Hello everyone. In iOS 10 i found something wrong with my Siri enhanced quality Voice with VoiceOver. When i try to select Siri Male English Voice for my speech on VoiceOver, i can not find it. On settings>general>accessibility>VoiceOver>speech>default Voice, i just found Siri male voice with standard quality. Have you found this too? Do you have a solution for me? Thanks for your help..
By Indra, 14 September, 2016
Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Comments
Restart might help
Hi,
I had the same problem with my iPad. After restarting I got all the options including the enhanced voices.
Try that and see if that works.
Cheers
I have tried
I have tried to restart my iPhone. But, the same problem still there. I have tried to restore my iPhone, but the result is the same.
Me too...
Hi. Me too. I'm trying to select Siri Female enhanced UK English voice on my iPad, but all I get is standard voice. But I've got the enhanced voices on my iPhone. I'v shutdown and restarted the Ipad several times, and still the same... Not liking Kate or Serena, so sticking to Siri Female... Any other ideas? Thanks..
The siri voices have to be downloaded
They show up just fine for me on an iPhone 6, but they have to be downloaded first. Go to settings/general/accessibility/VoiceOver, on, /speech. on that screen, you'll find a button that says voice, followed by the current voice you're using. I can't say what that is because everyone uses a different one, Applevis users are from all over the world. So double-tap on the voice button, and swipe over to Siri, either male or female. on the next screen, you can listen to a sample and choose wether you use regular siri normal, or the enhanced voice. if you double-tap on Siri female, for example, you'll get the regular compact Siri voice. If you keep swiping to the right you should see an element that says Siri female, enhanced, 189 megabytes. Actions available. swipe over to the right once more and you'll find a download button. Make sure that your region is set to the one you're currently in, mine is English, United States. So hit that download button and you should be ok. If the voices don't show up for you, try rebooting your device. Also, it's entirely possible that the voices may not appear on all iDevices for some inexplicable reason.
No Siri enhanced quality voices?
I only have the default voice as well, and I'm on an iPhone SE. There's simply no download button for the Siri enhanced voice, only one voice exists, which is the compact voice. All the other voices work fine on my device. Not sure if there's any problem here.
same problem
I'm having the same problem. I don't see a download button for the serie voices on my iPhone six, but they show up on my iPad just fine.
Restore to iOS 9.3.5
Hi, i have solved this problem. First i have to downgrade to iOS 9.3.5, and than go up again to iOS 10.
strange
This is very strange. On my 16 gig iPhone 5S, I only have the enhanced male and female US Siri voices. I cannot select the compact version. Speaking of the Siri voices, are they higher quality on iOS 10? I've heard podcasts where the voices sound much more natural and very clear. However, they sound the same on my phone. Do folks with larger capacity iPhones get higher quality voices? If so, that is not fair at all as I like the new sound of the Siri voices. I came from iOS 9 and used iTunes to clean install 10.
I have a 64 gig SE and the
I have a 64 gig SE and the Siri voices sound the same to me.
Siri quality voice
I think the Siri quality voice on iOS 10 is the same like iOS 9. The higher quality is just for Siri itself, not for the quality for the voice for VoiceOver.
Slightly going off topic
Hi all!
A few posts ago mentioned downgrading to iOS 9.3.5. But I don't know how to do it. Plus, I've deleted the iOS software for 9.3.5. And, as for iOS 10, I've tried both OTA and DFU updating and restoring from backup, but no enhanced quality Siri voices.
I also own a 64-G iphone SE. But if the voices sound the same, I guess there's no need to go with the technical stuff since Ava is a new favourite of mine.
You might have to redownload
A very curious thing happened to me with my iPad Pro this morning: Siri female enhanced stopped working, simple as that. If I clicked on listen to a sample, all i got was silence. Restarting didn't help. I solved the problem when I flicked down on the Siri female enhanced label and it game me a 'download voice' option, which redownloaded it. I have no idea why it disappeared in the middle of my reading my newspaper. Seems that there are seveal eccentricities surrounding the voices in IOS10 of this sort.
One thing to keep in mind.
Remember to download the voices you have to plug your device in to power. The list will not show up for download otherwise.
Yes, keep your devices
Yes, keep your devices plugged into to an adapter/power bank, etc. Also, keep in mind the voices will not download unless you are on wifi. Hope this helps. All voices work on my end of iOS 10.
My Experiences With the Disappearing Enhanced Siri Voices on iOS
I, too, am very frustrated and disappointed regarding the disappearance of the enhanced Siri voices with VoiceOver on iOS 10. For the record, having my phone plugged in did not restore those voices to the list of available voices and restarting did not help. What follows is the text of an email which I have sent to Apple's Accessibility team with details about when this problem started. If others are experiencing this problem, I encourage you to contact Apple and let them know about the problem, with as many details as you can provide. Please don't assume that they'll address it just because I contacted them. The more people who contact them with this problem the more they are likely to investigate the problem. You can contact them at accessibility@apple.com.
Here is what I sent them.
Hello.
I am writing concerning a problem which I am unable to solve. This issue
concerns an iPhone 6S, 64 GB model. The same problem has affected a
family member who owns an iPhone 6, 128 GB.
Here are the details of my device and the problem I am experiencing.
