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I thought it would be cool to get ideas from other users on how to leverage the power of shortcuts. Sometimes I have trouble thinking creatively and would love to hear ideas from others.

I’ll start with one I’m creating:

“Hey Siri - We’re all leaving now” (used when all the family is heading out for the day/night/weekend)
- turns off all living room and upstairs lights
- turns on couch lights (so it looks like someone is home)
- set all thermostats to “away mode

automation_2x.png


Credit: xckd.
 

Followed by the realization that Apple has now created an automation for just the use case you quoted (to be fair, that use case … everyone leaving the house…was not available as an automation in 2018…because automations were not a thing then).
 
Followed by the realization that Apple has now created an automation for just the use case you quoted (to be fair, that use case … everyone leaving the house…was not available as an automation in 2018…because automations were not a thing then).
... hence the “ongoing development” is now at Apple’s roster and amortized through many of its users.
 
Is anyone having issues with Sortcuts lately? I’m getting messages like, uh oh something went wrong, or the app hasn’t implemented support for this, etc. Most of the time my shortcuts complete successfully, yet still report these errors.
 
Is anyone having issues with Sortcuts lately? I’m getting messages like, uh oh something went wrong, or the app hasn’t implemented support for this, etc. Most of the time my shortcuts complete successfully, yet still report these errors.

Something went haywire with Shortcuts last week and any that were shared via iCloud got deleted and then restored. Were the Shortcuts you are having issues with downloaded from elsewhere? It may be if that is the case that they were somehow corrupted during the delete/restore. I will call that the Shortcuts Snap

It also may be that Apple did something with the underpinnings of Shortcuts, which caused both the Shortcuts Snap and your issues.
 
Something went haywire with Shortcuts last week and any that were shared via iCloud got deleted and then restored. Were the Shortcuts you are having issues with downloaded from elsewhere? It may be if that is the case that they were somehow corrupted during the delete/restore. I will call that the Shortcuts Snap

It also may be that Apple did something with the underpinnings of Shortcuts, which caused both the Shortcuts Snap and your issues.
No, none of my shortcuts are downloaded but rather created locally on device. I just wish Apple could iron our Siri Shortcuts. When they work, they’re incredibly useful, however it’s a roll if the dice as to wether they will work or not - at least for me. Additionally, I launch must of my shortcuts using my HomePod and this seems to add an additional failure point…
 
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No, none of my shortcuts are downloaded but rather created locally on device. I just wish Apple could iron our Siri Shortcuts. When they work, they’re incredibly useful, however it’s a roll if the dice as to wether they will work or not - at least for me. Additionally, I launch must of my shortcuts using my HomePod and this seems to add an additional failure point…

One of my pet peeves are that the shortcuts take too long to get triggered if you set it up based on locations. And more of than not, they flat out don’t get triggered at all.
 
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One of my pet peeves are that the shortcuts take too long to get triggered if you set it up based on locations. And more of than not, they flat out don’t get triggered at all.
Sadly, shortcuts seems to be a hobby for Apple which is why I believe we‘re not seeing a priority to fix these ongoing issues. Coupled with the fact that people who actually use shortcuts represents a small microcosm of the user base, I don’t expect things to improve significantly going forward. I really hope I’m wrong as I love shortcuts and use them extensively…
 
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Can anyone help me make a shortcut that opens Garage Band with my presettings? I find it incredibely annoying that I have to configure the settings every single time I create a new project.
Create a 'template' with your presets. *If GB doesn't save Templates, create a blank file/project with all your presets, save and name accordingly.

you can open that templat/saved file manually or create a shortcut to open it.
 
Im trying to create a REVERSE of the ['if wifi joins a network', turn Airplane Mode ON] I can't seem to write a script that will passively trigger: ['if wifi has no value', turn Airplane Mode OFF]

IF actions work but I still need to manually 'run' the shortcut. (Ironically I might as well then skip shortcuts and just access Airplane mode from the control center)
Location based actions don't work for this scenario (triggering distance too long)

Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Is this scripting logic possible?
Can a shortcut 'run' notification request be automated to activate passively?
 
