Shortcuts

Morning y’all,

I have a shortcut that I use regularly at work, and it has saved me so much time however, it appears the latest iPadOS update possibly broke file renaming.

The script runs fine until it reaches the renaming portion which used to work perfectly but now claims that “The file does not exist” and ends the script, I can confirm the files are being saved in the directories as intended just failing on the renaming.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9ecef7e31dc14a3fa9590da6edaef061

By chance does anyone know a workaround that I could use temporarily? Apologies if the shortcut is a mess, I tried to comment along the way as best as I can.

Edit; appears the network drive is the issue here, saving the files locally on the tablet instead seems to work as intended, weird.

I created this shortcut after seeing a Reddit post a few months ago.

It collects information like the current weather, location, and time of day, then asks Apple Intelligence to generate a prompt for an image generator. The shortcut sends that prompt to Apple Playground and sets the resulting image as the iPhone wallpaper*. Everything runs locally on the iPhone, with no data sent to the internet. I also set up some time-based automations to run the shortcut periodically.

(Original Reddit post: https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/shortcuts/comments/1oeuqna/dynamic_abstract_wallpaper_shortcut_apple/)

• you might need to manually configure the last step where it says Wallpaper 3 to something that is valid on your iPhone

Helloo, so I want to create a shortcut which brings me to the Whatsapp preferences in the settings App. For that, I need the Bundle ID which i found out to be “net.whatsapp.Whatsapp” via Method 1 of this guide. I created a “Open Url” shortcut using the “Settings For App” URL of this list, and this is the result: prefs:root=net.whatsapp.Whatsapp But it doesn’t work, it just sends me to the settings App wherever I left it. Anybody know what I’m doing wrong?:O

Essentially the folder structure is as such:

└── Jobs/
    ├── 33000-33099/
    │   └── 33024/
    │       └── Job-Contents
    │   └── 33046/
    │       └── Job-Contents
    │   └── 33083/
    │       └── Job-Contents
    ├── 33100-33199/
    │   └── 33174/
    │       └── Job-Contents
    └── 33200-33299/
        └── 33274/
            └── Job-Contents

On desktop we use a batch script to quickly search jobs however, I’m starting to make use of our companies iPads (since no one else does) to perform my tasks, I tried making up a script with shortcuts to search these directories for the job but it doesn’t seem to work with a wildcard sub-directory.

Any ideas are appreciated, I can’t install Scribtable on this iPad as the COO hasn’t fully set them up and it’s asking for a password for any installations.

Edit; the Batch script we use, hopefully explains it better than I did.

@echo off
cls

setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion

:UserInput
set /p UserInput=Enter job number: 

REM Validate the input

REM Check if the input has exactly 5 characters
if not "!UserInput:~5!"=="" (
    echo Please enter a 5-digit number.
    color 0E
    goto UserInput
)

REM Check if the input contains only numeric characters
for /F "delims=0123456789" %%a in ("!UserInput!") do (
    echo Please enter a 5-digit number.
    color 0E
    goto UserInput
)

REM Check if the folder exists - Update 2025-07-24 Clears shell and text colour remains white after repeat.
set "Folder=N:\Drawings\Jobs\!UserInput:~0,3!00-!UserInput:~0,3!99\!UserInput!-*"
if not exist "!Folder!" (
    echo Job folder does not exist.
    color 0C
    timeout /t 2 >nul
    cls
    color 0F
    goto UserInput
)

REM Rest of the script - Update 2025-07-24 Script no longer automatially closes, instead repeats from the start. Also clears shell and text colour remains white after repeat.

for /D %%a in ("!Folder!") do (
    %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe "%%~a"
    echo Job folder found successfully.
    color 0A
    timeout /t 2 >nul
    cls
    color 0F
    goto UserInput
)

:end

I can't do a demo or I will doxx myself.

Edit: Somehow this has sorted itself out despite me not changing anything.

Hopefully this is the right community for this as it’s definitely to do with a Siri shortcut setup… I’ll preface this by saying that I am not the best with stuff like this but I am so confused as to how it stopped working.

