Unable to add import questions in Shortcuts on iOS18.5/macOS15.5

Thanks, but this is a different issue about "Import Questions", found on the "Setup" page of a Shortcut's info section in the iOS/macOS Shortcuts app. They allow you to present certain actions, and accompanying explanations, to a user before they download/install the Shortcut, in order to provide information used in the Shortcut. Makes it much easier to distribute a Shortcut to a person who's not comfortable with opening the Shortcut and setting values manually.

This feature has been historically buggy forever (existing import questions will disappear sometimes after editing a Shortcut), but since macOS 15.5 and iOS 18.5 we're unable to save the Import Questions at all. Here's what it looks like on macOS 15.5 and iOS 18.5. After going through the process to add a new Import Question to a Shortcut, the list of Import Questions is still empty. In addition to not showing the new Import Question in the GUI, I see from inspecting the Shortcut source, it doesn't seem to be saving the Import Question to the Shortcut either.

This is definitely a bug.

Import questions saved with previous versions of iOS/macOS are still intact (unless they disappear after edits, due to a different bug).

macOS

iOS

Shortcut source

As no Apple employees respond to posts in these Apple communities, your fellow users who actually support these communities cannot fix observed bugs in Apple software.

Now, I understand the Shortcuts question implementation issue, though I never have used that functionality with my Shortcuts development where the principal user is either myself, or links posted here for other users. May be time to start doing that (once it works).

Apple does not provide a direct feedback link for Shortcuts on iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. If you have a paid developer account, you can use the Apple Feedback Assistant. Otherwise, on iOS/iPadOS one can send feedback to the iPhone product team and hope it is relayed to the Shortcuts team. On macOS, there is feedback to the macOS product team with the same relay hope. The product teams may not respond to you, but may schedule a fix for the next product update release cycle.

On a Mac, you may be able to use a Run AppleScript with application specific reserved words from the Scripting Dictionary for that application. Depending on the application, there may be import or not. One can also implement an AppleScript display dialog or display list to prompt for and store user input to a variable to be accessed by later actions in the Shortcut workflow.

I only see two Shortcut actions implemented in iOS 18.5 that involve import. No AppleScript or associated Scripting Dictionary is implemented on iOS or iPadOS regardless of the version.

• Import to Lightroom
• Get Last Import (from Photos)

What is not implemented in Shortcuts on any Apple platform is an omission, not a bug.

> As no Apple employees respond to posts in these Apple communities...

This is true, but funny that I was prompted when signing in to give permission for Apple to contact me for elaboration on posts made here, even though, as you say, they don't read this forum.

Also, I've submitted several bugs via the Apple Feedback Assistant even though I don't have a paid developer account. I believe anyone can (and should) submit bugs that way. (Even though I've never had Apple respond to a bug report...)

ninjadude9 wrote:

> As no Apple employees respond to posts in these Apple communities...

This is true, but funny that I was prompted when signing in to give permission for Apple to contact me for elaboration on posts made here, even though, as you say, they don't read this forum.

I never receive any information when signing into these communities about permission for Apple to contact me. If they decide to reply to any Feedback, they will send an email to the Apple ID of record asking permission to continue an email exchange about the feedback item.

Also, I've submitted several bugs via the Apple Feedback Assistant even though I don't have a paid developer account. I believe anyone can (and should) submit bugs that way. (Even though I've never had Apple respond to a bug report...)

It has been a few years since I actually have used Feedback Assistant, but whether mind fog or not, I don't remember it allowing me to send feedback with a free developer account. Maybe that has changed…

The other thing about installation instructions in the questions is that future versions of macOS, with Apple's focus on security, may introduce additional challenge dialogs that the Shortcut developer has not encountered previously.

I'm also experiencing this on macOS 15.5 on an M4 Mac Studio