Sequoia and the continuous restart of VoiceOver.

By Adrian Wyka, 22 September, 2024

Forum

macOS and Mac Apps

Hi,

Since I updated the system to Sequoia, I am devastated. VoiceOver keeps restarting constantly.
I navigate through links on AppleVis - VoiceOver freezes and restarts.
I scroll through my email list - restart.
I read a document in Word - restart.
I open directories - restart.

Basically, VoiceOver restarts on average every few minutes.

I have reset the VoiceOver settings, but that didn’t help.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas for solving this problem?

I have submitted a report to Apple, but I am afraid they will require actions that ultimately lead to nothing being done.

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Comments

Hi,whole I am really sorry…

Hi,
Oh I am really sorry to hear that, it sounds just the most horrible thing that could happen. Unfortunately though, I don't have this bug at all. It's even the opposite in fact, I was for the first in my life able to code (1hr) in vscode and I enjoyed the experience. I hope you had a time machine backup, or else the only real solution if even resetting voiceover didn't work is a clean install. That's why you must have backups at least for the major version update, or better yet two partitions one one version behind / on the previous stable.
Again, really, really sorry to hear that, my best wishes for you. But I just don't have it myself on both of my partitions.

Agree

My suggestion would be to back up your VO settings from the File menu inside VO Utility. Then, do a full reset of VO, and reboot your machine. Otherwise, you may need to download Sequoia to an external drive, and fully factory restore your Mac and install Sequoia.

Alternatively you can factory erase and install Sequoia over the internet, but I believe people have mentioned an issue with connecting to Wi-Fi during this process, so you may require sighted assistance.

Best of luck. 🙂

I can confirm this bug

Since I updated to Sequoia VO keeps restarting mainly while browsing the web but also in terminal and other applications. I use the German Anna voice but I doubt that this is the root cause.
My machine is an Intel Mac Mini 2018.
I tried several things including resetting VO settings without success.
I am about ready to consider switching to Windows :-(

/Roland

I also have a machine on…

I also have a machine on Intel. Who knows if that's the problem.

Me too

I have this bug too sadly, and it’s a serious one. I’m also on an Intel Mac.
I would like to hear if any Intel Mac users are not experiencing the bug, and if any Apple Silicon users are.
If it is the case that Intel Macs are all affected, you have to ask where is the quality control?
Dave

Try 15.1 public beta

I just installed the latest Sequoia 15.1 public beta on my Intel Mac Mini 2018 and at first glance it appears to solve the restart problem.
/Roland

On Sequoia topic a user says…

On Sequoia topic a user says this, if it can help
https://www.applevis.com/comment/175147#comment-175147

@TheBllindGuy07 We have…

@TheBllindGuy07

We have known this for a few days now, because I posted about this issue on 22 September 2024.

I have to try switching to the beta since @Roland says it's better.
In any case, it probably can't get worse.

I'm on an m2 macbook air

Hi,
I'm so sorry to hear about this issue.
That's horrible that Voiceover keeps restarting on you like that.
I'm happy to say though, that under the 15.1 developer beta, I've never seen this issue.
I did reinstall my OS last week, due to a failed update & my mac was bricked for a few days but I waited & Apple fixed it, so now, it's all good.

Ean confirm this bug but

I can confirm this bug, however per testing, this seems to happen more on intel than on apple silicon for some reason. Im not saying it doesn't happen on apple silicun, but its to an almost unnoticeable extent compared to intel. I.e, in intel it happens 8 out of 10, and in apple silicun it happens say 1, 2 out of 10, from what i've tested.

Also Experienced This Bug on Intel

I had this same issue on intel and reported it repeatedly throughout the public beta cycle for Sequoia 15.0 Good to hear that the 15.1 beta probably fixed it. I'm updating to the 15.0.1 release today to see because I prefer to avoid betas that aren't major releases, but if 15.0.1 doesn't fix it I'll go to the beta.

I switched to the beta…

I switched to the beta version and I confirm that it is good.

15.0.1 Update Does Not Fix but 15.1 Public Beta 2 Does

I was hoping the fully released bug fix update might resolve this issue even though it's not listed in the release notes, but I also had to install the public beta to fix it. Glad it's getting fixed though because it's my only really big gripe with macOS Sequoia other than iPhone Mirroring not being usable at all for VO users. Everything else runs much better and faster than it did on the previous macOS version. The only thing that slowed down is the time it takes to start up, which has slowed down a lot, but I'll take that trade-off for everything else running better.

@Nicholas, really everything…

@Nicholas, really everything?

1. Do the voice commands work well for you? Can you use shortcuts on the trackpad, or change the volume?
2. Do the automatically triggered actions in the app change your voice parameters, e.g., speed?
3. Does the shortcut VO+N work for displaying notifications?
4. Can you use the notification center after invoking VO+O, and does the focus not skip from the alerts list?

I'm Sure There are Still Bugs

VO + N does open up notifications. I've never noticed a problem with this. Focus can jump around a bit in the notification center accessed with VO + o but I don't use that very often so that's all I can really say about it. As for the other two things you mentioned I have no feedback. I don't use the trackpad commander for anything but making sure I've got screen curtain on, so I have no knowledge of bugs in that area. For the way I use it, it works well.

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