SHORTCUT: Identify iOS 14.5 Problematic Shortcuts • iPadOS 14.5 RC cannot write some shortcuts to the local iCloud Drive

Shortcuts
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2021-05-17 UPDATE: At least when tested with my long list of shortcuts, it appears that Apple has addressed this issue. Starting with iOS 14.6 beta 3 (18F5065a), I no longer see this bug. To confirm that your shortcuts are clean, try running Identify iOS 14.5 Problematic Shortcuts on your updated system. If you do not see an error, your set of shortcuts have been successfully written to iCloud.

This a heads up on a significant Shortcuts bug with iPadOS 14.5 RC.

I recently discovered that 17 of my 555 shortcuts in my Shortcuts App Library cannot be written to my iCloud Drive. This is a new bug that I first discovered with iPadOS 14.5 betas. Unfortunately the bug has not beeen resolved with iPadOS 14.5 Release Candidate (18E199).

I’ve created a shortcut named Identify iOS 14.5 Problematic Shortcuts that can be downloaded here.

Here’s the description:

This shortcut is used to attempt to write every shortcut in the Shortcuts App Library to an iCloud Drive folder. Due to an iPadOS 14.5 RC bug, when this is attempted for some shortcuts, the Shortcuts app generates an error: An error occurred in the destination for the data

From the error dialog, select OK and this shortcut will abort. When it does run it again; it will skip the problematic shortcut that caused the abort and continue saving shortcuts in the Shortcuts App Library until another problematic shortcut is encountered. Continue restarting this shortcut until it completes without an error dialog.

When Identify iOS 14.5 Problematic Shortcuts is used as described above, it creates three text files that can be used if needed.

  • Shortcuts • All in Library.txt

  • Shortcuts • Successfully Saved.txt

  • Shortcuts • Error Saving.txt

For example, My Safe Shortcuts is simple shortcut that includes logic to create a list of all shortcuts excluding the entries in Shortcuts • Error Saving.txt.

More About the iPadOS 14.5 RC Bug

As I mentioned above, during my troubleshooting I discovered 17 problematic shortcuts in my Shortcuts App Library. One common characteristic is that each contained one or more large dictionaries. I copied one of the shortcuts and stripped out other actions to create a small shortcut that can be used to reproduce the error: Problematic Shortcut - iOS 14.5.

I’ve reported this problem to Apple (FB9056625). Please consider doing the same if this bug is causing problems for you. Feel free to reference FB9056625.

FOOTNOTE: I’ve also posted this information in reddit (/shortcuts): SHORTCUT: Identify iOS 14.5 Problematic Shortcuts • iPadOS 14.5 RC cannot write some shortcuts to the local iCloud Drive : shortcuts

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There’s a 14.6 Beta… :slight_smile:

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This is kind of brilliant.

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@Martin_Packer, I just downloaded iPadOS 14.6 beta 1 (18F5046f) and there is no improvement with respect to this issue. I suspect that the same applies to iOS, but I have not confirmed because I don’t install beta versions on my iPhone.

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@tf2, thanks for the positive comment. I wish there was a better way to identify the problematic shortcuts, but it’s the best I could come up with.

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Incidentally, this iOS/iPadOS bug is likely the root cause of the current MFCDeck issue.

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This is the sort of thing that absolutely kills my desire to do more work on the iPad.

The iPad hardware is great.

iPad OS is just not.

14.5 may be the longest beta in the history of iOS yet this and other Shortcut bugs (see other thread either her or at MPU forum about wallpaper bug) make it clear that new bugs are being introduced even as old ones are being squashed.

Not to say that macOS is perfect, of course, but I just find the current state of iPadOS to be frustrating and disappointing.

As someone who is “all in” on Apple’s ecosystem, they’re doing so much now, but nothing seems to be going well.

1 Like
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@Tjluoma, yes it’s frustrating. I’m certainly not giving up my Mac anytime soon.

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UPDATE: I’ve used Shortcuts • Error Saving.txt (created by this shortcut) to adapt BART.

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Thank you. This is happening with my launch cuts helper sc on iPadPro

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2021-05-17 UPDATE: At least when tested with my long list of shortcuts, it appears that Apple has addressed this issue. Starting with iOS 14.6 beta 3 (18F5065a), I no longer see this bug. To confirm that your shortcuts are clean, try running Identify iOS 14.5 Problematic Shortcuts on your updated system. If you do not see an error, your set of shortcuts have been successfully written to iCloud.