After an Apple Update today, I lost thousands of my "Text Replacement" entries; they are now all gone!! I've been building these for several years now!!! GONE!!
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: After Apple Update, TEXT REPLACEMENT ITEMS are ALL GONE! How do I get them back?
MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)
Were you sharing them with another Mac? If so, you can go to the other Mac, select ALL the text replacements, Control-Click and select "Export". You can take that exported file to the first Mac, and drag and drop them onto the Text Replacement window.
Do you have a backup. You can most likely get them from the backup. The Text Replacement items are stored in
$HOME/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
Were you sharing them with another Mac? If so, you can go to the other Mac, select ALL the text replacements, Control-Click and select "Export". You can take that exported file to the first Mac, and drag and drop them onto the Text Replacement window.
Do you have a backup. You can most likely get them from the backup. The Text Replacement items are stored in
$HOME/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
This looks like you are not actually logging in to the same account... yes, I know you said you've worked in IT for over 4yrs, so sorry I known this looks too obvious, but just in case... I've seen people with two accounts with very similar names (and the same password), and just have logged in to the wrong one.
While this sounds nice, I found it in Google. However that file has no data in it. Apparently, Apple changed the way they store these Text Replacements. Unfortunately, after the update, it "wiped" the older ones (several hundreds of them) and left me with nothing!
My iPhone 16Pro, my Apple iPad Pro, as well, lost them too! Why? Because they "sync".
While I appreciate the offer, I've been in IT for over 40yrs …
tried what you're suggesting. Apple Support suggested I do a reboot. When I did, my customizations were also gone! The DARK MODE went to LIGHT MODE, much of the icons across the top disappeared. And the mouse went back to that goofy "unnatural" natural scroll mode. My icons on the launch app at the bottom were changed too, many disappeared and they are all now larger.
Apple just pulled a "Microsoft maneuver". And now, I've lost 3 years of writing in the development of these!!!
I experienced something similar between my personal Mac and my company Mac. The company blocked iCloud access, and all of a sudden all my Text Replacements disappeared. I used the select all, export method to get a copy from my personal Mac to my company Mac.
Rich Allcorn wrote:
While this sounds nice, I found it in Google. However that file has no data in it. Apparently, Apple changed the way they store these Text Replacements. Unfortunately, after the update, it "wiped" the older ones (several hundreds of them) and left me with nothing!
What file has no data in it? The ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences file has a ton of system written content far beyond the NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems array of dictionaries stored there by the Keyboard Text Replacements facility. Even Time Machine backs up this .GlobalPreferences file. Apple does not zero out that file for any reason…
My iPhone 16Pro, my Apple iPad Pro, as well, lost them too! Why? Because they "sync".
While I appreciate the offer, I've been in IT for over 40yrs …
tried what you're suggesting. Apple Support suggested I do a reboot. When I did, my customizations were also gone! The DARK MODE went to LIGHT MODE, much of the icons across the top disappeared. And the mouse went back to that goofy "unnatural" natural scroll mode. My icons on the launch app at the bottom were changed too, many disappeared and they are all now larger.
Apple just pulled a "Microsoft maneuver". And now, I've lost 3 years of writing in the development of these!!!
How do I recover lost Text Replacement items after an Apple update?
