I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.

Oh, that's true. You can get around it by doing the restore while connected to your computer via iTunes (a hard wired connection vs. by wifi). It will use your computer's memory instead of your phone's to complete the restore.

After going through the lengthy and frustrating process described in the solution, I was without zombies for exactly one day. When I woke up today, however, they were back. I'm very annoyed.

FYI, the process was especially frustrating as the restore wiped out a lot of my downloaded content (e.g., podcasts). It took another hour to get the phone back to the way it was before the restore.

Also, separately, I am subscribed to this post but not getting updates by e-mail. Is that happening to anyone else?

Do you think factory resetting the iphone, then restoring from iCloud will work?

This zombie shortcut bug has been harassing me for so long....

The only other solution I found was to reset everything, which of course I do not want to erase my whatsapp history...

Brian, since I don't know what devices you have or the steps you took it's hard to say why that happened and many people have posted many different "solutions" on this thread. Yours sounds very much like my situation when I started and I had many misfires before getting it fixed. Did you use the icopybot program and did you have the extra 2013 file and any other files that were in the wrong folder? If so, did you delete those files and use that clean backup as your restore? You have to use that backup from your computer not iCloud or you will just be reinfecting your phone. You also must do that for every device will being logged off of iCloud. I know the frustration as I had to restore my Garmin app and all of the maps which took me about an hour each time. I had to do that about 3 times before I had everything working right again. If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll try to help.

I don't know why you're not getting email updates. That has been working for me with no problems. If you have more than one email account it will only send the updates to the account you use for your Apple ID.

Doing a reset and restoring from iCloud will not work because the backup there has the corrupted files. Also, creating a new Apple ID and logging in that way also doesn't work. Been there and tried both without success. The method using icopybot is the only method I've found that is a permanent fix. If you follow the instructions exactly and don't take any shortcuts (no pun intended) it should work, but you must do it on all devices and be logged out of iCloud when you do it.

Meanwhile, I have a whole new problem as my iPhone 6 went for a swim in my pool yesterday... 😕

mayorofbayswater:

I have tried two times now to respond to your request and re-post the solution. Each time the Apple "host" keeps deleting my posts for various reasons. The first time saying that it referenced altering iPhones in an illegal way (i.e. Chris's original solution post) which apparently I can't mention or they'll pull this one down too. The second time it was because it contained "advertising" which of course it did not, but did reference a free program to use to fix Apple's problem. Apparently Apple doesn't like us finding simple solutions to their problems that they refuse to fix after years of complaining to them and endless frustration. My phone is fixed and I hope yours will be too. Perhaps instead of pulling these posts off of here, they could simply post their own solution that actually works? I'm upset and being very careful about what I write here. Kind of makes you want to look at a competitor's product...

I did the recommended fix here to remove the keyboard files from the backup, and then restore my devices (and iPhone and iPad). The iPad still has no shortcuts, but the iPhone retained it's "good" shortcuts even though I restored it from a backup that had the keyboard files removed. But, that's ok because they're shortcuts that are usable, good ones.

QUESTION: It's been five days but the good shortcuts on my iPhone have not yet synced across to my iPad. Aren't they supposed to via iCloud?

bowtielee, I'm not sure what the problem is. Did the restoring from your itunes with a clean backup not work? I have heard that factory resetting as a new phone, without restoring has worked, but of course you lose EVERYTHING. Restoring from iCloud won't work if you've never done a back up to iCloud, because there's no backup to use as a restore. I might be misunderstanding your question or statement.

Beware of iTunes 7, In theory they would have synced, but it depends on which device the originated. I had to delete and then reenter some of my shortcuts. I did a screenshot of all of them and then deleted and retyped in those that weren't syncing properly and all was good from that point on. I hope that helps.

Erasing everything is basically not an option as I'd like to keep all my messages intact.

I tried the method; it worked for awhile... but I'm guessing it is because I have an icloud backup as well that may have messed things up.... I will try to remove my icloud backup and see if that will fix it.

