Where to find autocorrect settings on your iPhone

Autocorrect lives in Settings under Keyboard, not under a general privacy menu. Open Settings, tap General, then Keyboard. You will see a toggle for Autocorrect near the top of the list — it is on by default. Flipping it off stops the phone from changing words as you type.

If you want to keep autocorrect but stop it from changing specific words, you can do that too. The same Keyboard menu has a section called Text Replacement, which lets you create custom shortcuts and prevent certain corrections. This is useful if autocorrect keeps mangling a name, a technical term, or slang you actually want to use.

Key Takeaways

  • Autocorrect is turned on by default in Settings > General > Keyboard, and you can turn it completely off with a single toggle.
  • If you want to keep autocorrect but block it from changing specific words, use Text Replacement in the same Keyboard menu to create exceptions.
  • Turning off autocorrect means you will catch your own typos, which takes more attention but gives you full control over what you type.
  • You can also delete individual words from your autocorrect dictionary by typing them, rejecting the suggestion, and swiping left on the word in your keyboard's suggestion bar.

Why you might want to turn autocorrect off

Autocorrect changes words based on what Apple's dictionary thinks you meant, not what you actually typed. If you use technical terms, names from other languages, or words that are not in a standard dictionary, autocorrect will fight you. It can also expose information you did not intend to share — if you type a password, a PIN, or a private term and autocorrect "corrects" it, the suggestion bar shows what you actually typed, which is a small but real leak.

Some people turn it off entirely because they type faster without waiting for suggestions to appear. Others keep it on but use Text Replacement to create their own rules — for instance, typing "omw" to expand to "on my way" without letting the system change words you did not ask it to change.

How to block autocorrect from changing one word at a time

When you type a word and autocorrect suggests a change, you can reject it by tapping the X or by tapping the word itself. If you tap the word in the suggestion bar (not the X), the phone learns that you want that word and stops suggesting the correction. Do this a few times and autocorrect will stop fighting you on that particular word.

This method works well if only a few words are the problem. If autocorrect is wrong about many words, or if you want to prevent it from changing something before you even type it, use Text Replacement instead. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement, tap the plus sign, and create a shortcut: type the word you want to protect in the "Shortcut" field and the same word in the "Phrase" field. Now when you type that word, the phone will not try to change it.

The difference between turning off autocorrect and using Text Replacement

Turning off autocorrect completely means the phone stops suggesting corrections for any word. You type what you type, and nothing changes unless you ask it to. This gives you total control but also means you have to catch your own typos — the phone will not help.

Text Replacement is more selective. You keep autocorrect on, but you create rules for specific words or phrases. You can tell the phone "never change this word" or "when I type this shortcut, expand it to this phrase." This way you get help with most words while protecting the ones that matter to you.

Which one you choose depends on how much you trust autocorrect. If it is usually right and only wrong about a few things, Text Replacement is faster. If it is wrong often or you type a lot of technical content, turning it off entirely may be worth the extra typing attention.

How autocorrect interacts with other keyboard settings

Autocorrect works alongside other keyboard features like predictive text and spell check. Predictive text shows word suggestions as you type; autocorrect changes words automatically. You can turn off predictive text separately in the same Keyboard menu if you want suggestions to appear but not automatic changes.

Spell check is different — it marks words it does not recognize with a red underline but does not change them without your permission. You can turn spell check off too, though most people leave it on because it does not force changes the way autocorrect does.

What happens when you sync across devices

If you use multiple Apple devices — an iPad, a Mac, an Apple Watch — your keyboard settings sync through iCloud. Turning off autocorrect on your iPhone will turn it off on your iPad too, unless you change the setting separately on each device. The same is true for Text Replacement rules: if you create a custom rule on your iPhone, it will appear on your other devices.

This can be helpful if you want consistency, but it also means you need to be intentional about which devices share which settings. If you want autocorrect on your Mac but off on your iPhone, you will need to change the setting on each device separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I turn off autocorrect for just one app?

No. Autocorrect is a system-wide setting on iPhone, so turning it off affects every app that uses the keyboard. If you want autocorrect in some apps but not others, you would need to turn it on and off manually each time you switch apps, which is not practical. Text Replacement is a better option if you need different rules for different contexts.

Does turning off autocorrect affect Siri or voice typing?

No. Autocorrect is a text-input setting only. Voice typing and Siri have their own speech-to-text systems that work independently. Turning off autocorrect will not change how Siri understands what you say or how voice typing transcribes your words.

What if I accidentally deleted a word from my autocorrect dictionary and want it back?

There is no undo button for individual words. The easiest fix is to create a Text Replacement rule for that word: go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement, tap the plus sign, and type the word in both the Shortcut and Phrase fields. This tells the phone to always accept that word without changing it.

Will turning off autocorrect make my iPhone slower?

No. Autocorrect runs in the background and does not noticeably affect performance. Turning it off or on will not speed up or slow down your phone.