I use an M1 Mac mini as a home server. The Shortcuts app on this Mac (running latest OS) Is running incredibly slowly, both in editing mode, where typing Is rendering one character at a time about two seconds apart and scripts that would normally take five seconds to run are taking about two minutes. It’s unusable. I was hoping that a OS point fix might make a difference, but the problem remains. Googling around, this doesn’t seem like a widespread problem.
looking at activity monitor, whenever it’s running the shortcuts app is using all of the CPU resources but there is plenty of memory left.
Anyone have any ideas how to fix? I have a lot of other stuff on the server, so I’m reluctant to do a nuke and pave and reinstall the entire operating system, but I can’t find a way to delete the Shortcuts app and reinstall that without doing a full clean OS restore.
Any ideas or previous experience with this issue?
PS – I have two other macs running the same OS with the same shortcuts library and they are running fine.
It was working fine for 18 months, running many shortcuts remotely with no issues.
The bug surfaced in Ventura whilst I can’t be sure that it was directly correlated with the upgrade to Ventura, it might have been.
It feels like the shortcuts app needs a clean install, it’s obviously looping hard on something it can’t resolve in the background, but I don’t know a way to this without a complete clean OS install.
If it was the OS install that triggered it, and you are back on Ventura, the chance of a point release resolving it is very low. A nuke and pave probably does offer you the best chance of resolution while remaining on Ventura.
It is worth doing the usual things like running a disk utility check, etc. first, but it sounds like your issue is targeting only Shortcuts rather than a broader disk issue, etc.
Did you ever find a fix for this? I’m having the exact same issue on my M1 iMac. I’ve spent days trying to find anyone with the same issue and you are describing exactly what I’m experiencing.
Sadly not. The issue remains the same on a M1 Mac mini, 8 Gb base configuration, running the latest version of Sonoma.
As this machine acts as a home server for me, I decided not to do a complete rebuild of the operating system and have used keyboard Maestro to substitute for shortcuts to allow the machine to keep running.
The other reason I haven’t pushed it is because shortcuts on the Mac is such a car crash at the moment, I don’t feel that it can be relied on to do anything, particularly if you’re not monitoring it in real time.
I’m now just keeping my fingers crossed that an upgrade to the next version of Mac OS in September might fix the issue. Do let me know if you find any solution. Similarly, I will post here if I do .
Edit: Found a fix!!! Delete the entire database. I deleted everything that’s listed when selecting the shortcuts app in Cleanmymac. Before doing this though (I’m not sure it matters but I did it anyway) I disabled iCloud sync of shortcuts on all my devices.
Then I made a backup of the Shortcuts folder where the database is.
Then I deleted the entire folder
Restarted my Mac
Enabled iCloud sync on one of my devices just to test if everything is still there (it was). I did it on my iPad as most of my automations are on my iPhone so it felt safer.
Then I enabled sync on my Mac and all shortcuts came back.
Best of all the shortcuts app is free from beach balls, I can search again and doesn’t crash
I have fixed this issue using the same process. Turn off iCloud syncing in shortcuts app settings. Delete the contents of folder found at : ~/Library/shortcuts, restart Mac, run shortcuts, turn back on iCloud sync. Now is working as normal.
Just wanted to add that this doesn’t appear to be a permanent fix. Noticed the app had slowed way down again, deleted the files and it’s back to working as expected. Hoping Apple releases a fix someday
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