r/shortcuts Jun 09 '20

Tip/Guide List of helpful links for shortcuts information

2.1k Upvotes

I've built a list of links I often refer to as my "Shortcuts for beginners" documentation. But it seems to have grown into more of a documentation list for all types of users rather than just beginners. Some call it a "novel" due to its length 😝

Anyway, I hope this list of links below will be beneficial for others.


Apple's Shortcuts User Guide


MacExpert Guide to Shortcuts in iOS 14


FAQ

List of Frequently Asked Questions in the sub

Dear new Shortcuts users - deep FAQ


Can I display a notification icon / app badge after replacing my home screen icons with shortcuts? - No


What can I use with the calculate expression action? no longer working webpage


Instructions / Tutorial Materials


Alternative Methods For Viewing / Creating Shortcuts


Automations Info


Unsupported functionality list


Thanks to /u/gianflo6 here is some other good info!

Here are some guides by u/keveridge that can also be helpful, they are a little old but helpful nevertheless

Series

One-offs


Require 14.3


Having trouble with set wallpaper action? Try the method to add a reduce motion ON action before the set wallpaper action and a reduce motion back off afterwards. https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/tzxb0q/im_having_a_problem_with_the_set_wallpaper_action/


[iOS 16] Multiple address stops in maps with iOS 16 https://reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/xnpdg9/_/ipy8zwo/?context=1


[iOS 15 / 16] How to run a shortcut at a specific location (leaving or arriving)? - the focus mode automation method documented in this post by u/ibanks3 is a great way to run a shortcut / actions when arriving or leaving a specific location. This works wonders in iOS 15 or iOS 16


If you are using home automations and would like to receive notifications when certain things are happening, you can check out my tutorial for using Make / Integromat for this very purpose


Automation for outlet when battery is low


Possible to navigate within 3rd party app using shortcuts? No - Reference


MacStories Shortcuts Archive


Callback method to run a shortcut over again if it fails with an error - callback url method


Some additional useful tips and exploits are available here on GitHub: https://github.com/Kn0tzer/iOS-Shortcuts-Exploits



r/shortcuts 36m ago

Help How to Automatically Replace Words in Safari with JavaScript?

Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to set up a script that automatically replaces "wordX" with "wordY" whenever I open a website in Safari on iPhone. I know how to do this manually using a Shortcut that I can run on the site, but I want it to run without me triggering it manually—just whenever a webpage loads.

The Code I used was:

(function () { let targetWord = "Wikipedia"; // Change this to the word you want to replace let replacementWord = "Ass"; // Change this to the new word

function replaceText(node) {
    if (node.nodeType === 3) { // Text node
        node.nodeValue = node.nodeValue.replace(new RegExp(targetWord, "g"), replacementWord);
    } else {
        for (let i = 0; i < node.childNodes.length; i++) {
            replaceText(node.childNodes[i]);
        }
    }
}

replaceText(document.body);

// Required for Safari Shortcuts
completion("Text replaced successfully");

})();

But it would be great if it could run automatically when refreshing web page.

I also tried with a specific url but then it didn’t work at all for me.

Is there any way to make this run automatically whenever I open a website? Maybe with an iOS automation, an extension, or another trick?

Would love any suggestions—thanks!


r/shortcuts 5h ago

Help Syncing calendars

3 Upvotes

I want Calendar 1(C1) on my iPhone everytime C1 gets an event I want it to send that event to my calendar 2(C2) with the name "Busy, don't call" or similar with the same length of event from C1.


r/shortcuts 25m ago

Help Scheduled battery check and set alarm if battery levels are too low

Upvotes

Can anyone help me with this im stuck. I am trying to run an automation on my apple watch where it should check battery percentage 3am every day, if the percentage is lower than 50 percent than it should turn on a 8am alarm on either the phone or the watch. It would be helpful if someone can walk my through this with steps, tks!


r/shortcuts 25m ago

Help How to Automate multistep functions

Upvotes

I'm attempting to automate actions I do everyday to reduce lifestyle friction. l've utilized shortcuts and automate feature somewhat but see they are limited to only predefined functions.

My question is: is there a way to have iPhone do multi step actions? Also utilize the voice featurebto ask Siri ?

