Shortcut sharing abruptly fails, only new links working

Shortcuts on iOS 14

Shortcut sharing links made on iOS more than a week ago have all ceased working, although no other iCloud sharing functions appear to be affected.

Shortcuts users on iOS are reporting severe problems with previously-shared collections of links. Any Shortcut sharing link, unless created in the last few days, is failing with the error message "Shortcut not found."

Any user can share a Shortcut to friends, or online, by creating a link from within the Shortcuts app on iOS. Accessible from within the Share button in each Shortcut, what Apple calls the "iCloud link" can be copied, or sent directly to someone.

The process is working correctly for any newly shared Shortcuts, but fails for all Shortcuts shared before a few days ago. There does not appear to be any issues with Shortcuts hosted in Apple's "Gallery" of them, however.

Apple has yet to comment on the backend change that it has presumably introduced to iCloud sharing. Unless Apple reverses any changes, or in some way corrects the broken links, individual users currently have no alternative but to re-do each link separately.

Once this crisis is over, Apple needs to reflect on the ever-growing PR crisis they have on their hands.

Even if this is technically fixed, the damage done to people's trust will far outweigh the issues.

Every investment into Shortcuts is fully undercut by persistent issues.
— Matthew Cassinelli (@mattcassinelli) March 24, 2021

Matthew Cassinelli has highlighted the issue on both Reddit and Twitter. Owners of sites hosting, in some cases, hundreds of shared Shortcuts are confirming the issue is universal.