How to Reset Your Phone Keyboard Autocorrect and Dictionary

Published 2026-10-16 · Marion Phone Repair

Your phone's autocorrect has learned your typos. Instead of correcting mistakes, it now suggests the wrong words — it changes correctly spelled words to misspelled ones, it inserts words you used once that you never want to type again, and it seems to get worse every day. This happens because your phone's keyboard learns from everything you type. Every misspelling you accepted, every slang term you used, every name and abbreviation you typed in a text message has been added to your personal dictionary, and now the keyboard is confidently autocorrecting based on bad data.

Reset keyboard dictionary on iPhone

iPhone's keyboard learns from your typing across all apps. Resetting the keyboard dictionary erases all learned words and returns autocorrect to its original factory state:

1. Go to Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone
2. Tap Reset
3. Tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary
4. Enter your passcode when prompted
5. Confirm the reset

This removes every word the keyboard has learned from your typing. It does not delete any personal data, apps, photos, or messages — only the learned word predictions. After the reset, the keyboard starts fresh and will take a few days to relearn your typing patterns.

If you do not want to reset the entire dictionary but want to remove a specific learned word:

1. Start typing the word you want to remove
2. When the autocorrect suggestion appears in the prediction bar, tap and hold the suggestion
3. A small X or Remove option should appear. Tap it to remove that specific word from the learned dictionary
4. On some iOS versions this does not work — in that case, the full dictionary reset is the only option

Reset keyboard dictionary on Android

The process depends on which keyboard app you use. Most Android phones use either Gboard (Google's keyboard) or Samsung Keyboard.

Gboard (Google Keyboard)

1. Open Settings, System, Language and input, On-screen keyboard, Gboard (the path varies slightly by phone manufacturer)
2. Tap Dictionary, then Personal dictionary
3. Here you can see all words you have manually added. Tap any word you want to remove and tap the trash icon
4. To clear all learned data (not just manually added words): go back to Gboard settings, tap Advanced, then Delete learned words and data. Confirm by typing the number shown on screen

Samsung Keyboard

1. Go to Settings, General management, Samsung Keyboard settings
2. Tap Reset to default settings
3. Check Erase personalized predictions and tap Reset
4. This clears all learned words from Samsung Keyboard's predictive text

Other keyboards (SwiftKey, Grammarly Keyboard, etc.)

Third-party keyboards have their own dictionary reset options within their settings. Open the keyboard's settings (usually accessible by long-pressing the comma key or through the app itself), look for a section called Typing, Predictions, or Account, and find the option to clear learned data or reset predictions.

Fix autocorrect behavior without resetting

If you do not want to lose all your learned words but want autocorrect to behave better, try these adjustments:

iPhone

1. Settings, General, Keyboard
2. Auto-Correction: Toggle off to disable autocorrect entirely. Your keyboard will still suggest words in the prediction bar but will not automatically replace what you type. Toggle it back on if you prefer having autocorrect but want a fresh start after a dictionary reset
3. Predictive: Toggle off to remove the prediction bar above the keyboard. Useful if the predictions are distracting or consistently wrong
4. Check Spelling: When enabled, misspelled words get a red underline but are not automatically changed. This is a middle ground between full autocorrect and no correction at all

Android (Gboard)

1. Open Gboard settings (Settings, System, Language and input, Gboard)
2. Tap Text correction
3. Auto-correction: Toggle off to stop automatic word replacement
4. Show suggestion strip: Toggle off to hide the prediction bar entirely
5. Next-word suggestions: Toggle off if the keyboard keeps suggesting irrelevant words based on your previous typing context
6. Block offensive words: Toggle on or off depending on whether the keyboard filtering out certain words is causing problems (some users find that the keyboard censors words they legitimately need to type)

Text replacement and shortcuts

Instead of relying on autocorrect, use text replacement to create reliable shortcuts for words and phrases you type often:

iPhone

1. Settings, General, Keyboard, Text Replacement
2. Tap the plus icon to add a new shortcut
3. Enter the Phrase (what you want the shortcut to expand to) and the Shortcut (what you type to trigger it)
4. For example: Phrase = your email address, Shortcut = @@. Now typing @@ auto-expands to your full email address
5. This also works for preventing autocorrect on specific words: add the word as a Phrase with no Shortcut. This teaches the keyboard that the word is valid and should not be corrected

Android (Gboard)

1. Gboard settings, Dictionary, Personal dictionary, select your language
2. Tap the plus icon
3. Enter the word and an optional shortcut
4. Words added to the personal dictionary are never autocorrected away — the keyboard treats them as valid spellings

Multiple language keyboards

If you type in multiple languages, autocorrect may be correcting words from one language into another. Make sure you have the correct language keyboards installed:

• iPhone: Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards, Add New Keyboard. Add each language you type in. When typing, tap the globe icon to switch between languages. The keyboard adjusts its dictionary and autocorrect to the selected language
• Android: Gboard settings, Languages, Add keyboard. Gboard can detect which language you are typing in and switch autocorrect automatically if you enable multilingual typing

When autocorrect problems indicate a larger issue

If autocorrect behaves erratically even after a dictionary reset — correcting words to completely random strings, inserting characters you did not type, or the keyboard responding very slowly:

• Ghost touch: A touchscreen registering phantom taps can look like keyboard problems. If the screen is registering touches on its own, the keyboard receives input you did not intend. See a technician for screen diagnostics
• Low storage: When phone storage is nearly full, the keyboard cache and prediction database may not function correctly. Free up storage space
• Software bug: Check for iOS or Android updates. Keyboard bugs in specific OS versions are not uncommon and are typically fixed in subsequent updates

Keyboard help in Marion

If your phone keyboard autocorrect is not working properly after trying these fixes, or if you suspect the issue is a touchscreen problem rather than a software issue, Marion Phone Repair can diagnose whether the problem is software, screen-related, or a configuration issue, and get your keyboard working correctly.