I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts. They keep restoring.

Turned off Icloud & IOS8.1 synced directly with MacOS Yosemite and it still occurs. Old shortcuts continue to reappear along with shortcuts that were edited previously. What a super pain in the ... at least I still have shortcuts and can just continue to edit and delete them until the worm is taken out of the Apple. I am fed up with this issue and a fix should have come as shortcuts were not an issue before for me with the exception of a few bugs syncing them together with Macbook and other devices.

I don't use a computer. So maybe I'm missing something. But it seems to me the method offered to fix this using the computer is more trouble than simply restoring the idevice as new. That definitely works. And it's not as much trouble as one would think. Back up everything, restore, install apps and stuff back from purchased list. If the computer method is not working for you, then restore as new. It worked great for me. It cured several issues and my phone runs better. I'm glad I did it. And my shortcuts are working as they should now. No returning zombies and a fresh set of new shortcuts. Restoring may not be for everyone, but it does work.

Zoso,

Most people do have access to a PC, thus making them more than capable to try this fix.

Also, restoring is a 'nuclear option' for many people. For me, it's not as simple as wiping my phone clean then re-installing my apps. I have passwords, credit cards, songs, text messages, emails, blue tooth data, for christs sake even my DOOR KNOB is bluetooth and would have to be re-programmed!

So, of course, we all know we can do a restore and just 'start over' again, but for many, a fix, albiet imperfect, is better than the nuclear option. We get it, you did the factory restore, your shortcuts are gone, and youre happier than a pig in you-know-what, but for others out there, the search continues...

Worm,

Did you do the deleting and backing up again? Did it get rid of the final shortcuts? I've actually done it three times a few days ago and the same ones keep coming back. Maybe I just have to do it more and more but I don't see how that will resolve anything. I am very grateful for Chris because a lot of them have been gone since I did it the first time. Now I'm going to have to figure out how to get rid of the 38 lol.

Well... I think I have solved it. Without going into how silly I am about how all this works I read a post last night that said as the final step back up to icloud. My iCloud drive has always been on but I never back up to iCoud in settings and sync physically to my mac. My SCs have shared recently in the last year somewhat slowly and not completely across IOS & OSX so I tried turning on BACK UP and after reducing my back up files significantly to about 500mb and backing up for about 40 minutes it was complete and I could actually see changes that I made on my mac in OSX in shortcuts on IOS in real time. I turned iCloud off and on and no ZCs returned. Turned the Iphone on again and no ZCs. Woke up this morning and no ZCs. Turned the phone off and on again and no ZCs. So far I am ZC free. And mine were a mess. when I say solved it I mean solved it for myself. When Chris' fix was a step in the right direction for sure and he was absolutely right. We just have a different case.

Let me know. I definitely feel for you. So to rehash I think turning on back up solidified what Chris cemented here in this post.

Regards,

Robert

And I only did the deleting thing twice and didnt want to keep restoring because it takes time and yada yada yada that I dont want to keep fiddling with.

Anyway I am ZC free after turning on back up. Good luck.

Great to hear that, Robbie, and many thanks again to our un-sung hero, Chris.

It's painfully obvious the solution varies from person to person, as we all have our iCloud devices (and HOW MANY devices) configured differently. Once you get the iCloud syncing correct with this work-around, the ZombieCuts WILL remain away, just have to get the combination correct.

Way to go everyone, way to go!

Maybe after these updates in IOS 8.0 through to 8.3 SCs stopped talking across OSX & IOS without back up on because they must have before because I do have SCs that might go back to Oct. or at latest Nov. that are on both platforms. So now maybe I must use iCloud back up because Apple wants me to purchase 1TB of iCloud space. Hope my ZC ramble works for you.

Hey forum

I apologize for not being here and assisting you all. Some of you are having iCloud Sync issues etc, I did mention "As I said earlier, your iCloud backup has all your keyboard shortcuts backed up so you won't lose any of them, make sure you do an iCloud backup." It is also important to perform a iCloud backup before and as soon as you come back from your backup. If that doesn't help delete all your iCloud backup and perform a clean one. Once you have a clean iCloud backup and your ZC's are still coming back, you should perform my solution again. Also make sure you don't have other devices with the issue connected to iCloud until you do each and everyone of them.

Have a good night, I am soooo tired..😢

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Chris

The thing for me is, I always back up to iCloud, so that's never been off. I have iCloud back up on my iPad mini too, and I'm signed in on my iMac. They all SHOULD be syncing between the 3 devices but stopped completely for some reason a few months back. So my phone is actually the only one I have shortcuts on at all. The other two devices are blank but at some point they did have all the ZC's. I have tried signing out and back into iCloud on all devices. Nothing seems to work. Then of course there's the 38 coming back on my phone after any restart lol. I've gotten used to it but it's annoying so any help I would try (except restoring).

