I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.

Just ran through the process. Two questions:

1. in terms of the restore, did you guys erase the iPhone/iPad first, or did you just plug it into iTunes and select the "Restore Backup" button and select the latest iTunes backup from which we removed the CoreUserDisctionary.sqlite file and CoreDataUbiquitySupport folder?

2. I've only ever had a problem with this on my iPhone, my iPad never received the zombie shortcuts. My Mac would get the shortcuts. For now only performed the process on my iPhone and erased the zombie shortcuts on my mac. Hopefully, won't have to do the process on the iPad as well.

No need to erase since the restore will erase and replace. Do exactly as you stated and as included in the posted solution and you will be fine. You may or may not have to perform the process on your iPad. I had to, but my iPad had the zombie SC's on it as well. You shouldn't have to do anything to your Mac, but it may take a long time to start syncing. Mine took days, but for others it was shorter. Don't worry, just have patience and go to bed as pagemakers4 suggests.

So far so good.

1) Backed up iPhone and iPad to computer (both had iCloud drive on)

2) Downloaded iBackUpBot (still not sure about this being malawary or not?)

3) I duplicated the back ups for safety

4) I only had two folders in the KeyboardDomain folder. I deleted them

5) Restored phone, and let it back up from computer

6) Restored ipad and let it back up from computer

7) Shortcuts looked correct (the ones I deleted before restore were still gone), reboot twice on each

8) I added "aphone" to my phone, and "apad" to my pad for tester shortcuts.

9) "apad" and "aphone" now exist on each device via wireless icloud sync.

10) I will update if necessary, but so far this does seem to have worked... I pray it stays

Can someone explain:

My current backup is to iCloud only. Do I need to turn off iCloud backup, then force a backup to iTunes. Then edit the backup. Then restore from iTunes. Then turn on iCloud?

I'm confused about the relationship of the iCloud to iTunes backups and what should be backed up and restored from where/to where.

The way I see it now is:

1. Turn off sync to iCloud

2. Sync/backup to iTunes

3. Delete the keyboard/coredata folder

4. Restore from backup in iTunes, using the local iTunes (not iCloud) backup.

5. Re-check the box to sync to iCloud?

When do I delete the zombie shortcuts? After I do steps 1-5 above or before step 2?

Also, it doesn't matter if other devices are connected to the internet, iCloud, etc while you perform the steps on the primary device? For me I have two devices, iPhone 6+ and iPad Mini. I don't use the Mini much, not even sure if it has the issue. If I do the steps on the iPhone first, then delete the shortcuts I don't want, then do the same on the iPad...no issue right?

I had the problem on both devices. We've discovered that some people have only part of the problem and the easier fixes sometimes work. I wasn't so lucky as were others. In answer to your question, it doesn't seem to matter when you delete the zombie shortcuts. Once you remove the corrupted files the issue goes away and you can add and delete your files with no worries. So if your problem is like mine and many others, delete those corrupted files and do the restore with the clean backup and it really doesn't matter when you delete the zombie shortcuts. If you find that they are reappearing on your iPad mini as they did on mine, then you'll need to do the same procedure on that. You shouldn't have to do anything to your Mac at all if you have one.

Jim

So far, so good. Two hard resets, not coming back. I will say this though - I looked at the backup again after I made the deletions. I put one folder back, and the same sqlite file with the same date. The one folder (as opposed to six) has today's date, however. Time will tell.

Let me tell you the steps I took to painfully ensure I was rid of everything. So far so good, I will update...

1. Disabled iCloud drive on all four devices. Upgraded to iOS 8.4 on all. Turned off iCloud backup.

2. Deleted all local backups from iTunes.

3. Manually backed up all four devices.

4. Went into iBackupBot and deleted the keyboard folder and sqlite file REGARDLESS of the situation, although all devices but one had more than two folders, two of them had six, one had three...one had two.

5. Restored all devices from the new backups without the extra folders.

6. Deleted all backups from iTunes, and manually backed up all devices AGAIN. Made sure they still had two or less folders (they did).