I set up a shortcut to add to a notion database a few weeks ago (to track exercise/playtime for my puppy) in an attempt to make tracking a bit easier. It took me a while to set up as I’ve not got any experience with any coding language, but I got it working! Until yesterday, when I started to get an Invalid Request URL error when trying to submit a new entry.

Notion API connection looks okay when I check that in Notion.

Here is what I’m submitting:

• URL (Notion API URL) https://api.notion.com/v1/pages/
• Checked authorisation today (secret API key matches what Notion says)
• database ID is fine (checked again today, this is set up under ‘parent’ in the below screenshot)
• no structural changes to the database since this was set ip
• Notion API version hasn’t changed

I really don’t understand how I am suddenly getting this error after the shortcut working fine for a few weeks with tens of entries made!! Any ideas are welcome 😊

I often get flight or concert tickets that don't come as Wallet entries, but I wan't to treat them in the same way: 1. Easy Access (e.g., not searching back through emails or logging in to a service); 2. Not dependant on internet/phone connectivity (especially in airports!)

I now have a pair of shortcuts that more-or-less achieve this. In operation, I just open my iPhone, tap an app icon (shortcut to 'LocalFileOpener').

How it works:

'→ Local iPhone' Appears in the Share Menu and saves a file locally on my iPhone (i.e., I don't need an internet/phone connection to access it as I would with iCloud storage).

'LocalFileOpener' Just opens the local iPhone folder.

Unclear to me if this is or isn't old news—that I was just bad at searching for—but I wanted to let more[^1] people know regardless:

Context: I have set up safari to always open to specific tab groups on phone and iPad, to avoid losing tabs on inadvertent close and to ease pickup from Mac.

This is the safari that lives in my dock, but a large irritation was that on iPad it only worked to open safari fullscreen now (vs a drag onto screen split). So I was still having to go looking in the app switcher or use Spotlight (which I have on AssistiveTouch double tap) to find “real” safari

but I figured it out (ish*)

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/02f75ac8f5b143049fb3420911191c2e

*caveats:

1. the split is actually with a generic new safari window rather than one with my desired tab group … but I’ll take it over nothing
2. it may behoove one to filter out the Shortcuts app explicitly rather than presume first is correct. It seems to list windows in opening order? I have only once so far (which isn't zero times) ended up with a shortcuts/safari split closing something

It’d be fairly straightforward to add a branch for a 3 app count (if you pulled up to slide over on top of a split) and use open app as slideover there. I don’t do that much tho so haven’t bothered

It’s irritating that the type App drop down gives windows as an option but always returns an empty list (except on macOS), and “is frontmost” is there but it’s always false. So I’m not sure there’s a better detect than count without going to screenshot and quick image analysis ?

(Incidentally doing “view content graph” on a current app or visible apps appears to always freeze shortcuts - I have to lock and unlock to exit it)

If anyone has ideas about where to pull a split v slide over detection from lmk ; left v right detection would also be nice. Don’t think they are possible tho

[^1]: I couldn't find such previously shown on /r/shortcuts, but when I tried sharing there its been spuriously automoded as mis-flaired question )for 3 hours & counting (beyond second attempt + modmail). Thats why above is quoted (although I added in alt text and title that cam from when:)

I posted it on masto and bsky where I have few followers let alone ones who are likely interested, but also - I saw the `shortcuts@lemmy.world` federation when I was checking what hashtags might get it seen by someone - so welcome to my first lemmy post 

(I'd had an account on lemmy.ml since January 2022, but I've barely lurked let alone posed from there)

Download

Has to run in the app once for the setup, the timer shows how long it’s been since the last refresh.

It only uses scriptable, no shortcuts, but I guess that’s close enough.

Hello,

I am trying to create a shortcut to use the TubeArchivist api to archive YouTube videos. I've tried to send the request as text but it doesn't work because it expects an array I guess? I've gotten the request to work using CURL on the command line but when I try to add a value to an array in shortcuts the field is locked and won't accept any input.

I've done some searching across the wider internet for how to construct arrays in shortcuts but no matter what I attempt that field is always locked. Can it not accept any inputs? Confused how to actually put my structured data into it.

The URL that comes before it is the local host and port of the TubeArchivist server API endpoint.

