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Text replacement not working in Sierra

Apple engineers and Apple support please note and add it to the list of broken features inside Mac OS.


Before Sierra, text replacement synced between iPhone, iPad and iMac seamlessly.

No longer.

Since Sierra, text replacement no longer syncs. Furthermore, you may add all your text replacement inside your iMac keyboard, but when you restart your computer, it will have deleted them all.


Below screenshot example of some of my text replacement shortcuts before restarting my iMac.

User uploaded file

Below screenshot of the text replacement window, with nothing saved after my restart.


User uploaded file

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12), iPad Pro, iPhone 6S

Posted on Mar 5, 2017 3:03 PM

Reply
36 replies

Jul 22, 2017 12:52 PM in response to Eric Root

This did not work for me. I have five devices: iMac Retina (2013), iPad Air 2, iPhone 6s, MacBook Pro (2013), and MacBook Pro late 2016. All my devices will sync the shortcut/text replacement with the exception of the MBP Late 2016. I tried everything:

  • Log out of iCloud on all devices, restart, and log back in.
  • Delete some and all items in the text replacement form on any of the devices, and restart.
  • Delete the PLIST file on my macOS devices, and restart.
  • I even made a backup of the replacement list on my iMac and then dropped that into my MBP Late 2016


Nada. None of these steps got my MBP 2016 to sync/update. The text replacement table on all of my other devices is in sync, I can remove, add, and edit any item in the table, and the other devices will update.


And yes: iCloud sync for System Preferences on the MBP 2016 is enabled as well.

And no: I don't experience any other iCloud sync issues on my MBP (such as Notes sync, for example, note working; it works just fine).


The only thing that doesn't work is Text Replacement sync. Frustrating.

Nov 23, 2017 10:35 AM in response to pagemakers4

@pagemakers4: Try the usual (once more):

  • Log out of iCloud on all devices, restart, and log back in.
  • Delete some and all items in the text replacement form on any of the devices, and restart.
  • Delete the PLIST file on your macOS systems, and restart.
  • (And make sure you have the latest on all devices in terms iOS and macOS versions)


I don't expect all of us being on the same server; there may be geo differences (I'm in the SF Bay Area), and whatever fix they pushed may not populate to everyone at the same time. (Just guessing, having used cloud CMSes before.)

May 11, 2017 11:55 AM in response to stayingaliveuk

Exact same problem too. Lengthy shared screen session with so-called Senior Advisor (so-called because as any longterm Apple user should know by now - Apple's support comprises of solely the turn-it-off-and-on-again brigade and this extends to their so-called senior helpers) - anyway, hatred for their non-existent support aside, we determined that if a new (additional) User Profile was created for my Mac the text shortcuts were actually saved under that profile - even after restarts... Clearly the Sierra upgrade was buggered something at User Profile level. I do not wish to have to completely migrate everything to a new user profile to resolve this (God knows what other issues that may cause) - currently the "Senior Advisor" is going to have to liaise with "engineers" (yeah, right) and get back to me in few days.

May 29, 2017 11:14 AM in response to stayingaliveuk

Hey, I had the same Issue, and I finelly could Fix it.


As I see, it is not a problem with an specific version of the operating system. It could happen with any update.

I had my 3 devices (Macbook Pro, iPad, iPhone) syncyng properly until one day I noticed the list of the Text Replacements in the macbook was missing, but were still showing in the iPhone and iPad.

I noticed that if I added a new replacement or modify an existing on in the iPhone or the iPad, it would show on the other Device, but not in the Macbook, and just sometimes, if I added a new replacement in the macbook, it will show on my other devices, sometimes as duplicates (in some occations i had to turn off and turn on the iPhone or ipad to make to see the new modification ). However if I modify something in the iPhone or ipad, it would affect the macbook.


This is what I did to fix it:


1. I created all my text replacements in the macbook pro from 0. (some of them where showing as duplicates in the other devices).

2. I made a back up of them by selecting them all and dragging them to the desktop of the macbook.

3. I deleted ALL the replacements from the list in the macbook.

4. I deleted ALL the replacements from the iPhone (i verify that in the ipad were also deleted).

5. Once i had no text replacement on any Device, i dragged my backup to the list on the macbook.

6. I turned off and turned on all my 4 devices (I did it just in case)

7. Now my 3 devices had the same text replacements, and any modification made on any of them was syncing perfectly across the macbook, ipad and iPhone.


I strongly recomend to have a backup of the text replacements in your macbook, cause this error I believe could happen with any update.

I hope this work for you guys.

Jun 10, 2017 7:57 AM in response to preachercam

Might be a corrupt .plist.


Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.


Quit the application.


Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.textInput.keyboardServices.textReplacement.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.


Restart the computer, open the application, and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.


If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.


Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

Sep 6, 2017 1:40 AM in response to mkpub

Responding to my own post with some updates:


I acquired a 2017 iPad Pro. Like my late 2016 MBP, the iPad Pro will not sync text replacement/shortcut with my older devices. However, it does sync text replacements with my late 2016 MBP.


In short:

Text replacement/shortcut sync between my new devices (iPad Pro and late 2016 MBP) works.

Text replacement/shortcut sync between my old devices (iMac Retina [2013], iPad Air 2, iPhone 6s, MacBook Pro [2013]) works.

Text replacement/shortcut sync between my new and old devices does not work.


I contacted Apple Support about this; the issues was escalated; the support manager collected a bunch of data from my system to pass on to the engineers. 12 days later, and I'm still waiting to hear about an update.


I'm puzzled about this behavior; but what is annoying: when you plug down money for a top-of-the-line MBP and iPad Pro, something as simple as text replacement sync should just work, shouldn't it? Is that too much to ask?


Still frustrated.

Nov 22, 2017 10:47 PM in response to mkpub

For those still interested: cloud sync for Text Replacement is working again on all of my (old and new) systems and, I assume, for everyone else as well. I suspect Apple pushed a silent behind-the-scenes update to bring this part of cloud sync inline with the rest of its ecosystem features. Although it took quite a while, thanks for making it work, finally. 🙂 Thanks to everyone who complained and contacted Apple about this issue.

Nov 22, 2017 11:11 PM in response to mkpub

Nope, not working on mine although I do have the latest iOS update this week. MacOS 10.13.1 Nov 1.

All mine on my desktop are still blank. I can add fine when my machine powers down and back on again in the morning the text replacements are all gone. Thanks for the update, hopeful that it might come back for me too.


I will try adding a new one to my iOS and see if it pulls it through.

Nov 23, 2017 8:07 AM in response to pagemakers4

Totally unbelievable for an organisation of that size. To have a feature that worked perfectly to stop working after new releases, is crazy. I've had the same issue with notes. Because of the feature rich release with iOS and MacOS, notes has been almost unusable. Although a little more stable after the most recent iOS update, it still hangs plenty of times.


Anyway, I have sent links of the threads to my contact in Ireland, the one who I contacted last December 2016, so maybe he will pass it on to engineers? Will praying help?


😉

Nov 23, 2017 9:28 AM in response to stayingaliveuk

For me, it started working again all of a sudden; I didn't notice it being tied to the most recent High Sierra and iOS 11 updates.


I stumbled upon some context over at Daring Fireball here and here — whatever the fix, it's been an oversight that is being fixed. Depending on what "cloud" kernel you're "running on," your fix may appear soon (hopefully). Happy T-Day 🙂

Text replacement not working in Sierra

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