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Im trying to create a REVERSE of the ['if wifi joins a network', turn Airplane Mode ON] I can't seem to write a script that will passively trigger: ['if wifi has no value', turn Airplane Mode OFF]

IF actions work but I still need to manually 'run' the shortcut. (Ironically I might as well then skip shortcuts and just access Airplane mode from the control center)
Location based actions don't work for this scenario (triggering distance too long)

Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Is this scripting logic possible?
Can a shortcut 'run' notification request be automated to activate passively?
Not possible to do that as far as I know.

I never got on with the first type let alone the reverse. Using two access points with same SSID at home and my phone switches between the two a few times a day and I get a notification each time. Ended up disabling it.

It’s a shame the logic for the shortcut can only run AFTER the automation trigger. I could add steps to say ‘don’t do this if airplane mode is already on’ but it needs to run the automation to get to that logic. And of course in this case ‘automation’ just means a glorified notification.
 
Yeah it’s the glorified notification that’s really pointless. Just seems like a wasted ‘feature’. In my 30yrs of using Apple products I don’t know why it still surprises and frustrates me all these obfuscated features will eventually be in an “update”.
 
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Yeah it’s the glorified notification that’s really pointless. Just seems like a wasted ‘feature’. In my 30yrs of using Apple products I don’t know why it still surprises and frustrates me all these obfuscated features will eventually be in an “update”.

I think Apple is being hyper careful with the automation triggers and gradually loosening up. Last year they loosened up in the time based triggers. Let’s hope they do some more of that this year.
 
I just stumbled across an app called Jellycuts that lets you write shortcuts in code that can then be imported into the shortcuts app.

Store link:

More info here:

I haven't played around with it too much yet but it seems very useful. I'm excited to try out the VSCode extension.
 
Thanks for that^^^ (I'll have to wait as it looks like only M1 Mac and 'not available in the US store')

has anyone used SPLASH programming language for shortcuts? I just saw that today too
 
Thanks for that^^^ (I'll have to wait as it looks like only M1 Mac and 'not available in the US store')

has anyone used SPLASH programming language for shortcuts? I just saw that today too
I haven’t tried it but based on the GitHub issues it looks like it might be abandoned since iOS 13 removed the ability to import shortcuts from a file.
 
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Hello,

When I'm in my apartment but far from my wifi, the data is very bad like 2g 😁
Could we do something with Shortcuts in order to disconnect from wifi without turning it off ? So it stay connected with other devices like the watch

Thank you
 
Automations like that don't actually run like a "proper" automation. Instead, they send a notification to your phone which you then need to click on.

As you need to interact with the phone anyway, the best thing to do is just to disconnect from wifi using the control panel. Or, even better, turn on "WiFi Assist" which'll use mobile data when it senses your wifi connection is slow.

Also, location services isn't really accurate enough to trigger when you're just a few metres away from your router, and re-trigger once you move a metre or so closer.
 
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I can use time in order to automate that. Turning off the wifi at the moment without any interaction.

But if I could do only disconnect wifi, it will be better.
 
I would like to add disabling 'Tap to Wake' and 'Raise to Wake', since these lead to lots of false inputs when my pockets are wet. I can't find a way to do this via Shortcuts. Any suggestions?
I have the same request, did you ever find a way to do this with Shortcuts?
 
I have the same request, did you ever find a way to do this with Shortcuts?

Those commands are not accessible by the Shortcuts app so you cannot perform them that way. Interestingly, though, you can toggle on/off the Raise to wake feature on the Apple Watch via a shortcuts action.
 
Those commands are not accessible by the Shortcuts app so you cannot perform them that way. Interestingly, though, you can toggle on/off the Raise to wake feature on the Apple Watch via a shortcuts action.
That's what I thought but I was hoping I was just missing something. Oh well, hopefully they'll expand the amount of settings that is accessible from Shortcuts in future iOS versions. (And also, yet another reason to save for an Apple Watch.)
 
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