This Siri Shortcut, Open URL in Private Tab (Safari iOS), Opens a URL from Share Sheet or Clipboard in Private Safari Tab

Using this method can improve your chances of maintaining your privacy on your iPhone.

Seeking your feedback! My first shortcut on RoutineHub

Credit to unknown original author of an Open URL in Safari Shortcut

Download Shortcut

Does this exist?

I would love to activate an iOS shortcut that instantly begins dictation, allows me to tap to stop dictation, and then pastes the transcript into a specified text field. For an added benefit, it would be great to view the live transcript to help maintain my train of thought.

I would like it to use the best available free offline transcription software (e.g. OpenAI Whisper) as well.

Inspirations include:

• Whisper shortcut by Giacomo Melzi - online, very inexpensive, but not offline/live. Requires OpenAI API key ($0.006 / minute, thirty-six cents an hour)

• Ecco Dictate app - offline (private!), but not live nor able to be opened and autostart via shortcut

(Here I’ll mention… If you have never used dictation beyond Apple’s built-in offering, it may be hard for you to imagine just how much you are missing 🙂 If Apple doesn’t catch up by iOS 18 I will send them such a firm yet polite piece of feedback!)

Note: Because my ideal solution is all but guaranteed to require an app and not just a shortcut, I’m mainly wondering if there is an app that supports shortcuts as described. Planning to reach out to the author of Ecco Dictate, perhaps after checking with you friendly folks.

Thank you!

UPDATE:

Near perfection found.

Free offline OpenAI Whisper transcription to clipboard for easy pasting in any app!

Aiko (link is to the shortcuts the developer provides)

(Apparently if you’re not on iOS 17.5 you need to use a workaround when launching these shortcuts using Siri by voice… Have to add Dismiss Siri And Continue + Open App action and have it Open Shortcuts.)

All that’s missing is live transcription, which is available with online/paid transcription apps but no offline apps I’ve found on iOS. (MacWhisper does feature live offline transcription in any field, but only on Mac for $30+.)

Is there a way to know which app triggered the shortcut call?

For instance, if I share files from the Files app, I could reference something to see “Files” or “iCloud Drive”. When it’s Mail, I’d see “Mail”. Etc.

I am trying to have one universal shortcut for file input but I need to specialize some actions depending on the app that provided the files.

I checked “Shortcut Input” but there aren’t a lot of choices to evaluate. “File Path” is inconsistent in what it will show: executing from the Shortcuts app and picking a file will shows “iCloudDrive/FolderName/Filename.ext” but sharing from the Files app will just show the filename.ext. Sharing from Mail shows the file content.

I found this nifty shortcut to backup all shortcuts. You can set it to an automation and do a rolling limited number of backups on a set schedule, like 10 zip files max, backed up weekly.

There’s a problem though. There’s an error on the Make Archive step.

I stripped the shortcut down to Get All Shortcuts, Make .zip of My Shortcuts. The error persists.

I’m not sure why it’s not working unless this is an existing Shortcuts bug at the moment.

Anyone know?

Anyone know how to tag an Apple Note with multiple tags?

I can create the note, append to it, and tag it with a variable or straight text but I cannot figure how to add multiple tags.

I tried a list, dictionary values, comma separated, new lines. I even tried looping over Add Tag action with a single tag but everything results in an error on trying to tag multiple times to the note.

Let me know if you’ve figured it out!

I made a shortcut that will tell me how many minutes i plyed the game and how much battery i spent for that playing sesion. Its wery usefull to me, so if someone is interested i can share it. I still dont know how to do it but i can find out if someone wants it.

Hii to all, im glad that comunity for this exists on lemmy, because thats just what i was searching for..

Question is: I want shortcut to recognise what app im curently using and to write down apps name, so i can make list of apps that are used in las hower for example.. Is there a way that shortcut can do something like that..? 🤔

When you copy the URL for sharing in YouTube, it adds a query parameter now, so=blah, for tracking the source. This removes that. It could of course be smarter and stop at either the end or the next parameter, but since I haven’t seen any extras, I just remove everything after.

Just wanted to remind the Lemmy community that you can enable and disable portrait mode on a per app basis so you don’t need to manually do it and open the control center each time.

