Q: I cannot delete iPhone keyboard shortcuts.  They keep restoring.

NEED STATS -- To All:

Can everyone who sees this please feed back on one question:

Is everyone operating with an Apple-based Apple ID (e.g., @mac.com, @icloud.com, etc.)? Or are do some people have Apple IDs that root to other email platforms?

I use @icloud.com. No other domain/platform.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but signing out and deleting shortcuts will not help. I have done this, and I am sure many others have as well. Apple support also instructed me to do this. It did not help. The shortcuts were gone for a few hours, then returned. The only reward for doing this was 24+ hours of my icloud photo library resyncing. Not fun.

Apple wants access to my icloud account again to escalate to engineering, but I am hesitant to do so after my last experience. I've tried everything they have told me as well as every fix mentioned online. The only thing left is to reset my devices and set up as new. I am just going to wait until IOS 9 drops then do this and hope for the best.

Also, and update...

Yes, the zombies are back. Interestingly enough, the Air stayed clear until I had to connect my iPhone to transfer some photos, after which the zombies showed back up on the Air as well. But, meanwhile, I started having some other weird problems with the phone, all since the iOS update (stick with me on this, because there's a possible connection):

- The new Music app (replacing iTunes) has all sorts of difficulties in connecting with the Bluetooth in my car. Or, rather, it doesn't have difficulties, because it keeps doing it on its own. Tra-la-la. On its own. It goes like this: I am signed into the App Store and Music (they now run in tandem; since the iOS update they are linked) when I get in my car, but neither app is open on the phone, and the phone is actually on but not open. Yet once the Bluetooth connects from the car, for some reason Music starts playing on its own. On its own. If I shut down the app, it will stay shut down, but only until the Bluetooth is next called into action, or until I get out of and into the car again. Music comes back and plays whenever the audio is on in the car but something else stops "speaking" (phone call, maps audio, or whatever). The only way to shut up Music completely is to go into the phone and fully sign out of the Music app, which empties it out completely -- unless one or more songs or albums somehow gets stuck on the phone and has to be deleted (slider) one by one, which happens frequently. Plus, Music on the phone is only pulling down a limited number of songs and albums, so the playlist is limited, which has its own issues (see below).

(Disclosure: I was never a iTunes guru, and haven't even tried to make sense of Music since its introduction, but I am supposedly subscribed to iTunes Match, etc.)

- There have been days and days now of not being able to update old or download new apps. Like something got all clogged up somewhere.

- Oh, and once (so far) Music has turned itself on when I wasn't even in the car, on the phone, or anything. I'm just walking through the kitchen and the phone just started playing on its own. On its own. When I went to try to sign out -- I wasn't even signed in and the app wasn't even open. I couldn't open the app. The music was just playing on its own. The only way to shut it up was to shut down and restart the phone.

Note: Just so you know, this is beyond annoying, to the point of inducing episodes (and I don't have episodes). I happen to own a copy of "The Wizard of Oz" (OCR, purchased from iTunes), and you just try driving and having those Lollipop Kids loudly and gleefully welcoming you to Munchkin Land every bloody time some other function of your audio drops out.

OK, so all of that is swirling around while I still have zombie issues, even though The Engineers and The Developers supposedly cleared out whatever deeply buried files there are supposed to be in my Apple ID account. Too much. Can't take it. So, I called Apple about the misbehaviors of Music, and -- naturally -- ended up starting into discussion of the zombies because, you know, maybe the problems are related?...

I pushed my way up to a senior tech right away, and -- credit where it's due -- she seems not only competent, but comprehensive in her approach. She's looking at the problem holistically, which is more than anyone else has done to date.

Among other things, she discovered that my Apple ID remains in troubleshooting mode -- despite the fact that it was supposed to have been released from that status weeks ago. (No idea if that has anything to do with the Music or app quirks.) We also discovered that the phone shows one bundle of music data being accessible through Music, but iTunes (still the only name in the OS) on my Air shows a more complete catalog of music.  But, when the phone is accessed through iTunes on the Air, iTunes then says there is nothing on the phone. Storage use from each point of access confirms. Wha?...

Something is deeply screwed up, and it all appears to relate not to iCloud as a storage repository, and not just to the Apple ID, but to how the iOS interacts with the Apple ID.

