I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.

After carrying out the process on page 17 I have been zombie free for 5 months.

Yesterday I upgraded to iOS 9.

On 1 device I changed a shortcut. On 2 other devices it did not sync and on a third device it duplicated the shortcut.

Now it it would appear that deleting the duplication simply causes it to come back at some stage.

The iOS device that seems ok was updated via iTunes. The one that seems messed up was updated OTA. But who knows!

This really is a disaster of a screwup for so long.

You all are very brave, updating to the newest iOS as soon as it comes out. Was there any mention this problem was going to be fixed? Hardly no different than past updates. If an updated didn't steal up so much memory and being unable to stop them from downloading to a device, I wouldn't update for at least a month after release or first Googling "problems with iOS xxxx" to see what new bugs are messing with people. And especially if I was not at home.... as iOS bugs have a way of really messing with a device at the most inopportune times.

No return of any [new (tests) or old] Zombies, but no sync of any new shortcuts either.

I was originally hoping my synching was down to the launch of iOS app and Apples servers being hammered. But a day later and the synching still hasn't resumed correctly. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Oh well it's only been a year now!

Hi pagemakers4, I read your post @page 17, thx for all these effort. I am at the step of deleting the "CoreDataUbiquitySupport” folder, but I havent find a software on mac which can delete that folder on my itunes backup. I tried icopybot, anytrans, phonerescue, ibackup extractor. None of these allows me to delete that folder. I am using a iphone 6 plus, mac with Yosemite. Would guide me how to delete that folder. I can use terminal. Thx 😀

It has almost been 2 weeks, and I have had no return of any zombie shortcuts whatsoever. I followed the process outlined on pages 17 & 32 (I did have that 2013 file that ended in .sqlite). I have restarted several times, backed up to iCloud daily, and no issues. I have even updated to iOS 9. Finally the text shortcuts are syncing between my iPhone and MacBook after I deleted all the shortcuts in the MacBook again. I can see the shortcuts update within 30 seconds whether I enter them on the MacBook or on the iPhone, so I'm very pleased with that.

The fix on pages 17 & 32 really do work, so if iOS 9 doesn't fix the problem for you, then you will need to follow this process if you want to get rid of the zombie shortcut issue.

Thanks again to LookInToMyEyes and Pickinic for this fix!

I sincerely hope that it really is fixed, but I wouldn't hold your breath until you wait a few days or even weeks. On the other thread about this topic they are saying the zombies are returning. This has been going on for way too long and I hope for everyone's sake that Apple has really done something to fix it.

"mine are back" as in Zombies or as in syncing of "text replacement" i.e. shortcuts? And did you say iOS 9.1? Please no, as if they ever gave us the option to stop iOS update files from downloading automatically & filling our memories I would never update again. If it's not broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, fix it. But this is clearly not the way Apple does business.

No syncing here yet... iOS 9.0 on both the iPad Air2 & iPhone5 (and battery life has just gone to sh*t on it) and as soon as it hits 10% notice, it cycles off completely.

It's quite possible, as soon as I make it back to the US from this month plus trip into Africa... I will be getting rid of this complete set of single platform MCP & iOS devices as they are wasting me too much time messing with them.... and the "Cult of Mac" promises are far from materializing.

So... As funny or ridiculous as this may sound, I decided to go to the top. Here is the email I just sent directly to Tim Cook:

Dear Tim,

I am writing because as the CEO of a company myself, I would want to know personally if a large group of my customers was unhappy with my product where there is a presumably easy fix. This problem has been plaguing many iPhone and iPad users for at least two years and it is best explained by visiting your support site here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6656922?answerId=28949289022#28949289022&tstart=0#28949289 In a nutshell, when a texting shortcut is deleted from your device it reappears minutes, hours, days or even weeks later. This is extremely aggravating as many of these were deleted because they were misspelled, are an outdated email address or someone else entered them as a joke, etc. While I found a fix for my device and posted it on the support page, many have not figured out how to do the same. The engineers and support people at Apple seem to have abandoned this group and offered no solutions. Everyone was hoping that iOS 9 would fix the problem as promised by the engineers, but it did not. I think if you read that support page titled “I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.” You’ll see the frustration including people planning on leaving the iOS environment for a competitor. As for myself, I’ve found a solution, but have been contributing to the support page out of sympathy for the others. This might seem like a trivial issue to be sending to the CEO of Apple, but I assure you it is not to those frustrated and annoyed by this problem. I hope this reaches you and that you can see that a solution is brought forward by someone in your engineering team. It would also be helpful to have an Apple representative monitor the support site and contribute in the dialogue like I’ve seen in other support sites.

