Text replacement not working in Sierra

Question

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.

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

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

Posted on Mar 5, 2017 3:03 PM

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Answer 1

mkpub

Level 1

55 points

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.)

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Answer 2

mkpub

Level 1

55 points

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.

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Answer 3

Dec 7, 2017 2:41 AM in response to stayingaliveuk

Quick update.

Even better news. When I delete items from the text replacement on my Mac, it automatically removes it instantly on my iPhone. I had it open at the same time and you can see it disappearing. Wow finally it has been fixed. 🙌

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Answer 4

Nov 23, 2017 1:32 PM in response to stayingaliveuk

I’m in the UK too.

I was also missing the file on a machine that wasn’t synching. It was there on a machine that did sync, so I copied that, re-booted and boom it worked immediately!

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Answer 5

Nov 23, 2017 9:52 AM in response to stayingaliveuk

Just tested again and iOS to iOS and iOS to MacOS seems to be working with the exception of my MacBook which still refuses to sync to anything. I’ll trying logging out of iCloud on that device.

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Answer 6

mkpub

Level 1

55 points

Nov 23, 2017 10:46 AM in response to pagemakers4

@pagemakers4: Library > Preferences: com.apple.textInput.keyboardServices.textReplacement.plist

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Answer 7

mkpub

Level 1

55 points

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.

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Answer 8

Nov 23, 2017 10:20 AM in response to pagemakers4

Now this is interesting.... Logged out of my iCloud account on my MacBook. Rebooted and all of the shortcuts are still there on the device. Before they would delete. So, what are the shortcuts now tied to?

Macbook still not synching with other devices on the same icloud account.

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Answer 9

Nov 24, 2017 3:31 AM in response to pagemakers4

I've looked on my old Mac, which my wife now uses and the file is not on there either?

I did also find this post, which seems to confirm thew procedure.

I'm a chicken when it comes to signing out of iCloud and it removing all files and photos and if I don't have that file to begin with, it probably won't work either.

Aargh Apple, why did you do this!!

https://www.spdmedia.com/blog/2017/7/19/how-to-fix-broken-text-replacement-sync- between-macos-and-ios

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Answer 10

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.

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Answer 11

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?

😉

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Answer 12

Nov 23, 2017 9:30 AM in response to mkpub

Okay thank you so much. "cloud kernel", never heard of that, I guess that must be wherever my server is sitting? Fingers crossed it will be soon.

Indeed Happy T-Day to you!

Thanks for sharing on your day off? Super grateful.

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Answer 13

Nov 23, 2017 10:43 AM in response to mkpub

I only have the problem on my MacBook - other iOS devices x 2 and Mac OS devices x 2 all OK. I’m loathed to logout on all devices because on iOS I’ll have to re-set up apple pay etc etc.

Where does the PLIST live on my Mac And I’ll delete that.

PS I am onlatest iOS and MacOS

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Answer 14

Nov 23, 2017 11:37 AM in response to mkpub

WOW! Thank you.

That seems to have fixed it. So now I have 2 iOS and 3 MacOS devices synching keyboard shortcuts correctly fot the first time in 2 years!

I hope they also add offline safari reading list to CloudKit because that has been broken for the same amount of time!

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Answer 15

Nov 23, 2017 1:19 PM in response to mkpub

Strange, I am unable to locate that file on my machine at all? Maybe that's the issue?

I've tried spotlight, I've tried Macintosh HD>Library>preferences or via Mac HD>System>Library>preferences.

Any clue why the file would be missing for me and does it matter?

I am a little concerned about signing out of iCloud on my Mac in connection with my photos and other files.

Having said that my photos and videos in iCloud match 100% those in my photos app on my Mac.

Will everything re-appear when I log back in.

Any suggestions on how to proceed. No urgent answer is need I'm in the UK and I won't be tackling this so late at night in case of any major issues. Enjoy your thanksgiving evening.

Best, Michael

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