I have an IPhone8 running ios 15.3. I'm trying to delete the alex voice but the delete option is no longer available. The only options I see is speak sample and activate. Is this a bug? I remember being able to delete the alex voice in the past.
I'm having the exact same problem as the original poster of this thread. I've changed to a different voice on my phone, but no matter what I do, it will not delete Alex. I am trying to free up space on my phone, and as much as I like Alex, I've decided that I'd rather use one of the new, very small Siri voices.
I am sorry that I don't have a reference to point to but for some reason I remember the Alex voice cannot be deleted. However, I might be thinking of Alex on the Mac. And if I am wrong on both accounts, then feel free to ignore this comment.
I spent a lot of time on the phone with Apple Accessibility, and got absolutely nowhere. They made me reset all settings on my phone, and it didn't make any kind of difference. I wouldn't mind being stuck with Alex; have used him since iOS 8, but this constant switching between Alex and Samantha is driving me bonkers. I know I can just switch to another voice and go on with life, but my thinking is that if Alex is there, taking up space whether I want him to or not, I may as well continue using him. Sadly, today's update didn't do a thing to fix the whole Alex/Samantha thing. If anything, it's worse, and Samantha is showing up even more often. If they truly have decided to make Alex a system voice, then why are we still getting Samantha? Also, if it was a system, undeletable voice, shouldn't it say something to that effect, or, at the very least, remove the delete option altogether for that voice if it can't be used? I am able to delete Alex off my watch without issue, which makes this all the more baffling. Then again, right now, pretty much anything tech related seems baffling to me. I used to love trouble shooting and figuring things out, but as I get older, I find myself getting more and more easily flustered, and I just want things to work the way they're supposed to. OK. End of rant. Maybe this issue will get fixed someday, but for now, I'm going to try really, really hard not to let myself worry about it any more.
I haven't tried it out myself yet, but I have a friend who has done this and he said it works. Apparently, putting Alex in English in the languages rotor is supposed to fix the problem. I'm going to try it because Samantha is really driving me nuts!Y
As far as Alex not deleteing, This problem is not an IOS17 issue. I've had it as long as I can remember. As far as alex and Samantha I'd rather have some speach when he crashes rather than no speach at all. In 16 when alex crashed all you got was the vo sounds.
I haven't tried this yet, but I might go ahead and give it a shot. I can't stand the Samantha thing, and I'm starting to notice that when she takes over, my phone gets extremely sluggish. I hope that whatever is crashing Alex gets fixed soon, or they fix it so we can delete him. Either way is fine with me at this point, but the Samantha thing is making my experience quite miserable. It never happens on my watch or apple tv, though, which is extra weird.
The way I see it, if I have to listen to Samantha yakking away when she shouldn't be, at least I should be able to get the enhanced Samantha with the settings I've set in the per Voiceover settings.
I've actually reached out to Apple Accessibility several times over the past week about the voice switching and inability to delete Alex. The last person I talked to, supposedly a senior tech, was very condescending and seemed to think I was an idiot for wanting to delete a voice. The Alex/Samantha switch did happen once while I was on the call with him, but he obviously didn't hear it. Naturally, I couldn't trigger it on demand. In any case, he came accross as very dismissive of that issue, and is completely missing the point on the whole we literally can't delete Alex thing. So, I'm just curious if anyone else has tried to report this. I wonder if sending an email or trying to use the feedback site would yield any more meaningful action on either or both of these issues.
Perhaps I’m missing the issue but on both my iPad Air 4 running 17.0.1 and my iPhone 14 Pro Max running the same 17.0.1 I just swipe left on the downloaded voice of Alex or any other and then tap delete and that works. Is this what you’re looking for or is it something else?
The way I do it is go into voiceover settings, speech, then I think I find the voice, swipe up to delete and double tap, nothing seams to happen. But the siri voices can be deleted this way, at least for me.
The rep was very nice and Samantha intruded as we were talking. At this point it's Samantha I'd like to delete but I can't seem to do that. I'm expecting a follow-up call on Tuesday.
