iOS8 Keyboard shortcuts are not syncing between devices

Sortcuts work individually on each device but they do not sync together.

Also iOS will not correctly save shortcuts with line breaks.

Same situation here with my new iPad Mini (iOS 8.0.2). Funny thing, Shortcuts work great still on my iPhone 4 (iOS 7.1.2) and my older iPod Touch 4 (iOS 6.1.6). But there is no sure fix yet to predict when Shortcuts are going to work on my iPad Mini. I just upgraded it to 8.1, hoping Shortcuts would be fixed, but They are still gone. Then, I just Googled again to see if things are different with other users, while I found this link. I can only urge you all to send feedbacks to www.apple.com/feedback/ipad or use iPhone instead of iPad in the URL, if that is your device. You may have to google "apple feedback ipad " (without quotes) to get the URL, since it is https and sometimes it does not "find" the page straight away (have no idea why, but it does from google).

Let's hope this get a fix soon. Shortcuts is really a great feature. Good luck and success to you all!

I'm currently having this problem and its ongoing with Apple Support. I restored the my devices and still no results. This is so frustrating.😠

I had this same problem! I got a new iPad Air 2 and none of my keyboard shortcuts from my old devices were syncing to it. Any changes I made to my old devices synced within the old devices but not onto the new one.

Here is how I finally figured out HOW TO FIX IT:

1. On my new iPad Air 2 and all my old devices I went to Settings -> iTunes & App Store

2. I checked they all had the same Apple ID

3. I made sure Automatic Downloads for Books was turned on for all devices (apparently only my new device did not have this turned on)

4. Problem Fixed YAY!

So there you have it. The key setting that syncrhonizes keyboard short cuts as of the current iOS update (iOS 8.1) seems to be Automatic Downloads for Books! As far as predictive text goes toggling that on and off didn't do anything. When it is on I think it makes the keyboard shortcuts laggy as it has to process more things. So maybe turn it off on your older devices for a snappier response time.

Cheers

Doesn't fix it for me.

Sorry to see so many having so much trouble. For what it's worth, my short cuts were mysteriously gone after I updated to iOS 8.0, but just as mysteriously reappeared a few days later, with nothing specific done by me. I did the software update to my devices, iPhone 5 and iPad 3, as the regular update, not installing as "new" etc., though I don't believe that's actually relevant as I've done updates both ways in the past. I don't think there's any "secret trick" etc to getting this syncing, etc. to work. If the usual trouble shooting methods don't work, i.e. rebooting your device - switching iCloud off then on, etc., then it's probably not worth going crazy over. It's almost certainly something on Apple's server/end and not something you can trick into working. I post this because I've been there, with other syncing issues as well, and other than the aforementioned basic refreshing techniques it seems nothing the user can do will solve this, but rather it gets fixed arbitraily once it's resolved on Apple's end. In the mean time, try recreating some short cuts and if they're still not syncing, maybe consider a great app that now works much better in iOS 8 via 3rd party keyboards: textexpander 3+. There are pros and cons between Apple's built in short cuts in iOS and textexpander 3+, but at least with the 3rd party app it will work regardless of Apple's working out the kinks with iOS 8.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/textexpander-3-+-custom-keyboard/id917416298?mt= 8

At the risk of repeating some of my previous posts, please note. My shortcuts on an IPad Mini 2 but not my IPhone 5S were intact after updating to 8.0 as well as 8.0 and 8.1. However, after powering down and up (which I do each night) they simply didn't work. A workaround in which I simply go to settings/general/keyboard/shortcuts and arbitrarily select a shortcut which I do nothing with other than "save" solves this problem. Here's the new wrinkle:

I just purchased a new Mini 3 which required restoring my ICloud backup and the same problem is there. At least now I can eliminate any hardware implications. My discussion with the techs at an Apple store reinforced the assumption that this is a bug Apple will have to address.

Not sure we are talking about the same problem (see my previous posts as DRHOG) but your fix did not work for me.

Same here:

i can solve this by going Prefs Keyboard Shortcut, and then highlight one of my shortcuts, hit SAVE, and they all work. Unless I restart iPad, then I have to start l over again....

since iOS 8.1 all the keyboard shortcuts went onto my iPhone 6 from my macbook, but they're still not synced. yesterday i added new shortcuts and deleted some on my mac, they will not go on my phone 😮. I've iTunes synced, done the ibooks thing, restarted, saved a new shortcut on my phone... noting. i mean I'm glad I've got at least most of my shortcuts on my iPhone, but i wanna change them without having to do it on all my devices!! this is getting really annoying now and I'm sure you'll all agree :]

Hmmm... I just did another test just now using my iPad Air 2 and my iPhone 5s to see if my sync still works. Both are latest iOS which is 8.1.

First just to set the stage both my devices are not plugged in to power - they are just using battery.

1. On my new iPad Air 2 I made a new automatic keyboard shortcut

2. I tested it in notepad on the iPad and it works fine

3. I go onto my iPhone 5s and test it - it doesn't work!

Weird! So then I plug both devices into power with their lightning cables at the same time.

1. I retry the shortcut on my iphone and it now works!

2. I delete the shortcut from my iphone

3. After a few seconds I check my iPad and it is also deleted! Everything seems to be syncing fine.

So maybe the devices need to be plugged in for them to sync? So to test this:

1. I unplug my iphone and make a new keyboard shortcut

2. After waiting a few seconds and going in and out of apps and retrying about 5 times I cannot get it to show up on my iPad! It's not working! My iPhone is not plugged in but my iPad is.

3. So then I plug my iPhone in, wait a second and test it on my iPad. It worked!

So in order to get my devices to sync this is what I have found so far:

1. Set my automatic downloads in iTunes & App Store for Books to on for both of my devices and making sure they have the same Apple ID

2. Both devices seem to need to be plugged in to power for them to check with the server otherwise they don't seem to do it

So yea try that out. It may be more complex than this with other factors (such as iTunes settings) that are also in play!

This approach has worked for me too. Just for the record.

This works for me too! If my iPad is plugged in when I create a new shortcut on my iPhone or Mac....then it will appear on my iPad. If it's not pugged into the power ... then it simply will not appear on my iPad 3 (iOS 8.1), even though it WILL appear on my iPhone 4 (iOS7.1.2) which is NOT plugged into the power. Ridiculous.

It appears that the iPad 3 (iOS 8.1) refuses to synch the keyboard shortcut data unless it has mains power. If it does have mains power, it works flawlessly.

This works for me too! If my iPad is plugged in when I create a new shortcut on my iPhone or Mac....then it will appear on my iPad. If it's not pugged into the power ... then it simply will not appear on my iPad 3 (iOS 8.1), even though it WILL appear on my iPhone 4 (iOS7.1.2) which is NOT plugged into the power. Ridiculous.

It appears that the iPad 3 (iOS 8.1) refuses to synch the keyboard shortcut data unless it has mains power. If it does have mains power, it works flawlessly. Furthermore, once the synching starts working ... it continues to work, even when the power cable is disconnected. Even more ridiculous.

First, there are two problems for me, one of which I already documented (the failure of shortcuts to actually work, unless "saved" after a power up on my IPad. The second is the sync issue discussed above. In this case the fix advocated by several users of having the IPad plugged in does not work for me. It is my opinion that this problem has to do with the ICloud syncing itself. E.g. upon upgrading to 8.0 on both IPhone and IPad my recurring appointments were all earlier by one hour after the Nov 2 DST ending date. I went into ICloud itself to discover that the time zones for most were UTC not Eastern (in my case). The point here is that there is a breakdown in the device and ICloud sync that was the likely cause.