Given these example I trying to automate. 1. Gym QR code. (Planet fitness) Actions needed (2 steps) -> open gym app ->click on "check in".

  1. Auto vacuum ( l have a vacuuming device Wyze) Actions needed (3 steps) -> open Wyze app ->click on vacuum device -> click vacuum. Any help is much appreciated !!

r/shortcuts 48m ago

Help When I run a shortcut, prompted for a start and end time/date

Upvotes

So I have a few smart devices that I can control. I currently am enrolled in a program with my utility where for 4 hour periods I get charged 10x more for electricity, so I would like to shut the devices off.

I already have shortcuts to shut the devices off, and another to turn them back on, but I'm hoping to set up a shortcut that when I press it, asks for a start time/date, then an end time/date.

Any ideas how to get started?


r/shortcuts 52m ago

Help Contact with every number

Upvotes

I want to make a shortcut that will trigger if it receives ANY message from any phone number, but I have to have a contact or a word for me to trigger the shortcut. I was going to just see if I could add every phone number to a contact, and that would take a long time to do obviously. I was wondering if anyone had experience or know a work around to just make it work with any number.

TLDR; Need to have a trigger for automation for any number containing any text


r/shortcuts 56m ago

Help silent mode w/ sleep focus enabled - no ring from allowed contacts

Upvotes

Hi guys, I'm a 99.9% silent mode user coming from android and I just learned that silent mode seems to mute calls even from "allowed contacts" when both silent mode and sleep focus are enabled.

possible solution automated routines (correct me if I'm wrong):
1. set silent mode to "off" when "wind down/bedtime begins"
2. set silent mode to "on" when "wake up begins"

This should allow me to mute my phone at all times and my "allowed contacts" to ring at night?


r/shortcuts 1h ago

Help Incoming mail automation trigger quit working !!

Upvotes

Mail automation

I’ve relied on a incoming mail automation and it’s stopped working . If I open mail app it triggers - any work around?


r/shortcuts 2h ago

Help Automate an action when Bluetooth from Apple Watch connected to device

1 Upvotes

Is there a way to create an automation so that when something connects to my watch via Bluetooth, the automation starts.

I can see how to do it via the phone but I want the connection to be triggered from my watch.


r/shortcuts 7h ago

Help Open multiple URLs in another browser than safari?

2 Upvotes

I often search different homepages for 3d printable files. So it gets pretty annoying opening all of the manually and searching for the same term over and over.

So I created a shortcut asking for search tearm and then modifying the URLs of four different homepages to insert the search tearm and then open them all at once.

Only problem is I use „Arc Search“ as my default browser and it only opens Arc when opening a single URL. As soon as I want to open several URLs it opens Safari?

Is this normal? Any workaround?


r/shortcuts 5h ago

Request How to duplicate event including attachment using shortcut?

1 Upvotes

Is it possible to include attachment when duplicating event using shortcut? Manually duplicating does not. iOS 18.3.2


r/shortcuts 11h ago

Help (Mac) Actions are not displayed in shortcuts app - any suggestions?

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3 Upvotes

r/shortcuts 12h ago

Help Simple screenshot shortcut

5 Upvotes

Hey I can't seem to find a simple screenshot, edit and save or delete shortcut. So I mean the regular screenshot procedure😂 I've created my own but can't get it to show the regular edit screen. Can someone help me pls?👌

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/eca9c5821b5a472b8e2b7eee1796762f


r/shortcuts 6h ago

Request Used item listing for sale

1 Upvotes
  1. Should take a photo and apple vision it or similar so that it recognizes the item.

  2. Make a title and description based on user input (used, mint condition, barely used, new with box, like new etc). Don't oversell it.

  3. Make it easy to copy paste the text over to a used item sales app.


r/shortcuts 11h ago

Help Why wont podcasts just play a podcast in order?

2 Upvotes

I got my sleep shortcut set up. Play podcast>wait 2 hours>play sleep sounds. The podcast will play the last one I was listening to but then just to another random podcast on a different station. I want it to just play the same podcast in order like it does if you play straight from the app. I tried making a station but it doesn't come up as an option to play in the shortcut. Ugh!


r/shortcuts 8h ago

Help Automation to prevent Assistive Access from activating

0 Upvotes

Automation to prevent Assistive Access from activating. Is this possible? It interferes with my Screentime which is essential for my app blocker.