Hi Nina,

Through instinct I had thought that as before without backing up to Icloud as it is now SCs were syncing across devices like they should. This changed months ago maybe when docs and data option was removed. I had done this procedure with iCloud drive on but back up was off. This is when after performing Chris' procedure I had funny returns of SCs and half of the ZCs coming back which perplexed me. Now its clear that iCloud back up must be turned on as per what Chris had said above and instantly I could see as I deleted or added to OSX I could see the changes happen on IOS. Essentially Apple is making you use iCloud back up now which wasnt the case before IOS 8.0 as I have never turned back up on before. Yes they want to sell you storage. With you I believe you have 3 devices all talking and you have a little more complicated procedure but as uu delete or add on one they should delete on all or add if uu will. I wish SCs worked everywhere like here. Well I am a happy camper now that SCs & ZCs has been solved. Hope you have the same thing we we all know the pain.

I have the same problem and have no interest in doing hacks on my Apple phone. I bought an Apple phone because I wanted something to make my life simpler – this was always the secret of Apple over computers and phones bit force you to be a nerd to use them. I have now been through 10 pages of people looking for ways to hack into their back ups – this is absurd! I simply want to use one of the features that was on my phone that I paid a lot of money for. Can you please fix this?

Apple I don't undersrand???? And I'll hold my toungue here or you'll just delete my post. But why are we all doing your job for you??? This is not the publics job to fix. It is not our bug to track down. It is yours! Why is there not an apple employee (a customer support perhaps??) chiming in here with a fix or at the very least "we are working on it"? I'd be embarased if it was me and my companey. This bug has gone un fixed far too long.

On that note. The keyboard shortcuts seem to be tied to the defualt kehboard. So if you remove it in settings and add a custom keyboard (with an app) then the deleted shorcuts seem to stay gone. Of course that's today. They may come back in a week. Cuz Apple hasn't fixed it yet!!!

The thing is this isn't a bug at all. Our backup has been corrupted by either backing up or when we updated to a new version of iOS.. If you start clean with no data, everything works fine and that's why Apple hasn't located this bug because to them it does not exist. I am pretty sure when Apple engineers test iOS they don't do it with information because that could ruin their test. They do it with a clean install. We do it this way at my company too. what I would like from Apple is a better backup system. The backup system has caused so many issues for Apple's consumers, I know many other bugs that backing up and restoring causes and all the Apple has to say is "Start clean". When iOS 6 released people were having issues with their camera roll not displaying there pictures correctly, the issue? There backup had corrupted thumbnails. Also in iOS 6 there was a corrupted SMS attachment folder, every time you sent a video through iMessage and delete it would still stay on your phone, making you run out of space. Like I said Apple needs to create a better backup tool.

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Chris

I've been having this issue for months now, but it's been conflated with problems on my (relatively new) Air where it suddenly doesn't like making a decent wifi connection (too much to explain in this thread), and all sorts of strange behaviors in Mail ("ghost" drafts and other messages, lost of stuff that indicates that when Mail goes to the Cloud, it faces and creates all manner of data conflicts). But this text replacement thing is a HUGE problem. Granted, I did create some shortcuts that have themselves been problems, but not being able to control the dictionary of shortcuts is a nightmare. They have invaded all my devices, including my Air.

Still, when I searched to see if anyone else was having such problems, for months, I found nothing. (What? Was the conversation being subverted somehow?) Until finding this today. Small comfort.

After countless, lengthy sessions with Apple at Genius Bars and by phone, no one has been anything other than puzzled. Deer in the headlights. No one at Apple has done anything like admit that there is a systemic issue, not even to say that others have reported same. Amazing.

Reading through the thread, I don't even have to think about the attempted solutions, hacking or otherwise, because I can tell you they won't work. They won't stick. Somehow, somewhere, some "ghost" backup is being made against a user's Apple ID that retains these text shortcut files, and nothing that can be done at the user level is going to stop that. They will come back, like zombies. This problem is in the Apple Cloud. Period. Somehow, somewhere, whatever "backups" Apple keeps of OS user data are retaining this date on an individual user -- even if we delete our own backups (tried that) -- and it seeps back.

I have a new iP6, the relatively new Air, and an 2012 iPad Mini, and I keep everything up to date, so it's nearly impossible for me to tell if this sources to iOS8 or some interim update. The only thing I have been able to do is clear the ****** things off my Air, and they appear to be staying away, even though after all sorts of cleaning (everything short of dousing the phone and iPad with kerosene and setting a match), they have crept back on the iOS devices. Will report on whether they stay off the Air, but I intend to avoid hardwiring the phone to it until I see what happens, in case that's involved.

But all I have been told (just today) is that Apple is working on a "patch."

sigh...