Q: I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts.  They keep 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 want to ask though if my iCloud back up wasnt on and I deleted all my keyboard folders in the recommended program where in fact did my SCs come from after restoring IOS?

REPOSTING CHRIS' SOLUTION HERE FOR ANYONE THAT NEEDS EASY ACCESS TO IT.

LookInToMyEyes     Apr 18, 2015 6:12 PM 
  Re: I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts.  They keep restoring.  in response to rdub76      

Keyboard Shortcut returning solution

Jailbreak and non jailbroken devices can perform this (although there are faster methods to access directory on a JB device.)

Wow it is insane the amount of people who are having this issue. The reason this error exist because of a corrupt backup/ local keyboard files. Your iPhone has created multiple folders for the keyboard shortcut and iCloud can't delete those and because of this your backups only delete on iPhone and not on iCloud because they are not in the proper folder. IMPORTANT: All your shortcuts are being uploaded to iCloud even the ones you can not delete. Once you attempt to delete them iCloud does delete them (Temporary because your iPhone has a corrupt backup that won't delete it and it just gets restore back)

The solution is very simple.

You could start from a scratch iPhone and lose all your information or you can modify your backup and delete the corrupted files. 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.

Step one

Backup your iPhone to iTunes.

Step two

You will need a program that can read iTune's backup

http://www.icopybot.com/itunes-backup-manager.htm

Step Three

open the program and select your latest backup from the left hand side of the program

Navigate to

System files > KeyboardDomain

Once inside the Keyboard domain select > Library > Keyboard

Delete "CoreDataUbiquitySupport"

Before you delete it let me explain whats inside. Go ahead and open the coredata folder, there should only be two folders (By Default) in here, but as you can see you have more than two. This is all local and because of that your backups keep coming back because your iPhone keeps reading all the folders when it should only be reading the default one that iCloud gives you.

Step four

Restore your iPhone using iTunes and using this backup. Once your iPhone connects to iCloud it will download your keyboard shortcuts and in the corrupted folder there will only be two folders (Or how many your iCloud reads) making it corrected.

Should anyone have questions or answers please feel free to contact me. This modification is 100% safe as long as you delete what I told you to. Any typos or errors I apologize. I rather fix the issue than waste 1 hour explaining or fixing my typos. I came across this issue on a few iPhones at my company and I had to come up with a solution.

--

Chris

I tried this and it worked. Three important additions:

1. make sure ALL of your devices that are logged into your account are on and connected to the internet. For me this only worked when both of my computers and my iPad and iPhone were on.
2. add shortcuts slowly -- if I added them too quickly, the syncing would be inconsistent between devices
3. do NOT shut down your iDevices for a while after doing these steps. the first time I tried this, I rebooted my iPhone and was back to where I started, but when I left my iPhone and iPads on for an extended period, the changes finally stuck).

Thanks M.Hayward!!!

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.

--
Chris

And in the meantime apple need to come up with a fix for the BUG that they have somehow caused for tens or hundreds of thousands of users.

I web design. I fully understand how hard it can be to track down bugs. But I wouldnt play pousum with my clients. I'd communicate with them and admit fault. Tell them I was at least working on it.

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 damned 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...

Here is how to easily fix the keyboard shortcuts for the time being. http://www.websitecodetutorials.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=835

Will give it a try. How odd, though, in fact, and in that they can't fix it. Thanks.

Live Chat

Now chatting with Josh, case # 795749234

Me:Hi Josh. We keep getting old, previously-deleted shortcuts returning to OS X and iOS. Good description of the problem: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6656922

Josh Oh dear, Peter! I can definitely understand how frustrating that can be. I use Keyboard Short cuts to be more efficient with my typing every day! I would be lost without being able to properly manage them. I'll be more than happy to help get this issue resolved for you today.

Josh Before I guide you through troubleshooting this, are there any steps that you've taken prior to chatting with me? I don't want to ask you to try anything twice!

Me:Previously (not today) I deleted both the wanted and unwanted shortcuts from all our devices and Macs, but they always come back. We have 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, 4 Macs.

JoshThank you for the information! From the Diagnostic Report you submitted before our chat I am seeing that your iOS Software is out of date. With the latest iOS Software, it does include many enhancements to not only Safari but the Overall iOS System!

