Hi all,
Wondering if anyone else has had similar issues.
On my iPhone 12 Mini, sometimes when dealing with a webpage, Apple News story, Facebook post, etc. with a lot of elements, VoiceOver will crash and render the phone inoperable. I have discovered that sometimes VO actually turns off. I know this because I have VO set to touch-type, while during these freezes the phone will do the equivalent of direct touch-typing (i.e., not waiting for you to lift your finger), but otherwise VO doesn't work. VO reactivates pretty much when it feels like it, and always with the default Samantha voice. If I want to change it back to Eloquence-Reed, I have to go back into Settings.
The voice thing is annoying, but in no previous version of iOS has VoiceOver just completely turned off like this, for long periods of time. Of course there have always been momentary freezes, but VO would still respond to gestures even if it took a few seconds. I just cannot believe Apple has allowed this amount of regression. I have been very patient with them, but I'm finally starting to get actually angry. This is giving me serious JAWS 12 vibes.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Do the newer iPhones also have this issue? I turned off sounds but left on haptics not long before updating from 17.0 to 17.1, and I was happy with the results. But could this be causing some weird behavior?
In any event, AppleVis doesn't list this in its bugs, and I think this is the most serious one of all.
Thanks,
Daniel
Comments
Wow
I have never had that happen, for me i just loos speach but vo is still on, it seems to come back after swiping around for a few seconds.
I dont realy know what to do other then resetting the phone and starting over
haven't noticed this
Haven't noticed this. Have you reached out to Apple Accessibility?
Not yet, that was my next…
Not yet, that was my next step, but wanted to see what the situation was for others. There is also an Apple Store within walking distance. Are people in Apple Stores generally helpful when it comes to accessibility issues?
Haven't noticed this either
I've had voiceover turn off and back on but never what you described.
Try a different synthesizer
Your description of the after effects make me wonder whether the issue is specific to the Eloquence synthesizer. I seem to recall that Eloquence has a history of instability. Have you ruled out Eloquence as the cause of the crash?
Failing that, a piece of advice I’d offer is to try find a repeatable set of steps that make the issue come back, because repeatable bugs are easier to fix than random bugs. A repeatable set of steps will also make it easier for you to provide the screen recording and diagnostics log they’ll likely ask for.
Questions
So, I have a few questions for you...
1. Have you installed anything new recently? And I do mean "anything", not just apps specific to keyboards, dictation, and/or speech synthesis?
2. How is your battery doing? Check the battery page under settings...
3. Is your iPhone getting excessively hot and if so how often? How frequently?
4. This was already mentioned above, but have you tried different voices with VO? Results?
5. Are you finding, at any point during the day, that your iPhone is running sluggishly with VO enabled?
Thanks in advance. 🤔
Some Answers to the Above
Hi Paul and Brian,
It does happen with Samantha and Daniel as well.
It's hard to say what could be a repeatable way of inducing this, as sometimes if I close an app then try to reopen, it will work better.
The last thing I installed without deleting was Mango Languages, and that was prior to 17.1. Everything else I can recall is just updates to existing apps. Couldn't list all those, it's a lot.
I had my battery replaced in July, capacity is at 94%. It doesn't say anything specific about a crash in performance capability.
My phone does get hot, but I'm not sure about excessively so. VO has been sluggish in Safari for a long time (since iOS 16), particularly during and after media playback. However, nothing else appeared until after 17.1.
Thanks again,
Daniel
I've not experienced this.
I'm using an IPhone 13, or it could be the pro version, I can't remember at the moment.
Perhaps you could phone apple accessibility and ask them what to do, they'll probably just tell you to restart your phone though.
With voiceover breaking for so many, I'd not be surprised if they move to android. Hell i might consider it for my next phone. I've not had that many issues but it might be cheeper for what I want, just a basic phone that can text and go on the internet.
Apple Store
At this point I would encourage you to visit your friendly neighborhood Apple Store. I have an iPhone SE2, which came out the same year as yours, but several months earlier, and am currently running iOS 16.7.2, because to hell with iOS 17 (just my oppinion).
Anyway, my point being is that I do not have the most powerful iPhone, yet I also do not have iOS and/or VO beingsluggish. Nor does VO lockup my phone.
What I am thinking, is that your phone's hardware, primarily the SSD, is becoming corrupt. In that case you really want a professional to either replace hardware, or do the next best thing; replace your iPhone. 🤷🏼♂️
Downgrading
Brian,
You mentioned not having iOS 17 - I wonder if I downgraded to 17.0 if this issue would not recur? Not that this really fixes the issue, just avoids it. Still, is this a good idea?
I'm also using a 12 mini on…
I'm also using a 12 mini on iOS 17.1.1 and also use Eloquence. I haven't seen what you are describing though.
I rarely open FaceBook so can't comment on that. I also haven't had any big issues reading stories in Apple News.
You say VO totally shuts off on busy websites. Can you provide an example where it happens often? Even before iOS 17, I've had some sites in Safari make my phone almost unusable and heat up quite a bit. I think this is probably because there is so much going on on the site with adds and stuff that it uses up all my phone's memory. Yes, I have an add blocker Safari extension but it doesn't seem to do much.
The only time VO reverts to Samantha compact is after I do an iOS update, but eloquence kicks back in after a couple minutes though. Not a big deal to me.
A reset of all your settings might be worth a shot. I don't think Apple lets you downgrade to 17.0 anymore by now.
Bug in WebKit
There is a known bug on the WebKit. It's a regression bug from iOS 17.1 and up. It affects some websites and hybrid apps. I have tried out iOS 17.2 beta, but it seems to still be there.
According to this: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=264410 the bug itself is fixed and I hope it will be released soon.
One thing that might help.
If you aren't using an ad blocker, get one; webpages with ads glitch out much more than pages with none.
Voiceover
13 pro and iOS 17.1.1. No issues with it. Just one bug. Whenever I get any type of notification, VO reads the time. No issues in 16. No issue on my iPad 9 with sane iOS. Hope iOS 17.2 fixes this. Apparently there are issues with notification moving around so it maybe affecting VO.