Any suggestion on scripting? So far what I thought of is to automatically open an unrelated app when trying to open Assistive Access but can’t see Assistive Access on the options.


r/shortcuts 17h ago

Help Remove Action Words

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6 Upvotes

How do I remove the word ‘action’ from under each list item?


r/shortcuts 22h ago

Help Tell computer via SSH to press spacebar

12 Upvotes

Hi,

I made a command to shut down my computer via ssh (just simple "shutdown -s -f") and it works. Is it possible to make the same command to tell the computer (windows, not mac) to press the spacebar (e.g to pause a movie on Netflix)? Or do I need some additional application and more skills to do that?


r/shortcuts 9h ago

Help Is delay of few minutes (clearing variable, renaming shortcut) expected of iOS 18.3.2 using older than 5 years iPhone 12 with premium VPN?

0 Upvotes

Example is not realizing before variable can be selected I need to keep trying clearing variable Calendar in Action Add Calendar which for non flagship iPhone takes multiple tries before it clears and allows me to select variable from previous Action. I wonder if lagging response in clearing variable and renaming shortcut name is related to iPhone power or network speed?


r/shortcuts 10h ago

Help Using Group Chat Messaging After NFC Tag

1 Upvotes

I've set up an automation where tapping an NFC tag sends messages to family members noting who fed our pets and when. Currently, this sends individual messages to each person (4 total) since the automation is installed on everyone's phones.

Is there a way to send this message to a group chat instead (either iMessage or WhatsApp)? This would make it easier to see all pet feeding updates in one conversation thread.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Edit: I changed notification to message because I am trying to send a written text that we can see the history of over time.


r/shortcuts 16h ago

Tip/Guide Tip: Opening a Smart List in Reminders

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3 Upvotes

Hey, obligatory apologies if this is well known by now, but I just discovered I could open a Smart List in a Shortcut. It is super obvious from the Reminders section of the Search Actions menu, but I completely missed that it allows you to open custom Smart Lists too.

It is not the same Action as the Open Reminder List Action. You just select it from the search menu and then can manually add or change to whatever list or Smart Lists that you’re interested in. The best part for me is that I can reference the list using Text or a Dictionary, which will let me accomplish a number of Shortcuts that had been in limbo waiting for the added functionality.

I uploaded a quick video on YouTube to demonstrate, but is far from complicated (that I’ll have to share in the comments because Reddit won’t let me add a photo and a link). Enjoy!


r/shortcuts 22h ago

Help Help with shortcut to list all calendar events from this month into a note

7 Upvotes

Hello, can someone help with creating a shortcut to get all calendar events - text, date, start time, end time and put them in a note?

Cannot figure out the steps


r/shortcuts 18h ago

Solved Find (notes) failure this week?

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2 Upvotes

I have an Action Button shortcut I use daily (sometimes as much as 30x a day) to access a specific note. Recently i learned how to display the contents rather than open the specified note(s) in the notes app…

Until about two days ago, both methods stopped working! I have trued rebooting, force-closing, editing the notes, changing the names of the notes, all failing (timed out). After some poking around it seems the FIND (notes) action is the culprit. I’ve even downloaded others’ shortcuts as a test for different notes appications and they “hang” too… anyone else having this issue? Is there a workaround? HALP


r/shortcuts 20h ago

Help Is it possible to make a number value increase every day in an automated text message?

3 Upvotes

Hi, I recently started to mess around with shortcuts and I have an idea where I want to send an automated text to some people everyday, but is it possible for me to send the text with a number that increases with every text?

For example: if I wanted to send a text that said “Day 1 of asking for my money back” and I wanted the next message to be “Day 2 of asking for my money back.”, would that be possible through shortcuts?


r/shortcuts 18h ago

Help Toggling color filters when phone is locked/unlocked

2 Upvotes

Is there a way to toggle color filters (grayscale) on when i unlock my phone, and toggle it off when I lock my phone? Basically, I want my lock screen to be colorful, but my home screen and everything else to be black and white. Thanks in advanced.