Thanks for also reaching out to Apple about this. I hope that whoever you talk to actually tries to help and takes the issue seriously. As for the person who described the steps of deleting a voice, you are absolutely correct. Pretty much any other voice, I can follow those s teps and the voice deletes. I've tried removing alex from both VO and Spoken Content, and you can hit the delete button all day long and absolutely nothing will happen. I've also noticed the thing where if you delete a siri voice, it comes back, but since, at least now, those voices are relatively tiny, that doesn't bother me; the delete button actually functions, even if only temporarily. Honestly, I do hope they can fix it where Samantha doesn't constantly take over for Alex, but if that can't be fixed, for whatever reason, I would really like to free up space on my phone and just get rid of Alex. For the person who said they wish they could delete Samantha, I've done that, but even if she technically isn't downloaded, she still shows up. I am super curious what determines who is able to delete Alex and who isn't. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it. I wish there would have been a way to send a link to this thread to the Apple representative I was talking with on Friday; then, maybe he would have been willing to see that this is a legitimate issue. Please keep us posted after your follow-up call on Tuesday.
I don't have one for Alex, either, come to think of it, but I'd like to keep him around anyway. I swipe down like all the other voices and the delete button just isn't there.
I think I found a solution that might work, or might not work, I had this problem on iOS 16.6 and 16.6.1, where the delete button does not do anything, or the delete button does not appear in the rotor action.
But I think I found a solution that works, first switch to either eloquence text to speech voices, Fred, or other voices that does not require a download.
After that, find the Alex Voice, and try swiping up or down, if there is a delete option, double tap on it, the voice should be deleted, but may not be.
I have managed to delete the Alex Voice with this process on iOS 17.0.2, but it seems like it only works on certain devices
I will definitely give this a try when time permits. The delete button isn't available with /VO turned off, but I'm still very open to the idea of finding out whether or not this technique will solve the issue.
Comments
Choose different voice first
The new change to iOS is whenever you want to delete a Voice, you have to choose a different one first
I tried that but it still…
I tried that but it still doesn't give me the option.
Can't delete any voices.
I can't delete any downloaded voice in IOS 15.6. There is no deleete button. There is an EDIT, but no options under EDIT if you activate it.
time to upgrade
Its time to upgrade folks.
Still can't delete Alex in iOS 17
I'm having the exact same problem as the original poster of this thread. I've changed to a different voice on my phone, but no matter what I do, it will not delete Alex. I am trying to free up space on my phone, and as much as I like Alex, I've decided that I'd rather use one of the new, very small Siri voices.
Perhaps this is just a new apple thing.
I hope not, but I know how they are.
Alex Voice
I am sorry that I don't have a reference to point to but for some reason I remember the Alex voice cannot be deleted. However, I might be thinking of Alex on the Mac. And if I am wrong on both accounts, then feel free to ignore this comment.
Deleting alex
I spent a lot of time on the phone with Apple Accessibility, and got absolutely nowhere. They made me reset all settings on my phone, and it didn't make any kind of difference. I wouldn't mind being stuck with Alex; have used him since iOS 8, but this constant switching between Alex and Samantha is driving me bonkers. I know I can just switch to another voice and go on with life, but my thinking is that if Alex is there, taking up space whether I want him to or not, I may as well continue using him. Sadly, today's update didn't do a thing to fix the whole Alex/Samantha thing. If anything, it's worse, and Samantha is showing up even more often. If they truly have decided to make Alex a system voice, then why are we still getting Samantha? Also, if it was a system, undeletable voice, shouldn't it say something to that effect, or, at the very least, remove the delete option altogether for that voice if it can't be used? I am able to delete Alex off my watch without issue, which makes this all the more baffling. Then again, right now, pretty much anything tech related seems baffling to me. I used to love trouble shooting and figuring things out, but as I get older, I find myself getting more and more easily flustered, and I just want things to work the way they're supposed to. OK. End of rant. Maybe this issue will get fixed someday, but for now, I'm going to try really, really hard not to let myself worry about it any more.
I might be able to help.
I haven't tried it out myself yet, but I have a friend who has done this and he said it works. Apparently, putting Alex in English in the languages rotor is supposed to fix the problem. I'm going to try it because Samantha is really driving me nuts!Y
As far as Alex not deleteing…
As far as Alex not deleteing, This problem is not an IOS17 issue. I've had it as long as I can remember. As far as alex and Samantha I'd rather have some speach when he crashes rather than no speach at all. In 16 when alex crashed all you got was the vo sounds.
Same here.
I use UK siri voice 4 now but for as long as I've had alix on my phone I've been unable to delete him.
