serious issues downloading new voices available in watchOS 9?

By KE8UPE, 10 July, 2022

Forum
Apple Beta Releases

Hello,
I’m using an Apple Watch Series 7, running the 3rd developer beta of watchOS9.
I cannot, for the life of me, get any of the new voices to work.
I download them, but then my VoiceOver voice doesn’t change.
I’ve deleted several voices & tried to redownload them, as well as turning the watch off & back on multiple times, to no avail.
In my mind, the next logical step would be to reset the watch, & setup as "new."
Am I correct, or is that too drastic?
Has anyone on here been successful at getting this to work?
I know, for a fact the voices work, because I played some of the samples.

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Comments

By Piotr Machacz on Sunday, July 10, 2022 - 08:27

They work for me on a Series 5 watch. IIRC I had it happen once or twice that when the voice was downloaded I had to back out of the voice settings and back in for the screen to change, but once you downloaded a voice you should see 3 buttons - Use Voice, Speak sample and delete. If you don't then like Oliver said it's definitely worth reporting.

By Indra on Sunday, July 10, 2022 - 10:05

Hello, can you explain to me step how to reproduce how to use new voice on the watchOS 9? I am using Apple Watch series 6, and I cannot. fine. The location of the new voice over voices.

By Peter Holdstock on Sunday, July 10, 2022 - 12:52

I’ve got the same problem on my series 6. I’ve tried downloading the voice going out of settings going back in and I’m given the use voice option but it doesn’t change. I have then tried turning off VoiceOver and back on after changing the voice and still it doesn’t change. Then tried restarting the watch and not still doesn’t work. I see also that there is a language rotor option, but that doesn’t seem to do anything either. I will report it as a bug, so if others can do the same

By KE8UPE on Sunday, July 10, 2022 - 15:22

Hi,
To see if you can reproduce this bug, try the following:
First, with your watch on your wrist, open settings, Accessibility, voiceover, and choose speech.
Two. Choose the voice, you would like to download, and tell the watch to download it. Note that for some strange reason, the size you will see before you tell it to download, in the actual download size are different. This could also be a reason that this is not working.
Three. To try the voice, once the download of the voice you chose in the last step is complete, click on it, then click “use voice.”

By KE8UPE on Sunday, July 10, 2022 - 15:44

Hi,
I just sent a bug report. Let’s hope they see it and fix it.

By Indra on Monday, July 11, 2022 - 01:34

Fortunately, I can’t separate your step step and download other

By KE8UPE on Monday, July 11, 2022 - 18:45

Hi,

Now that the public betas have been released, should I try resetting my Watch & setting up as, “new?”

By Indra on Monday, July 11, 2022 - 20:55

I don't think so.. Because the developer and public beta version actually is the same.. But, if you want to join the public beta, yes! You should reset your Watch and your iphone as well.

By KE8UPE on Monday, July 11, 2022 - 21:36

Hi,
I reset my watch & now all is well.
I’m happily using the Alex voice.
It even remembered who my walkie-talkie- friends were.

By Karok on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 - 21:01

no eloquence then in watch os 9? thought that would have been the less resource intensive to use?

By KE8UPE on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 00:32

Hi,
No, at least not yet.
I'm a huge fan of the Alex voice & plan to use it for the foreseeable future.