JoshOur first step in resolving this issue is to update not only this iPhone, but all of your iOS Devices, and your Macs! This will ensure, that we have the latest Safari, iCloud, Settings Preferences, and Syncing Protocols across all the devices!

Me:Okay. But the problem still exists for other users on the latest update. This issue has been around for ages.

JoshNow, to check if your other devices need an update you can go to Settings > General > About > if updated to the latest software, the Version number should read 8.3. Here is a Step-by-Step Article on how to update your iOS Device! I will also email you this! Update the iOS software on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Me:Was there a change to the syncing protocol with 8.3?

JoshYes, I do see from the Discussion Forums that it has not resolved some of the customers issues. However every case is Unique as we do not know, what Settings they have, if their devices have damage, as well as if their iCloud Accounts are provisioned properly.

JoshYes, with every update, we increase the Security as well as the Speed and Efficiency of iCloud Syncing between devices.

Me:I appreciate your help. I am unable to update all devices now as some are at work and some are at home. This recurring problem is impacting on our professional letters.

JoshAh! I understand! Well once you have all your devices up to date, please go ahead and delete the Shortcuts again! If they come back, please don’t hesitate to chat us back, so we can then further trouble shoot the issue! Not to worry, I have left detailed notes about the issue for the next Advisor; just in case it does occur again! Does that sound okay?

Me:It's reasonable, but frustrating. I predict that I will update everything, delete old shortcuts, then in a few days or a couple of weeks, the old shortcuts will re-appear.

JoshI completely understand! However, I am very confident that updating all your devices will resolve this issue, because I have seen it resolve this as well as many other odd ball occurrences before!

Me:… and then Apple engineers will continue to add new features instead of fixing old bugs.

JoshIf they do re-appear, please don’t hesitate to chat us back so we can further intestate it! You can submit product feedback about this at http://www.apple.com/feedback We have an entire team here at Apple whose job is dedicated to reviewing this feedback, and escalating it to the proper outlets (such as the engineers for iTunes, iPhone, iPad, etc.), so you can rest assured that your voice will be heard, about this bug!

Me:Because we use Apple products at work and at home, it is very difficult to get all products updated to the latest software at the same time. I'm sorry, but I have already sent feedback, but because Apple does not reply, and nothing changes, there is no way for users to know what Apple does with the information. Do you have a list of bugs that I can look at? Josh, are you able to pass this issue up the line to your manager? Or do you have to wait until I update all products?

JoshNo, we do not have a Public data base of known issues. This is due to the quick turn around time that we have to resolve any issue we encounter. However, if a system of ours is down you can see it at http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

JoshWe need to first update all of your iOS Devices to the latest iOS Software. This is always our first step, because it resolves most issues.

Me:There has definitely NOT been a quick turn around on this issue. The original post on that forum dates from Nov 2014. I had this problem before that.

JoshAll posts remain on the Forum no matter the time of Posting. They remain there in case someone does encounter the issue again. Additionally, that information is a year old, so the steps taken by those customers applied to the software and products that were in use at the time. So, our first step to resolve this issue, is update it to the latest software we have available to resolve this.

Me:Sorry. What I meant was that this issue on the forum has not been resolved - the problem still exists, and has existed since at least Nov 2014, 6 months ago.

Me:I would really appreciate it if you could pass feedback up the line. I undertake to update all my devices when I am able to.

JoshAbsolutely! Thanks so much for your time today, Peter, it was great chatting with you! If you have no further questions, I’ll go ahead and end our chat session now. Feel free to chat us back anytime, if you have any other questions or concerns! Thanks again, and I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Your chat session has ended.

I have 2 iOS and 2 OS X devices.

I can confirm I have tried EVERY fix in this thread. Some (Chris's) several times and now after a week I have more duplicate shortcuts than I ever have.

This seems like another bug that Apple are never going to fix.

I've given in and now just accept the mess that this bug creates.

Oh my. At least I'm not alone. And I know it's "just" chat, but wouldn't it be great if Apple techs cared about spelling and grammar? Maybe this is why the shortcuts issue keeps falling off the map: Apple doesn't care about language.

sigh...