While trying to create a shortcut that mass-shares contacts on your iPhone, especially with iOS 17 or even iOS 18, you might hit a wall with the error message ‘This action is trying to share contacts, which is not allowed’.Believe me, that message pops up more often than you’d think, and plenty of folks are reporting it in forums. Turns out, iOS has some built-in restrictions — kind of weird, but understandable when it comes to privacy. Anyway, the good news is—there’s a pretty straightforward setting tweak that can get that shortcut working again. Basically, it’s all about giving your device permission to share large chunks of data, so it doesn’t freak out when you ask it to do bulk contact transfers.
Fix – Permit the sharing of large amount of data
This fix works because iOS limits mass contacts sharing by default, thinking it’s a security risk or at least a privacy concern. When you enable this setting, the system’s okay with large data transfers, so the shortcut won’t get blocked. Usually, this fix applies if you’re getting that error during big contact transfers or automation runs. Expect the shortcut to finally do its thing smoothly, with no more ‘not allowed’ pop-ups. On some setups, this change actually made a huge difference, but sometimes you might need to restart your device or relaunch the Shortcuts app just to be sure.
How to Enable Large Data Sharing Permission on iPhone
- Load the Settings: Grab your iPhone, open the Settings app, which is that gear icon.
- Navigate to Your Apps: Scroll down and tap Privacy & Security, then find Contacts. But if you can’t see it there, go straight to Shortcuts — it depends on your iOS version.
- Find the Shortcuts App: Tap on Shortcuts from the list of apps with permissions.
- Access Advanced Settings: Inside Shortcuts settings, look for an option called Allow Untrusted Shortcuts or Advanced. Not all iOS versions show this the same way, but it’s usually there in some form.
- Enable Large Data Sharing: Here’s the tricky part — for some, this option might be called Allow Sharing Large Amounts of Data. If it’s not visible, you might need to check for an update to iOS or explore the Security & Privacy subsection. Basically, make sure the toggle is on.
Once that’s done, go back and rerun your contact-sharing shortcut. Many people report it finally works without throwing that dreaded error anymore. Sometimes you need to close and reopen the Shortcuts app, or restart your iPhone if it’s being stubborn, but otherwise, you should be good to go.
And yes, that setting’s kind of hidden away — because of course, iOS likes to make things harder than they need to be. Not sure why it’s not default enabled, but hey, at least now you know what to change.