Q: Text Replacement items lost after iOS 9 upgrade.

As far as I know, this was all screwed up when iCloud Drive came out.  I have been having issues since 8.0.  They were always stored on the cloud, but iCloud Drive has some folder embedded deep into it where the shortcuts are housed.  The problem is that iCloud Drive is now only pulling up the folder it is choosing to sync from rather than all.  You probable have a few shortcuts folders in iCloud Drive, but it can't distinguish which one to sync.  Over the last year I have had a **** of a time trying to delete duplicates.

1st issue (since iOS8 came out):  Duplicates reappearing after delete

Example:  Original: [wu = what's up], changed to:  [wu = What's up?].  Both would show and the original would be spelled out until I deleted it, but it would than reappear the next day (presumably after iCloud backup).  I have hundreds like this and it is very infuriating, completely renders shortcuts useless.

2nd Issue (since 9-16-15, ios9 Launch) :  Sync between devices (I have iPhone 6 plus & iPad Air 2)

on ios9, changes made on one device not being reflected on other

3rd Issue (as of 9-19-15)  Text Replacement is completely blank on iPhone, but still showing on iPad, over the last few days, they did return after restart, but today they are not returning to iPhone.  I even tried to create a new "test" shortcut and it did not appear at all.

Possible Solutions:  The only thing I have not tried is to use a 3rd party program like CopyTrans to manually delete the duplicate folders deep in iCloud Drive.

It really is disheartening that after a year worth of issues and many versions updates, this issue is still not fixed.  And there is no answer.  I have spoken to at least 4 Apple Reps with varying amount of knowledge on this.  The bottom line is a lot of people don't use it and therefore don't understand the frustration.  I just want it to work like it did before iCloud Drive ruined it.

FIXED PROBLEM.

I will post solution here in a little bit.

FIXED PROBLEM.


I have the same problem. I had iOS 8 on my iPad air 2 and I upgraded to iOS 9 over  wi-Fi and when it was done installing everything seemed OK until Igot to my keyboard shortcuts, which of course is now called text replacement. The problem wasI was missing about 20% of my keyboard shortcuts. I did everything I could think of to try to get them back. I toggled on and off iCloud drive, I turned on and off predictive text, I installed other keyboards deleted keyboards, logged out of iCloud  and log back in to iCloud and nothing brought my keyboard shortcuts back.

So to recap my situation, I had an upgraded iOS 9 iPad Air missing keyboard shortcuts and was stuck with no solution.

So this is what I did to fix it. I had 3 iCloud backups of my iPad air 2 that were saved within the online Apple iCloud. They were all  iOS 8 back ups dated for before I had upgraded the iOS 9.  so this is what I did. I went into settings then reset then erase all content and settings.  I went ahead and selected this erase all contents and settings so that way I could do a restore to a previous backup that I have saved on iCloud. Icloud seems to save a total of three days worth of back ups online. so for example I did my ios 9 upgrade on the 19th. But I showed back ups for the 16th 17th and 18th within iCloud. So I went ahead and restored for the 18th. afterward my iPad was restored I went to the text replacement section and was STILL missing my shortcuts. So out of frustration  I went back into settings and erase all content and settings and did another restore and tried for the 17th one day earlier than the last restore I just did. When my iPad booted up,  it's still had the same missing shortcuts and did not fix the problem. At this point I was ready to just give up all hope. I had done a total of two restores going back  2  days and they did not put my shortcuts on my iPad. So my final act was to do a third restore. Why? Only because I wanted to have the very last update, which as I had stated was for the 18th, and not the one that was actively on my iPad for the 17th. I guess It was really more psychological than anything because I don't think there was any real difference between the backup, information-wise, because they were only a day apart. but in my mind I just wanted to have the absolute last version of the backup to restore too. So I went back in for that third time and I did erase all content and settings to do this third restore. I selected my last update for the 18th. My iPad went ahead and cycled through the restore process and booted up, At this point, I had allready succumb to the depressing fact that I had lost all my shortcuts. But out of just curiosity I went back into settings to look at the text replacement section so Could reminisce on my previous shortcuts, and low and behold they were all there this time. I was like WOW, I GOT ALL MY KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS!!!    

so in my final conclusion I just want to say this, your shortcuts are saved in your back up to icloud. iOS 9 seems to have a problem fully transferring them over from iOS 8. It could be because they've been given a new name call text replacement. Maybe. in any event when you do a restore and you're shortcuts  are not there, it's because Ios 9 didn't grab them when they did the restore fully. I would just repeat the restore and do it, I don't know, maybe three or four times. Because it took three restores to finally get iOS 9 to see my shortcuts. So that's how I did it good luck.

