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iOS 8 Keyboard Shortcuts won't delete.

So I've had my iPhone 6 now for a few weeks and It's running the latest iOS (iOS 8.1).


I have about 40 Shortcuts in the keyboard and duplicates, however when I delete any of these shortcuts, they reappear, I've turned off iCloud on my iPad, and Mac but yet they still appear and its getting very frustrating. Please help me. 😟

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1

Posted on Nov 9, 2014 1:21 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 10, 2014 9:03 PM

Same issue here. I have deleted documents from iCloud turmed off sync, turned it back on. And on all three devices it keeps coming back. Help me.

73 replies

Mar 17, 2015 3:06 AM in response to callumbessasagrant

I have tried another way and it has been working fine even I have switched off/ on and hard reset my iPhone. ✌

Here it is

  1. go download a third party keyboard, select it in setting > general > keyboard > add new keyboard
  2. then remove the original keyboard, it should be named as "english"
  3. go to shortcuts and remove those unwanted
  4. go add back the original keyboard "english" in setting > general > keyboard > add new keyboard
  5. at this moment, the "enable dictation" in general > keyboard should be turned off, DO NOT turn it on
  6. restart your iPhone and it should be working.

Apr 4, 2015 7:26 AM in response to callumbessasagrant

I spoke with Apple and they fixed it by doing the following:


1. Go to Launchpad

2. Go to Terminal

3. Enter the following text (without the "") : "rm -rf ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Textinput/Dictionaries"

4. Press Enter

5. Restart iPhone

6. All shortcuts should be gone


STRIKE THAT. IT WORKED FOR TEN MINUTES BUT THE F___CKING SHORTCUTS ARE BACK AGAIN

Apr 10, 2015 1:08 AM in response to tonylu

Idem !!!


J'ai encore essayé cette insertion magique via le Terminal et… rien :-)


Comme le sparadrap du Capitaine Haddock, les Raccourcis (french name for keyboard shortcuts) resurgissent à chaque fois…

  • Supprimés par petits groupes (genre, 5 par 5…!),
  • Modifiés (ils reviennent toujours à leur état antérieur),
  • Supprimés sur tous les écrans quasiment en même temps (iPhone, iPad et Mac…!!)


Par contre, j'ai fini de rire car cette plaisanterie, ce bug ou dysfonctionnement dure depuis une année… Je pensais comme nombre d'entre-nous que la version *iOS* 8.3 allait definitivement nous tirer d'embarras… Et, non. Aussi, merci aux talentueux développeurs d'iOS d'ajouter un bouton dans les Réglages généraux d'iOS pour tuer (kill !) d'un seul coup tous les raccourcis.


Note de fin : si vous ne savez pas comment faire, demandez aux développeurs de *TextExpander*… La synchronisation de mes 300 raccourcis *TextExpander* via *DropBox* fonctionne sans heurts entre Mac, iPad et iPhone…

Apr 19, 2015 10:01 AM in response to fbratchett

Okay, change 3. After trying iBarrett's suggestion the first time, it turns out when I initially deleted the text shortcuts from all iDevices, it seems I'd forgotten to delete them on my MacBook Pro, I deleted them on my iMac, iPad and iPhone 6, without deleting them on the MBP all of the old shortcuts reappeared after four days. Since deleting ALL text shortcuts from ALL devices and by following iBarrett's suggestions, my text shortcuts have not returned yet after three consecutive days of restarting ALL devices at random times. Three days and still going!! Thanks again iBarrett!!

Apr 23, 2015 7:13 PM in response to iBarrett

I'm starting to think this fix maybe the cure. It's been 7 days and no duplicates have returned after multiple restarts on ALL iDevices. Not only have any duplicates returned none of my old shortcuts returned so I started incorporating a new shortcut list. Every issue I had before seems to be resolved, the flash LED for alerts now works, shortcuts and app synching appear to be working as well, I guess the biggest thing was restoring device as new and then synching with iCloud. Thus far ALL credit goes to the fix posted by iBarrett.


iBarrettMar 4, 2015 9:17 AM
Re: iOS 8 Keyboard Shortcuts won't delete.in response to cosbyk

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…

Apr 26, 2015 11:41 AM in response to iBarrett

iBarrettMar 4, 2015 2:17 PM Re: iOS 8 Keyboard Shortcuts won't delete.
Re: iOS 8 Keyboard Shortcuts won't delete.in response to cosbyk

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…


Thank you so very much. I have gone through this (a bit complex) process and it works like a charm.

Finally all the shortcuts are gone apart from the one standard "On my way! " one. I tested it added one single new one just to test and it did sync without bringing up the old ones.


Now of course I have to re-install manually every app I need but hey, its cool, a bit like spring cleaning 😀 Everything is clean and fresh from the start!


The only follow up question to you is:

How do I hide the folder "Real iCloud Drive" on my desktop now?

I mean your Terminal command ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ ~/Desktop/Real\ iCloud\ Drive made the folder appear or visible.

What is the command to hide it again? Or can I just delete it without that anything bad will happen afterwards? 🙂

iOS 8 Keyboard Shortcuts won't delete.

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