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I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.

I have deleted old keyboard shortcuts that were no longer used and added new ones using the same shortcut. For instance typing "eml" would auto-fill with my old email address. I deleted this shortcut and made a new one - "eml" = new email address. iCloud keeps restoring the old shortcuts, so now I have two "eml" shortcuts with two different email addresses. Also, old shortcuts are constantly being restored! I cannot delete any shortcut! They will delete for a couple of days and then they are "restored" to my iPhone. How the heck do you permanently delete keyboard shortcuts in iOS? I tried turning off backup, deleting, turning on, waiting, updating to no avail. Is there a way to completely wipe the backup/settings file stored in iCloud for an iOS device?

Posted on Nov 7, 2014 11:46 AM

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647 replies

Feb 24, 2015 2:01 PM in response to Marko Armani

GAH!!!!


I don't know how but the zombie iOS keyboard shortcuts came back to life on my iPhone sometime in the last 24 hours. They are not present on any of my computers or other iOS devices, just the blasted phone.


I am so sick and tired of this. Does anyone else have some idea how to close off this unknown entry point for the infection? Perhaps there are additional crumbs of information in the iCloud data storage?


😟


P.S.: None of my devices are using iCloud Drive yet, they are all still using the older iCloud data storage method. iOS 8.1.3 and Mavericks.

Feb 27, 2015 6:23 AM in response to romanaleksandrov

The above may be a good solution. A friend with the same problem had this solution posted elsewhere.

"1. Deleted the 3 folders found in var/mobile/Library/Keyboard/CorsDataUbiquitySupport.

There was only one folder there. Which may be part of why they keep coming back.

2. I also backed up and deleted the dynamic-text.dat and LocalDictionary files at the bottom of var/mobile/Library/Keyboard.

After a reboot only the dynamic-text.dat file recreated itself so far. The LocalDictionary did not because I reset the Keyboard Dictionary for good measure. So far so good.

Update: Deleting those files has apparently worked!"


I hope everyone gets this problem fixed. Regardless of the solution used. ☮

Mar 4, 2015 6:35 AM in response to zoso4

Update on shortcut issues... the only solution that is reportedly working is detailed below. This has been used to fix both the reappearing shortcuts issue and/or the keyboard shortcuts crash on iOS.


(1) On any affected iOS device go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase all Content And Settings

(WARNING this will obviously delete everything so you must be willing to go this far with no guarantee)


(2) If you also have a Mac(s) proceed to step (3) otherwise skip to step (6)


(3) On Mac, go to System Preferences > Keyboard >Text Tab and delete ALL the shortcuts you have there.


(4) Using Terminal app on your Mac, the following command will place a “Real iCloud Drive" folder on your desktop which will allow you to see ALL the hidden items in iCloud Drive:


ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ ~/Desktop/Real\ iCloud\ Drive


(5) Open this new iCloud Folder alias (you must choose to view it in a Finder window as list view). Inside this folder is the folder called "Settings" and inside that, "Dictionaries.” Delete the “Dictionaries” folder and empty trash.


(6) Set up your iOS device(s) as NEW. Meaning, you must manually reinstall any apps, settings, etc. Do NOT restore from iTunes or iCloud backup as that will just leave you with the same corrupted issue. Before going through all the time that takes, start with singing into your device with your Apple/iCloud ID and see if the shortcuts issue seem to be fixed and when you enter new ones they sync between devices and/or Mac.


- This solution was suggested to me by a developer and it seems to have worked for my iOS shortcuts crashing & syncing debacle. The issues have not reappeared for the last week and all the shortcuts are properly syncing between an iPhone, iPad and 2 Macs. Please don’t get angry with me if you try this and it doesn’t work for you. I’m just sharing an option.


- I continue to submit feedback to Apple about the issue and have still been having followup calls with AppleCare. They just keep saying “a fix will be in an upcoming iOS software update.” They’ve been saying that to me me since iOS 8.0 and we are now at 8.1.3…

Mar 4, 2015 7:05 AM in response to iBarrett

Step 5 does not work even if I have a Finder window in list view. Works only in column view for me.

Instead of step 4 and 5 I would suggest using terminal command below to delete "Settings" directory from iCloud:


rm -rf ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~TextInput/Dictionaries


For me simply deleting “Dictionaries” folder worked fine. After I restarted iPhone all shortcuts came back but when deleted from iPhone settings again, disappeared forever. In your case you could not navigate to keyboard settings in iPhone if I remember correctly. I would suggest your solution only to people who have the same issue.

Otherwise, deleting “Dictionaries” from iCloud and restarting iPhone should suffice.


Still no solution for people without а Mac though 😟

Mar 9, 2015 6:43 AM in response to Jsai Joe

Jsai Joe, have you rebooted since doing that? I had tried something like your suggestion, and it worked fine until a reboot of any kind was done, be it a hard reset, soft reset or whatever. Does a reboot bring the shortcuts back? Let us know here. I hope your solution works. Too late for me. I already restored my phone as new. I'm glad I did because I had other issues that cured along with the shortcuts problem.

I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.

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