What I just did, using the newest itunes 12.2.1.16:

1. deleted my icloud backup

2. backed up to my computer; closed itunes

3. opened ibackupbot; found my backup from 2. and deleted 'CoreDataUbiquitySupport' folder; closed ibackupbot

4. restore my phone from itunes to factory settings - this solved the "not enough space on phoneto restore from backup" issue that i had

5. restore from backup made from 2.

Other things of note:

- my apple ID is ONLY linked to the iphone (no other apple products such as ipads or macbook)

- i refuse to restore from scratch as a $1000 phone that doesn't let me permanently delete something so simple as shortcuts sounds ridiculous

- i first thought my icloud backup was the issue... but I have since done the whole process after deleting my icloud backup.... no dice.

Should I delete the whole keyboard folder from the backup? Will that wreck the backup itself? Please keep in mind that since I now have no cloud backup... I desperately cannot ruin all my offline computer backups and risk losing my histories.

Any suggestions/tips can help... thanks.

I agree, and there's no need to lose anything. However, I'm hoping you used icopybot rate than ibackupbot as you stated. That won't work. Also, make sure you deleted any old (2013) files above the ubiquity folder. That was the issue in addition to the multiple files in the folder for many people. Your steps look right other than what I've mentioned.

NEW INFORMATION and POSSIBLE COMPLETE AND TOTAL FIX FROM APPLE --

Well, I've been here in this thread too long (see previous posts) and have stubbornly (and perhaps foolishly) refused to use the 3rd-party solution.

However --

After months of calling Apple, amounting to countless hours for wasted time on the phone, having been passed through no fewer than a dozen Senior Technical Advisors, and after having gone up to Mt. Olympus to ENGINEERING twice, the case was finally passed to an even higher power: THE DEVELOPERS. (everyone say: ooooooooo!...)

What I could not do, what no Advisor could do, and what the first set of ENGINEERS failed to do the first time, THE DEVELOPERS have apparently done. And here's the solution:

Get an Android.

Had to do that, sorry.

No, seriously. Here it is:

Get Apple tech front-end on the phone. Get him/her to "escalate" your case to a Senior Technical Advisor. Don't back down and let the ever-helpful, ever-earnest tech to try to fix it: s/he can't. Don't back down. Get to a Senior Tech, then get that person to work with you to have the ENGINEERS put your account Apple ID into "test mode" (allows them into your account and requires that you let Apple set a temporary password, which you can change when the account is released from test; no apparent risks or mischief). Advise the Senior Tech that the ENGINEERS will need to engage THE DEVELOPERS (dum-dum-DUM). The exalted DEVELOPERS will need to go into your User ID and remove the shortcut file. Once removed, you'll sign in and out of your Apple ID on each device, and voila! No Zombies.

Duh.

It's now been done on both my iPad, and I will -- obviously -- be keeping a sharp eye out for ghosts, vampires, Bill Murray, Glenn Close, the Walking Dead, Spinal Tap, those Grateful guys who play guitars, the random phoenix, soap opera stars who successfully renegotiated their contracts, and anyone who is fluent in Manx. Will report back. I hope I do not eat my words.

I can share more info if you'd like. Just ask.

Just today -- and your warning is well taken, and thanks.

I've gone round on this for some time (see earlier posts), but as I said, resisted the 3rd-party fix. I very much intend to keep watch (of course), but the process on this was different. I didn't have to delete a single thing on either device, which deleting has been a hallmark of previous attempts to "fix" the problem. They did their thing, I signed out and back in, and poof! No zombies.

Granted, it may be illusory, but as I said, this time it does SEEM as if something was done at the Mother Ship. There was also a tacit acknowledgment that the problem emanates from the iOS and infects the OS, but not always.

Will keep posting.

I followed your link from page 17...

I found another download but when I try opening this program I am stuck at "loading database from device, please wait..." for like 30 min.

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