How to Uninstall Extra Voices

By James L, 14 July, 2021

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

I use Big Sur 11.4.
I unchecked voices that I don't want in VoiceOver Utility > Speech > Voices.
For example, Daniel for British English and Karen for Australia.
I also made sure the list is the same in system preference > accessibility > spoken contents.
However, they still appear when I press vo+shift+command+arrow to select voice.
I also went to Macintosh HD/system/library/speech/voices, and nothing is there.
I rebooted, reset all setting for VoiceOver in VoiceOver Utility > File > Reset All VoiceOver Preferences.
Nothing helps. All the voices appear in the vo+shift+command+arrow.
How can I uninstall voices?
Thanks!

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Comments

By Justin Harris on Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 14:20

I really hope someone has a solution for this, as I have the same problem. Thought it was just because I'm running the 12.0 beta, and also reported to Apple, but appears this isn't just a beta issue.
Thanks for posting this. I really do hope someone comes up with a fix.

By James L on Friday, July 16, 2021 - 08:43

I fixed mine. I'm not sure if this will help you, but try it.
I checked the voices I want to delete in the customize dialog: VoiceOver Utility > Speech > voices .
I hit ok, let them install, and then rebooted.
Then went back into the same dialog, unchecked the same voices, and hit ok.
Then It asked me if I want to delete or keep. I chose delete.
I rebooted and they were gone finally.
I'm not sure if this would also work if you do it from the system preference > accessibility > spoken content > customize dialog.
Hope that helps, and hopefully Apple can fix this.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Friday, July 16, 2021 - 14:03

HI!
It is very strange that the extra voices cannot be removed without problems.
To pay so many dollars and to have those difficulties, it is not understandable for me.
It was just my opinion, certainly.
But it is very sad.
Cheers!

By Darryl Parsons on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 - 15:58

I just got a new MacBook running Ventura and am a little frustrated by the number of voices displayed in the rotor. It is counter productive to have a quick way to change voices that contains so many options it is tedious to find what you want.

I called Apple Accessibility to ask if there was an option to remove voices and apparently there is
I asked to submit this as an option for future updates. Perhaps it would be helpful if others who find this challenge contact Apple Accessibility and let them know. Maybe it will get some attention from developers.

By LaBoheme on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 - 20:00

that's how you get your problem resolved.

in older macos. you delete the corresponding voice files in /System/Library/SpeechBase/Voices, this remove the voice from the rotor. obviously, this no longer work. some files are still there, but the system is not using it; the real files have been moved somewhere and i don't know where.
i don't think this is a complicated problem, one simply needs to know where the new voice files are, and a real engineer would know. i mean these accessibility support people are nice people, trying to be helpful, but their knowledge is very limited.