iOS Auto-Correct off the rails

March 12, 2024 8:13 AM

Why is the latest iPhone iOS suggesting incorrectly spelled words and how do I get it to stop?

Example - who would want this sort of "help"? This feature is separate from the spellcheck that pops-up and generally makes legit corrections to words spelled in error.; this one gives me a blue underline and proceeds to make all sorts of bizarre suggestions. I checked my settings and Predictive Text is already off. I am on iOS 17.4.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero to Technology (14 answers total)

This happens after you type “convenicne” and the phone auto-corrects it to “convenience” as you are typing. The auto-corrected word gets highlighted and tapping the item with the ↶ arrow restores it to what you actually typed. It’s useful in cases where auto-correct is overzealous and “fixes” something that didn’t need fixing.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:22 AM on March 12

Interesting! I wish I could turn it off - it's popping up for items I didn't misspell.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:43 AM on March 12

I’m not totally clear what you mean.

In each case where this appears, the item with the “undo” arrow (↶) is what you typed. For example, in the screenshot you shared, you typed “convenicne” and auto-correct changed it to “convenience.”

If you didn’t misspell the word (i.e. you originally spelled it correctly, and auto-correct changed it to something incorrect), then the popup is actually useful, since it lets you restore the word to the correct spelling.

You can disable these highlights/popups by turning off auto-correct in the “General → Keyboard” settings, but then then the above message would just say “convenicne” instead of “convenience” which I don’t think is what you want.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:10 AM on March 12

Another note: The blue underline for auto-corrected words goes away after you type a couple more words, if you don’t tap on it. So you can ignore it and keep typing in cases where the word is already correct.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:20 AM on March 12

I was/am seeing it for words I did not misspell - I got it for the word "rare" earlier. I just upgraded to 17.4 this morning so hopefully that upgrade is the end of that.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:21 AM on March 12

My assumption is that a lot of these spellcheck are now incorporating some form of "AI". Just the other day I was trying to spell "Possibly" and spellcheck was trying to convince me that what I meant to type was "Possibliography".
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 9:22 AM on March 12

When you say you got it for the word “rare,” is that the word you typed before auto-correction (the one with the “undo” arrow in the popup) or the one after auto-correction (which is underlined in blue)?
posted by mbrubeck at 9:23 AM on March 12

It's sometimes going to be available for things you fat-fingered just a little, too, where the system had to do some interpretive work to tell that you were tapping the R and not the T, for example, because the placement of your finger was a little ambiguous, or a touch was a little light and it had to decide to interpret it as typing a letter or as a stray movement. In that case, too, the wavy line appears under what it thinks you meant, offering you the chance to correct its interpretation, but if it did a great job interpreting your input as you meant it to be interpreted, you won't experience it as having been a *correction*. That may be what's happening in your examples like "rare." As long as it appears as you wanted it to appear, you can keep going and (as mbrubeck says), the blue line will go away.

If it's popping up for things you didn't misspell that it DID "correct" incorrectly, that's actually exactly what it's for, to give you a quick and easy way to roll back its mistaken "correction."
posted by redfoxtail at 9:42 AM on March 12

Example of what it looks like when it auto-corrects the word “rare.” I was typing slowly here so you can see it happen, but if you type fast then you probably don’t even notice most of the times auto-correct kicks in (especially on previous iOS versions where there was no visual indication).

You can also see the blue underline under “like my” go away as I continue typing.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:10 AM on March 12

If you watch the video carefully, you will see that you typed RSRE.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 11:12 AM on March 12

(Yes, that was my point. I did that deliberately as a demonstration. Note that I am not the OP.)
posted by mbrubeck at 11:30 AM on March 12

Sadly, auto-correct can learn misspellings and suggest them in place of the correct word. Older versions of iOS let you delete individual dictionary entries, but you can't do that anymore. This article suggests that you can retrain it by typing the correct word and stopping the bad correction several times, which I have trouble believing but haven't tested. Alternately, you can fully delete the custom dictionary via Settings > General > Transfer or Rest iPhone > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary.

That said, if you've turned off predictive text but left on "Check Spelling" you will see the popup corrections you're seeing.
posted by O9scar at 11:45 AM on March 12

I agree that iOS went off the rails recently with autocorrect (I'm a fast thumb typist and it was supplying absolutely the wrong word, repeatedly, and seriously impeding my communication). My solution was that I disabled autocorrect and predictive text and have resigned myself to checking my spelling, with mixed results.
posted by Peach at 8:08 PM on March 12

I turned off automatic capitalization of "I" and it seemed to help with the "autocorrecting a real word to a different word" - for a while it always changed "gave" to "have". I haven't updated to the newest version so this might be irrelevant.
posted by brilliantine at 5:53 AM on March 13