Putting Alex in roter
I haven't tried this yet, but I might go ahead and give it a shot. I can't stand the Samantha thing, and I'm starting to notice that when she takes over, my phone gets extremely sluggish. I hope that whatever is crashing Alex gets fixed soon, or they fix it so we can delete him. Either way is fine with me at this point, but the Samantha thing is making my experience quite miserable. It never happens on my watch or apple tv, though, which is extra weird.
It really is annoying.
The way I see it, if I have to listen to Samantha yakking away when she shouldn't be, at least I should be able to get the enhanced Samantha with the settings I've set in the per Voiceover settings.
Curious if this issue has been reported to Apple Accessibility
I've actually reached out to Apple Accessibility several times over the past week about the voice switching and inability to delete Alex. The last person I talked to, supposedly a senior tech, was very condescending and seemed to think I was an idiot for wanting to delete a voice. The Alex/Samantha switch did happen once while I was on the call with him, but he obviously didn't hear it. Naturally, I couldn't trigger it on demand. In any case, he came accross as very dismissive of that issue, and is completely missing the point on the whole we literally can't delete Alex thing. So, I'm just curious if anyone else has tried to report this. I wonder if sending an email or trying to use the feedback site would yield any more meaningful action on either or both of these issues.
Perhaps I’m missing the…
Perhaps I’m missing the issue but on both my iPad Air 4 running 17.0.1 and my iPhone 14 Pro Max running the same 17.0.1 I just swipe left on the downloaded voice of Alex or any other and then tap delete and that works. Is this what you’re looking for or is it something else?
Interesting.
I can't delete the voice either.
The way I do it is go into voiceover settings, speech, then I think I find the voice, swipe up to delete and double tap, nothing seams to happen. But the siri voices can be deleted this way, at least for me.
It is annoying when you…
It is annoying when you delete voices, but they keep coming back.
I get that with the Siri voices.
It use to be when you switched to a different region they would let you delete them, but lately, even that doesn't work.
As for Alex, I can delete that one just fine, even with the latest iOS update.
I spoke with Apple Accessibility on Friday.
The rep was very nice and Samantha intruded as we were talking. At this point it's Samantha I'd like to delete but I can't seem to do that. I'm expecting a follow-up call on Tuesday.
Hope you have better luck than I did
Thanks for also reaching out to Apple about this. I hope that whoever you talk to actually tries to help and takes the issue seriously. As for the person who described the steps of deleting a voice, you are absolutely correct. Pretty much any other voice, I can follow those s teps and the voice deletes. I've tried removing alex from both VO and Spoken Content, and you can hit the delete button all day long and absolutely nothing will happen. I've also noticed the thing where if you delete a siri voice, it comes back, but since, at least now, those voices are relatively tiny, that doesn't bother me; the delete button actually functions, even if only temporarily. Honestly, I do hope they can fix it where Samantha doesn't constantly take over for Alex, but if that can't be fixed, for whatever reason, I would really like to free up space on my phone and just get rid of Alex. For the person who said they wish they could delete Samantha, I've done that, but even if she technically isn't downloaded, she still shows up. I am super curious what determines who is able to delete Alex and who isn't. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it. I wish there would have been a way to send a link to this thread to the Apple representative I was talking with on Friday; then, maybe he would have been willing to see that this is a legitimate issue. Please keep us posted after your follow-up call on Tuesday.
I don't even have a delete button for Samantha.
I don't have one for Alex, either, come to think of it, but I'd like to keep him around anyway. I swipe down like all the other voices and the delete button just isn't there.
Using non-downloaded voices
I think I found a solution that might work, or might not work, I had this problem on iOS 16.6 and 16.6.1, where the delete button does not do anything, or the delete button does not appear in the rotor action.
But I think I found a solution that works, first switch to either eloquence text to speech voices, Fred, or other voices that does not require a download.
After that, find the Alex Voice, and try swiping up or down, if there is a delete option, double tap on it, the voice should be deleted, but may not be.
I have managed to delete the Alex Voice with this process on iOS 17.0.2, but it seems like it only works on certain devices
Interesting potential fix for this issue
I will definitely give this a try when time permits. The delete button isn't available with /VO turned off, but I'm still very open to the idea of finding out whether or not this technique will solve the issue.
Oh sweet!
Oh sweet!
That trick just worked on my iPhone 14 Pro.
Once it is done charging, I am going to give it a go on my iPad!
Interesting, the trick seems devicedependent.
This worked on myphone, but is not working on my iPad. Oh well.