Apple stopped storing your shortcuts as plain files in iCloud Drive a while back, which means the only real backup is a share link you have to generate by hand. Doing that for a whole library is tedious. This shortcut handles the whole thing for you, with extra version tracking aimed at people who keep editing the same shortcut.
Inside the shortcut
At its core this is a backup-and-restore manager for your Shortcuts library. You can save everything at once, back up a single folder or group, or keep a running version history of individual shortcuts so you can roll back later. There’s a normal-user mode that only keeps the newest copy of each shortcut, and a developer mode that stores multiple versions side by side. An auto-backup option lets it run on a schedule you set, so a recent copy is always sitting in your Files app without you thinking about it.
Adding it to your iPhone
- Tap Add Shortcut on this page, then scroll to the bottom of the preview and tap Add Shortcut to add it in the Shortcuts app.
- Run it once and grant every permission it asks for, including file access. The author specifically notes you should accept all permissions and check the prompts twice.
- If you want the scheduled backups, follow the in-shortcut setup steps (1, 2, 3) that appear during the first run.
Using it day-to-day
Run the shortcut and pick what you want from the menu. Choose a backup option and it writes a copy into your Files app at Storage Drive › Shortcuts › mrgargsir › Backup & Restore Shortcuts. To bring something back, pick Restore Shortcuts from Folder and tap the one you want. Developers get a Restore Previous Versions path that rolls a shortcut back to an earlier saved state, which is the part that makes this worth running if you tinker constantly. Version 26.5 added a search bar inside the backup-with-history view, so finding one entry among many is quicker. There’s also an Open Backup Folder action when you’d rather browse the files yourself.
Quick answers
Where do the backups actually end up?
In your Files app, under Storage Drive › Shortcuts › mrgargsir › Backup & Restore Shortcuts. You can open that folder straight from the menu or dig into it manually whenever you want to check what’s saved.
I’m not a developer. Do I need the multi-version stuff?
No, and it’ll get noisy fast if you turn it on. Stick with the “keep only latest versions” mode, which backs everything up and quietly replaces the old copy with the newest one.
Can it back up on its own without me opening it?
That’s what the auto-backup mode is for. Set the shortcut to run on a schedule you choose and it does the rest, though you’ll still want to confirm permissions held the first couple of times it fires.
Backup & Restore Shortcuts
Version 26.5
Scan with your iPhone camera to install, or tap View below.
View