7. Manually deleted ALL shortcuts from all but three of the devices. Edited the shortcuts on my main device.

8. Hard rebooted all devices (all changes still saved), disabled data and turned back on, and turned on and off device, syncd device, and hard rebooted a few more times (all changes still saved).

9. Turned iCloud Drive back on for the main device and hard rebooted. All changes still saved.

10. Turned iCloud Drive back on for the other three devices and hard rebooted. All changes still saved. Three no shortcuts, one all approved shortcuts.

11. Realized other three devices were not receiving shortcuts from main device. Signed in and out of iCloud/iTunes on one device to try to trigger a sync from the main device. Triggered.

12. A large portion of zombie cuts that I deleted from the main device sync'd back with the full dictionary to the second device. Not all, but most. I gave up on this device and in frustration completely wiped it clean. Not sure if that will help if this is the device causing all the problems or not.

So there is definitely more to this than just a local backup.

You have over-complicated things somewhat to the process I posted on page 17 (it definitely works).

I think your problem may be that you are re-booting too quickly and making too many changes too quickly.

If you read my post I state that the sync takes AGES - IE, I left it alone and went to bed after doing to modification. I think you are not giving it time and your constant re-booting and editing is what’s causing the problem.

I'm glad it worked! Since the problem is on your phone and not in the cloud per se, my experience was changing my apple ID or using multiple apple ID's has no effect. While I don't use family sharing I assume that once you've fixed it on your devices it should fix it everywhere regardless of whether you use family sharing or not.

SSomething isn't working with sync though. So after the total sync my ipad didn't get any shortcut changes from my iPhone. I deleted a few words on my phone and came back in the am and still no change on the iPad. Signed in and out of iTunes on the iPad no change. Force reboot no change. None of the devices are corrupted...

I can now officially confirm that this did not work. Every single zombie cut is back. I even wiped from scratch on the other device on this iTunes account. Verified not a single device I own has a corrupted backup. Deleted and restored from good backup. Verified that backup was still good. Deleted shortcuts.

This is iCloud related somehow. They're all back. All devices are blank of shortcuts. None has a corrupted backup. Turn iCloud back on and they're all coming back. Even verified after they came back that the backup still isn't corrupted and it's not.

Oh well. What a piece of junk software.

I can confirm I don't use iCloud for backups.

If it doesn't work for you, you are the first the state that and I'm very surprised and can understand at how pis*ed off you must be feeling right now.

Still think you fiddled too much too soon though.

Delete them from all the devices again. I don't think they'll come again. I believe what happens is that once you delete the "bad" files from the local/iTunes backup, and restore the devices, the zombie shortcuts are (possibly) also located in iCloud. Thus when you reconnect your devices to iCloud they come back. BUT when you delete them this time, they actually get deleted from the iCloud AND they (the zombies) are no longer in that file on your phone. Try it.

I gotta say, I just don't get it. I'm back at home, slow day at work, checking the backups. Not a single device has a corrupted backup with more than two folders.

So if it was that way, why would rebooting matter?

If this is all a localized issue, and you delete the localized issue, and restore from the fixed backup...then you delete shortcuts. No reason it should come back.

So you're saying delete the shortcuts again and wait and see if they reappear?

Why the **** is there not a program or a way to just delete the keyboard entries. I'd GLADLY start from scratch if it meant it would work thereafter. It's also ******** that you can only delete one at a time. There's no mass select, there's not option to torpedo the whole set together, you name it.

So the main device in which all of the shortcuts have been created. No corrupted backup anymore, just verified. You're saying, delete the zombie shortcuts and wait a few days to see if they return?

Also if it has nothing to do with iCloud and iCloud drive then you shouldn't need to delete shortcuts on all devices because it shouldn't have an effect. It should all be local problems? Also, if I ensure none has a corrupted backup and delete the shortcut from the main device, should that not update on the subsequent devices anyhow, thereby eliminating the need to delete them on each device individually?