , This will include BitDefender ,

This will included Norton Antivirus , Sophos Av Software

Intego AntiVirus, McAfee, MacKeeper, Avast AntiVirus

Ad Guard, Webroot

The The Built in Security is all that is required.

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Answer 3

Mar 24, 2022 9:27 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

It's actually another reset Mac was about to use as a CI server. Anyway, I found something really weird.

First: the issue seems to be with shortcuts with starts with the letter "t". All other letters working fine.
Second: the issue happens with the letter "ف" in Arabic. And both T and ف are the same key in the keyboard!
Third: I have tried tt, ttt, tttt, ttttt, ttttttt, and ttttttt as shortcuts. Only the one with six ts worked! The Arabic equivalent didn't work, though (up to 10 ف).

I checked on a friend's Mac and the letters t and ف are working fine on his Mac. I will try now creating an account on my Mac with the same Apple ID and check if it will. This is really weird bug. The iPhone and iPad are working fine. And what's up with the letter "t" 😄

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Answer 4

Mar 24, 2022 8:53 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

That's why I have finally decided to start a thread. No one talks about it but I know a colleague who has the same issue.

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Answer 5

Mar 24, 2022 9:40 AM in response to OldToad

Yep. Didn't work either.

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Answer 6

ku4hx

Level 7

23,502 points

Mar 24, 2022 4:55 AM in response to abdalrahman-shatou

I had a situation whereby my login screen and progress bar were out of sequence. The only thing that finally fixed the sequence was a clean installation of the OS onto an erased drive.

You can't predict what "should" or "should not" work with 100% accuracy.

If you've not been able to solve this situation for years, you might want to consider erasing your drive. Success is not guaranteed ... it's your choice; you appear to have made it already.

Maybe try your shortcuts on a totally different Mac. That might help narrow down your problem.

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Answer 7

Mar 24, 2022 5:18 AM in response to abdalrahman-shatou

Since this is a problem that is specific to your mac, it stands to reason that probably something that you have installed is causing it.

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.

Without such information, we have no idea what issues there may be, causing this.

FWIW, I have dozens of entries in text replacement and they work every time. Also, this has been the case for years, and this is the first post with this problem that I have seen. Thus it is not surprising that updates do not fix anything, as there is probably nothing to fix.

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Answer 8

Mar 24, 2022 8:57 AM in response to abdalrahman-shatou

If this were an outright bug in the OS, it seems likely to affect a lot of people. We can't rule it out, but experience and logic tell me that it is more likely to be a software conflict.

Regarding you seeing it in both of your macs, that is somewhat to be expected, as you are likely to have similar software installed; even maybe you migrated from one to the other, carrying whatever was causing the problem along.

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Answer 9

OldToad

Level 2

391 points

Mar 24, 2022 9:34 AM in response to abdalrahman-shatou

Have you tried the Safe Mode boot like P. Phillips suggested?

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Answer 10

Mar 24, 2022 8:50 AM in response to ku4hx

Valid point. Will keep as a last resort since I have just tried a totally different Mac: MacBook Pro 2015. Same issue! Doesn't seem to be the 2019 Mac afterwards.

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