Text replacements stopped working after a macOS update: what to check

The short answer

Start with the cheapest checks. Make sure Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement is ticked in the app you're typing in. Then add a throwaway text replacement in System Settings and delete it again, which several people report brings the rest back. If your list is empty after the update, stop and recover it from another device or a backup before you change anything else, because iCloud can sync the loss.

1. Is your list still there?

Open System Settings > Keyboard and click Text Replacements. Apple's guide to text replacements shows this path.

If your entries are there, skip to step 2. If the list is empty or much shorter than it should be, read this first.

In March 2026 a Mac user on the Apple Community reported that thousands of text replacements vanished after a macOS update. They also disappeared from his iPhone and iPad, which he put down to iCloud syncing. Nobody in the thread found out why. He got them back by restoring a full clone backup. Another poster in that thread had a different fix. He exported the list from a second Mac and imported it on the first.

So if you have another Mac with the full list, export it there right away. Apple explains how to export and import text replacements: select them in the Text Replacements window, drag them to the desktop to create property list.plist, then drag that file into the window on the other Mac. Our backup guide covers this in detail, including a known problem with large imports.

2. Check the per-app toggle

This is the most common cause, and nobody seems to know exactly what switches it off. In the app where shortcuts fail:

1. Click into a text field.
2. Open Edit > Substitutions.
3. Make sure Text Replacement has a checkmark. If it does, click it twice to switch it off and on.

Adam Engst at TidBITS found the toggle switched off in two apps without knowing how, and wrote that choosing it again made "text replacements will start working again." CreativeTechs gave the same advice in January 2025.

If the app has no Substitutions menu at all, it doesn't support the feature, and no update will change that. Apple notes that text replacements "aren't available in all apps." Word and Outlook have their own story. See our guides for Word and Outlook.

3. Add a throwaway replacement, then delete it

This sounds like superstition, but it's the fix that comes up most often.

1. Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements.
2. Click + and add something like zzq replaced by test.
3. Test it in TextEdit.
4. Delete it.

An Apple Community poster found that this brought his existing replacements back, and another user confirmed it worked for them. Guiding Tech says users report that it "generally fixes the issue."

4. Restart the app, then the Mac

Quit the app with Cmd+Q rather than closing its window, and open it again. If that doesn't help, restart the Mac. In the TidBITS thread, a restart fixed both FileMaker and Safari for one reader.

5. Check for a mismatch in the database

This step is for people comfortable with Terminal. On recent macOS versions, text replacements live in a SQLite database at ~/Library/KeyboardServices/TextReplacements.db. I checked the path and table on macOS 26.6. An Apple Community poster on Ventura found that some shortcuts failed and the exported file didn't match this database. He also said changes he made directly to the database only took effect after a reboot.

You can count the live entries without changing anything:

sqlite3 -readonly ~/Library/KeyboardServices/TextReplacements.db "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ZTEXTREPLACEMENTENTRY WHERE ZWASDELETED = 0;"

If that number is much larger than what System Settings shows, the data is probably still on disk and the settings window isn't showing all of it. I wouldn't edit the database by hand. Apple doesn't document it, and the table has columns for iCloud sync state, so a hand edit could spread to your other devices. Use it to find out what you still have, then restore from a backup or another device.

6. Look at long entries

A 2019 AppleToolbox guide suggested checking for replacements longer than 128 characters, which it said may cause problems. I couldn't confirm that limit on current macOS, but if one long entry fails while short ones work, it's worth shortening it as a test.

7. Protect yourself before the next update

• Export your list before every major macOS update. It takes ten seconds.
• Keep that file outside iCloud as well, on an external drive or in another cloud service.
• If you rely on hundreds of snippets for work, consider moving them to a dedicated tool that stores its own copy. Espanso keeps snippets in plain YAML files you can back up yourself. Raycast and Typinator have their own snippet libraries and import tools.

Adam Engst reached a similar conclusion in May 2026, after the built-in import failed on larger lists. He wrote that the most reliable workaround is to stick with TextExpander, Typinator or TypeIt4Me.

Summary

1. Confirm the list still exists. If it's gone, recover it before anything syncs.
2. Toggle Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement in the app.
3. Add a throwaway replacement and delete it.
4. Restart the app, then the Mac.
5. Export a backup before the next update.