I'm supposed to hear something for this new Senior Tech tomorrow. Will report.

Argh.

Someone say something funny, please...

Nope. That won't work. It will only give you false hope, kind of like marrying a hottie, but then finding out what s/he's like in real life.

crmac said:

"Someone say something funny, please..."

Here's my joke of the day (but I didn't say it first): "I'm supposed to hear something from this new Senior Tech tomorrow."

I keep mulling over this issue of the zombie shortcuts, and the related issue of Apple's customer service. These are the possibilities that I can think of:

1. Apple wants to solve this problem, AND is allocating adequate resources to solving it. (Unlikely, given our combined experiences.)

2. Apple wants to solve this problem, but advisers and engineers are working in an uncoordinated, piece-meal fashion and therefore getting nowhere.

3. Apple does not want to solve this problem.

4. Apple is unable - technologically - to solve this problem. (This also seems unlikely to me.)

Can you think of any other possibilities?

So far my zombies did not come back.

What i did is delete all the shortcuts. Then delete the icloud back up. Ensure the zombies is not back then backup to icloud again. Do this to my iPhone 6 and iPad air 2. Been 3 weeks and its still good.

Thanks romanaleksandrov, but you lost me at

• In terminal run:rm -rf ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~TextInput/Dictionaries

Where might I find this terminal? On my MacBook?

Older person here, trying to keep up...

Jill

The Engineers replied to the Senior Advisor - not within the 48 hours I was told, but within three days Their response: Apple is aware of the problem, and the problem should be solved with iOS 9.

I said to the advisor that "should" isn't very encouraging, but he explained that that's pretty definite language for an engineer. I asked, "Does it mean that the engineers have identified a solution and it is being incorporated into iOS 9?" but of course the advisor can only read the text from the engineers. The advisor is not allowed to speak to an engineer.

So, there apparently is nothing more for me to do except wait for iOS 9.

(All the friendly advisors I've spoken with recently have been surprised that Apple staff censor this forum.)

I hope there are going to do something. Am having this issue since long time.

That's what I was told by a senior tech too, but for the last iOS release. Don't hold your breath. I doubt they will ever fix it. For whatever reason, they've decided that the fix would be more cumbersome to deal with than simply waiting until all of us do the fix that was posted in this thread, or wipe out our devices and start anew.

I'm compiling a list of factors that might be involved in order to help AppleCarestaff pinpoint the source of the problem. Could each of you please let me know if your original Apple ID included @icloud.com or @mac.com or @me.com. If you don't know, perhaps you could tell me approximately what year you first got an Apple ID.

For example, I now use @icloud.com (without the number), but originally I had @mac.com

Thanks in advance!

Peter O.

<Personal Information Edited By Host>

Mine is what Apple calls "vintage," i.e., @mac.com.

And yes, knowing this might not give us THE ANSWER, but it can't hurt, so I'm hoping everyone weighs in.

FYI of All: Many people won't necessarily know it, but anyone with an original @mac.com or @me.com more or less automatically also has the same prefix  (whatever prefix you were always using, such as "yourname@"), now with @icloud.com by default -- even if s/he isn't actively using that @icloud.com suffix. So confusing, but if you didn't happen to live in Apple Land during the transitions, or if you had no particular reason to pay attention, this might be foreign...

Once upon a time, in the Book of Jobs, it was all @mac. Then, when Apple brought in the doomed MobileMe (or was it Despicable Me), all the @mac addresses were "migrated" and each got an additional @me version, again by default. Similarly, when @icloud came on line, both the @mac and @me were migrated and spawned new versions of the @icloud email addresses with the same prefix. Kind of like a married person becoming a hyphenate. Now, when someone addresses something to, say, your @mac address, it is essentially forwarded (however and wherever) from @mac, or @me, to @icloud, no matter what you see or use in the address line. (And this doesn't even get into the complications of email aliases...)

Apparently, something similar goes on in terms of the Apple ID records themselves, not just relating to email, which is how all of this might relate to the zombies.

Or maybe not.

But it's worth pursuing.

@icloud. Maybe since late in 2012.  BTW I created a bit of a 'fix' on the original issue (keyboard shortcuts) by turning off the auto-correct feature

HI  i do NOT use an apple based ID ....i use my own domain which forwards to my gmail account.