MacRumors has a guide for those interested in doing this: Link

I created this Shortcut to address a long-present and costly need of my own: interlinked, visible task management per single files of all types. It has begun to assist me in slowing the accumulation of redundant/duplicate/forgotten/lost files across all of my various file systems.

Out of the box, this version requires Toolbox Pro for its whole function.

Video Demo

• HardLimit
• YouTube (Shorts)
• Imgur

Shown are two methods:

1. Running the Shortcut independently (which will show a file picker.)
2. Running the Shortcut from the Share Sheet.

Setup Steps

1. Choose native Apple Files tag(s) to attach to the input file. (Optional)
2. Customize behavior of the Change Case Action. (Optional)
3. Customize the output format of the File Size detail. (Optional)
4. Choose a List in Apple Reminders in which to add the Reminder result. (Optional)
5. Choose whether or not the Reminder result will include an Alert. (Required)
6. Choose the priority of the Reminder result. (Optional)
7. Choose whether or not the Reminder result will be flagged. (Required)
8. Choose tags (in Apple Reminders) to attach to the Reminder result. (Optional)

Yeah I know, this might be taking things too far. But I got tired of typing the same variations over and over, so I decided to generate it from a few custom snippets.

You can use this optional shortcut together with Pushcut to get a notification when it’s someone’s birthday. You can set it up to generate the message when tapping on the Pushcut notification.

———

It currently works with WhatsApp or messages. It generates a message with three parts:

• "Happy birthday" (randomly selects a variation of it, you can customize these)
• "Tanja" (chooses the first name or nickname if you have one set for the contact)
• "🎂🤗" (also customizable ending, chooses randomly)

So the message here would be: "Happy birthday Tanja 🎂🤗". It will then open the chat app you picked and pre-fill the message. It’s not sending the message automatically.

The contents of "What's new in Shortcuts for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14, and watchOS 10," reformatted with care applied.

New Actions

• Transcribe Audio generates text from an audio file
• Delete Alarms removes specified alarms from Clock
• Edit Sleep Alarm skips the next sleep alarm, or reactivates a skipped sleep alarm
• Open Camera opens the Camera app into a specific capture mode, such as "Selfie"
• Open Collection navigates to a specific section of the Photos app, such as "Places"
• Show Passwords navigates to Passwords in Settings on iOS and System Settings on macOS
• End Workout completes your current workout session on iOS and watchOS
• Scan Document captures an image and saves it to the Files app on iOS
• Get Current Timer, Pause Timer, Resume Timer, and Cancel Timer are now supported on iOS
• Start Stopwatch, Lap Stopwatch, Stop the Stopwatch, and Reset Stopwatch are now supported on iOS
• Set Hotspot Password and Get Hotspot Password are now supported on iOS
• Toggle Cellular Plan, Set Default Line, Set Data Roaming, Find Cellular Plan, and Reset Cellular Data Statistics are now supported on iOS
• Start Time Machine Backup starts or stops b1acking up your data with Time Machine on macOS
• Move Window, Resize Window, Find Windows, Find Displays, and Find Apps are now supported on macOS

⠀

Updated Actions

• Set Timer can now start a new timer even if there's already one running
• Find Alarm now replaces Get All Alarms, retrieving all alarms or only those which match filter criteria
• Set Volume can now adjust either the Media volume or the Ringtone volume
• Health Samples now support more data types, like sleep, mood, and appetite changes
• Event Attendees for Calendar now include a Type attribute, to distinguish people, groups, and rooms
• Get Network Details now includes more options, such as channel number, hardware MAC address, and rate information
• Take Photo is now more reliable when taking multiple photos in a row

⠀

New Personal Automations

• Transaction automations can run when a Wallet transaction is made on iOS and watchOS
• Stage Manager automations can run when Stage Manager is turned on or off on iPadOS
• Display automations can run when an external display is connected or disconnected on iPadOS

I’ve done it from scratch now, here it is: download. I’ve split it into two shortcuts, one takes a dictionary with the post info and makes a post. That one can be used for anything.

I also created a second shortcut to grab the title, url, and optionally generate a TL;DR via ChatGPT from any website. You can find it here.

I’d appreciate it if someone could try it out and let me know if everything works as it should :)