Post any replies here if this fix works for you.

Have the same problem, what can I do. tried to restore, but it didn't help.

I have updated to iOS 9.0.1 yesterday and I hoped all would be fine, but it is not.

My previous issues mentioned:

1st issue (since iOS8 came out):  Duplicates reappearing after delete.

This is not happening on the scale it was before.  There are only a couple.  The way I fixed this was to delete all the dupes on both iPhone & iPad, than backup to desktop & iCloud on both immediately after.  The ones that are coming back were the ones I missed.  I'll fix on next backup.

2nd Issue (since 9-16-15, ios9 Launch) :  Sync between devices (I have iPhone 6 plus & iPad Air 2)

on ios9, changes made on one device not being reflected on other

They seem to be syncing, albeit takes a few days.  Some issues with subtle duplicates, but overall, I'm content with it.  I am getting in the habit of only adding new shortcuts on my iPhone and hope they magically appear on the iPad within a few days.

3rd Issue (as of 9-19-15)  Text Replacement is completely blank on iPhone, but still showing on iPad, over the last few days, they did return after restart, but today they are not returning to iPhone.  I even tried to create a new "test" shortcut and it did not appear at all.

This is the kicker.  I cannot get them to stay on my iPhone.  After restarting, its a crapshoot to see if they'll appear or not.  If they do, they will only be there briefly.  It seems that after I use one in a text conversation, they disappear.  It is crazy.  I have to restart my phone multiple times a day. 

I have restored from backup and updated to 9.0.1, but they did not fix it.  It is really a huge burden on my phone usage.  I don't know what else to try.  I wish they would just stay.  It's crazy. iCloud Drive has been a terrible addition in this case.

I Deleted all third party keyboards after driving myself crazy with this issue. I think it may have wirked, will check back soon after testing.

Solution steps to make them stay on my phone.

1. Deleted all 3rd party keyboards (Swiftkey, popkey, swipe)
2. Restarted phone, making sure that the shortcuts appeared.
3. Delete iCloud Drive
4. Restart phone
5. Enable iCloud Drive again (it automatically was enabled after restarting)

Since my last post, this has worked.  I hope this helps anyone out there.

I have the opposite problem - Since iOS9 update, my shortcuts (or "text replacements") are all there, but also there are shortcuts that I have successfully deleted months, even over a year, ago.  For one example, I have a shortcut for my address.  When I type 'aaa', it brings up my address.  I relocated summer of 2014, and promptly changed the shortcut to use my new address.  Since iOS9, it now lists my old address, my new address, and my new address with a typo (I must've switched it at some point). 

I have tried deleting the obsolete shortcuts, but they keep reappearing.

Freaking iCloud - I hate it.  I have lost so many things over the years of various updates.

Does the iCloud backup solution work for this, too?

#annoyed

Curse you Apple bugs! I just upgraded yesterday from the latest iOS 9.2.x to 9.3.1, and I also decided to enable iCloud Drive. It's definitely an iCloud Drive related problem, as I haven't had an issue with these text replacements for years, using them constantly. Sounds very annoying. Also sounds like the only real solution is disabling iCloud drive.

I have this crazy problem.

this

http://pastebin.com/MwPZQEcn help me.

all of you should have a try.  And you can backup your text replacement: https://twitter.com/jcieplinski/status/717822483152429056

I consistently had this problem after fresh installations of iOS on iPhone or iPad. I've worked out how to fix it every time. Turn off the device that is missing the text replacement shortcuts. Check whether other devices have kept the text replacement shortcuts. My MacBook has always kept them fine. My iPad mini sometimes didn't. Turn off the other devices. Turn on the device that has kept the text replacement shortcuts (my MBP). Let it boot, keep it plugged in, let wifi connect and give it 5-10 minutes to fully load everything and synch with iCloud. Turn on any other devices that are fine with the shortcuts and keep them plugged in and connected to wifi for 5-10 minutes allowing synchronisation. Lastly, plug in your device that is missing the shortcuts, let it boot and connect to wifi and just leave it. I find that the text replacement shortcuts reappear every time thereafter. It might take 5-55 minutes to happen but since doing this I have *never* had it *not* work.