Major Problem with Keyboard Shortcuts in iOS 7

There's a significant issue with keyboard "Shortcuts" after upgrading to iOS 7. If you try to access the shortcuts (Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts), it may not let you and may instead "kill" the Settings app and return you to your home screen (it may let you in at first, but will kick you out after about 30 seconds). I have done a lot of testing and have been on with Apple for about 3 hours (the guy was great, even though we weren't able to fix it yet).

We determined that you may experience this problem if:

1. You are running iOS 7 and either (a) upgraded from iOS 6 to iOS 7, or (b) have restored from a device that either ran iOS 6 or was upgraded to iOS 7


AND

2. if you have turned "On" the option under iCloud to sync "Documents and Data"

The Apple rep was ultimately able to replicate the issue and it was through the testing that we reached the above conclusions. You may be able to go into Shortcuts at first (by tapping the Shortcut button), but after a few minutes it may kick you out and send you to the Home screen. If that happens, you won't be able to get back into the shortcuts. Post here if you experience this issue, or if you have any additional info. Apple is actively looking into it and hopefully we'll get a fix soon.

Posted on Sep 22, 2013 3:12 PM

Reply
93 replies

Dec 29, 2013 10:15 AM in response to RMSko

I had the same problem for a week.


Usually there is only one or two words that are corrupting the shortcut files. If you find the right word by sheer luck (I did), you'll see that the whole laggy behavior of editing or deleting shortcuts will be gone — that means you found the word that was causing all the issue.


Once I realized that deleting each shortcut from my iOS devices wasn't going to solve the problem for good (since Apple kept sending the corrupt version of the file back to me), I tried EDITING them — but I'm not really sure if that had any impact on the process I'll describe in the next paragraphs.


I had some degree of success in making my iPhone and my Mac stop downloading the bad shortcut files from iCloud (by editing and then deleting them on each device with iCloud disabled), but the issue was still present on my iPad and nothing seemed to work.


Then I found this: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/corrupt-icloud-data-can-cause-ios-springb oard-home-screen-crash


At first glance it seemed like an unrelated bug. I tried to give it a shot, anyway.


Here's the step-by-step of what I did:


1. Disable "Documents and Data" syncing on your iOS device

2. Open the hidden "Library" folder on your Mac

3. Go to the "Mobile Documents" subfolder

5. Delete a subfolder called "com~apple~TextInput"

5. Wait a couple of minutes and iCloud will automatically create a new one

6. Re-enable "Documents and Data" on your iOS device

7. Wait for the syncing (and the magic) to happen


That was 2 days ago. Everything is fine now.

Jan 10, 2014 12:03 PM in response to Ilustre BOB

I tried the 7 steps, but no success. Then I got so ****** off with this issue (which is even affecting OS X's System Preferences app, eventually crashing it ) that I started over from scratch: deleted everything within com~apple~TextInput on my Mac after disabling "Documents and Data" on all devices (Mac, iPad and iPhone). Then removed all shortcuts in any devices that they would feel like appearing, waited some time and reenabled "Documents and Data" sync. Now, I'll start slowly creating new shortcuts, hoping that between now and 2028 Apple fixes this.

Jan 13, 2014 12:05 PM in response to Rivanor

..and with that, I totally broke keyboard shortcuts in any of my Apple devices, it seems.


I have the option to add new shortcuts on the iOS devices, but after I hit Save, it is not actually saved, the list is not populated. When I go check the OS X's System Preferences, there are no new shortcuts added there either (was expecting that iCloud would sync them over).


I am able to add new shortcuts on System Preferences though and they do work, but they won't be synched back to the iOS devices.

Jan 31, 2014 8:01 AM in response to RMSko

We share about 80 shortcuts between 2 phones, 2 mini's, and an ipad 2. Since updating to ios 7, all the shortcuts are only on one phone. They weren't put on each device via restore from backup somehow and won't sync via iCloud anymore with the docs on or in either position. All iCloud options are turned on on all the devices.

iCloud fail!


The one phone that does have the shortcuts doesn't crash. iPhone 5, ios 7.0.4

Feb 2, 2014 10:31 AM in response to RMSko

I've been dealing with all shortcuts having disappeared and also an extremely laggy unresponsive keyboard especially when texting or emailing. None of the fixes proposed worked, even turning off "Documents and Settings". Rebooting, resetting all settings; none of this worked as well. I've concluded that's it's an ios7 bug that likely has to do with the autocorrection feature syncing with the cloud in real-time. Almost as if the cloud is "keyboard-logging" (who would want to log my keyboard strokes? :-). Here's what I did to test this: airplane mode! Turn it on before you type and turn it off when you're ready to send. Did it work? Yes and no. My shortcuts returned and my keyboard became significantly faster but still a tiny bit laggy. There's definitely something going on here with the cloud.

Feb 3, 2014 2:14 AM in response to RMSko

Tested on iPhone 5 iOS 7.0.4

(Set as new Phone, Document and Data previously used with

same Account on iOS 6.0.2)


Following observation:


1. iCloud Documents and Data OFF:


When opening Settings > General > Keyboard

The Settings App Freezes, not able to click anywhere.

Reproduceable by Killing the settings App and repeating the same.



2. iCloud Documents and Data ON:


- When typing the pre-defined shortcuts don't work.

- When opening Settings > General > Keyboard

The screen doesn't freeze this time, at the bottom of the screen

still dont't showing any shortcuts.

When trying to define any new shortcut and click save,

it doesn't appear in the list of saved shortcuts.

The list remains empty, when typing no shortcuts applied.


Rebooting, Switchting Docs and Data on and off

multiple times didn't help.



On a mac the shortcuts are still working

Feb 3, 2014 7:00 AM in response to islamadel

Have you tried the 7-step process I described?


1. Disable "Documents and Data" syncing on your iOS device

2. Open the hidden "Library" folder on your Mac

3. Go to the "Mobile Documents" subfolder

5. Delete a subfolder called "com~apple~TextInput"

5. Wait a couple of minutes and iCloud will automatically create a new one

6. Re-enable "Documents and Data" on your iOS device

7. Wait for the syncing (and the magic) to happen


That worked for me — since it cleans up all your iCloud corrupt data. You'll lose all your previous shortcuts though.


If that doesn't work, try deleting manually every single shortcut on your iOS device before doing this 7-step processs.

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Major Problem with Keyboard Shortcuts in iOS 7

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