Don't all laugh too hard out loud at once as I might go deaf, but what what the heck, they say he reads his emails.

Well done!

I have to say, as a business person myself trying to start a company, buying that MCP 2 days before departure to Africa was probably the worst business decision I have made yet and will impose significant lost opportunity costs that buying any PC based laptop would not have caused.

Hace you gotten out your microscope to see the new 4x4 apps grid in the iPad folders yet? Seriously, not broken, so let's fix it! The amount of basic needed things I've had to search for on Mac OS (that have been 'simplified out' to streamline & make 'cleaner' is really a ***?! not yeah that makes since coming off PC based environment).

cheers & thanks again from Namibia

I was successful in stopping update from download, by going to settings - iTunes and app store and disabling auto updates for applications. First I had to delete already downloaded update from settings - general - usage. I would never update when I travel.

Hans, I love to work in multiple desktops. I think they call it mission control or something. One single feature that makes Apple computers bearable. You are going to need a mouse for that.

@Pickinic

While you at that can you ask him to merge apple id's. That would be bigger then shortcuts.

My zombies didn't come back, but I am dealing with strange backup glitch. On both iPad's my pre IOS 9 backups missing. I guarantee you I backed up to icloud and itunes before update. One of them after update I backed up and other I didn't and it shows 0 backups, but storage that was plenty in icloud now is short. Backup sizes changed and it looks like they are twice smaller then before 9. Zombies showed up right after update, but then deleted are gone for 6 days. Iphone 6 with ios 8.4.1 is completely "zombified" (can I call dibs on urban dictionary) and there is no sync that I can detect.

Chris, (LookInToMyEyes), I've been searching for a fix to these impossible-to-delete Text Replacements for 2 years, I think your fix may be the first real solution. My Mac Pro, MacBook Air, iPad, and iPhone all have this issue/disease.

A question: what program are you using to read iTunes' backups? I'm trying out iBackup Viewer, but I can't seem to delete any of the backups. Also, it's not showing any folder called System Files.

thanks for any help on this.

Should still be able to do what I did. Have been gone over 3 weeks through multiple reboots. Delete the shortcuts. Delete your cloud back up, then I changed my apple ID, sign out of old one on all devices, then do a fresh back up with the new ID, all the old crap and files gone then.

Hi Pickinic,

Many thanks for those instructions.

Over a couple hours this afternoon, I just went methodically through each of those steps you laid out—deleting those files, then restoring the iPhone from this modified backup in iTunes. First my iPhone 5, then my iPad. Both updated to the latest iOX 9. In each case, shortly after the backup was done, I could see the moment all 200+ Text Replacements come back into each device.

Something is still allowing the repopulation of these zombie Text Replacements. Given that it took a bit for them to appear in each iOS device, it has to be iCloud.

Well this worked for me for a long time...however, it's back. Not the VERY original zombie shortcuts I had, but ones that were created AFTER I applied the fix. I wonder if this is why I'm having so many issues in iOS9 or if it's related to updating to iOS9 and I'm going to have to delete every time there is an upgrade.

I should mention that mine do this EVEN THOUGH I ONLY HAVE TWO FOLDERS in the keyboard folder. So it's not JUST if you have three or more. It can be corrupted even if you only have two. So either that's not completely the problem, or something else is at play here.

Actually I changed the email on my apple ID, deleted all shortcuts. Created a new one with a different email, signed into my phone with the new one instead. then I downloaded the icloud program for windows and deleted the backups from my original apple ID. (it wouldn't let me delete my back up when I was signed into any device with that account.) then I was able to change back to my original email address to my original apple ID. Was a convoluted mess but they have stayed gone for several weeks, upgrade to ios9 and a few hard reboots.