I am visually impaired and use VoiceOver for access. I use the U.S. Siri
enhanced male voice. My iPhone 6S initially came preinstalled with iOS
9. Its speed and overall performance were extremely satisfactory using
VoiceOver. When iOS 10 was publicly released, I downloaded and installed
it onto my 6S. I noticed that some apps took a longer time to load. I
also noticed a slightly longer than usual delay when performing the
two-finger scrub gesture to move back to the previous screen. While I
wouldn't say that the delays were unacceptable, I admit to being
disappointed at the difference in performance on a phone which is still
a very recent model. I decided to perform a complete reset and erase,
followed by a restore from a recent iTunes backup, hoping that doing so
might increase my phone's performance.
After performing the restore from iTunes, I noticed that there was no
difference in my phone's performance. However, I was unable to switch to
the enhanced Siri voices with VoiceOver as these voices were no longer
listed as available choices. While it was possible to set VoiceOver to
any of the Siri voices, these were just the lower-quality voices. The
enhanced voices no longer appeared as possible choices. Please
understand that these enhanced Siri voices were available to me when I
initially upgraded from iOS 9 to iOS 10. They disappeared when I
performed a reset and restore on my phone.
This is very troubling to me as these are my favorite voices and I very
much prefer them over the other voices from Nuance and I would very much
like them back. As I indicated, another family member who also uses
VoiceOver is experiencing the same problem with his iPhone 6. If there
is a way to return these voices to my phone, I would appreciate learning
how this is done. If this is a bug due to resetting or restoring the
device, I would greatly appreciate it if Apple could investigate the
cause of the problem.
Many thanks.
US Siri female Changed
I am just curious to know if anyone else has noticed it, but is it my imagination or has the US Siri Female Compact voice changed in iOS 10? I used to have Samantha, until iOS 9 when she got worse, so I changed to the Compact US Siri Female voice as she sounded much better. But since iOS 10, I find that the compact Siri Female has gotten worse and that Samantha compact she's gotten better.
When I first updated my iPad Mini 2nd Generation, the compact Siri Female voice sounded as usual, but then the voice somehow changed to a really robotic voice, like Eliquence. Ssince then, the compact Siri Female voice changed for the worst and I can't seem to get her back.
Again, not sure if anyone else has noticed this, am curious to know why the voices initially went bonkers and turned to that really crappy robotic voice.
Thanks!
Do you see the word 'Enhanced' in the list?
In the list of voices I don't see ny 'Enhanced 'word. Are they all Enhanced by default? I picked Tom but I would prefer an enhanced Tom if I had one. I tried powering off and on an I upgraded to 10.0.
Enhanced Siri voice
I restored my phone from iToons also, so when I saw this post, I got curious, so I looked, and I don't see the enhanced Siri voice either. Interesting!
Aha! I think I know what is going on
After you download the Siri or Tom voice from the list presented you, click on the voice and you will be presented another 'Edit' screen where you can play the sample and pick the Enhanced version of the voice if available.
Only one version of Siri voice available
Hi all, I'm having the same problem as the original poster of the thread. This problem occurs on four devices, two of which were upgraded from iOS 9 and two which shipped with iOS 10. Essentially, the Siri voices do not behave as all other voices do for me in iOS 10. The sequence should be as follows:
1. Go to general, Accessibility, Voiceover, Speech.
2. Choose your dialect if you've added more than one.
3. Look at the list of available voices, each of which should have a "download" button.
4. Once downloaded, select the voice which brings up a new screen. This screen contains the voice name, an option to hear a sample, and a voice name enhanced.
This is not what happens with the Siri voices, in any language, on my devices. For these voices, only the voice name and an option to play a sample is shown. There is no ability to switch from compact to enhanced, and the sample sounds markedly different than what my device is actually using. I have plugged the device in, it is on wi-fi, so there's no reason voices shouldn't download. Besides that, other voices have behaved perfectly. One device is an iPhone 6S, one is an iPhone 7, one is an iPhone 7 Plus, and one is an iPad Air II. This is baffling. I can't see any commonality in these that could cause the same bug to pop up, when it works fine for many other people.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
Not true
The list will show up just fine even if your device is not plugged in. What it will not do is download updates to the voices or re-download them if they are removed by an operating system update. For these automatic actions, you need to plug your devices in.
I am having the same problem
There are lots of comments along the lines of: 'you need to plug your devices in' but I think most people who have this problem have tried that. for myself, I've no problem on my iPad Pro which updated fine, but on my iPhone 7 I cannot select siri enhanced voices at all. The option simply does not appear. Luckily, this problem surfaced when I was in the Covent Garden Apple Store, so they were both able to replicate it on some other iPhone 7s they had in store and to contact the head of Apple Accessibility direct. In fact they were so brilliant that I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Eddie and Josh from the Covent Garden Apple Store for the time they put into this issue, and I know the latter of these chaps pays very close attention to what happens on applevis so hope he'll read this. The upshot, however, is it appears we might be stuck with this for now unless anyone has any idea at all what to do.
Enhanced Siri Voices
After playing with it for a while, I believe that the Siri voices you download are the enhanced voices, it looks like there is no more compact Siri voices. I updated my iPhone as well and find that Siri US female sounds better on the phone then it does on my iPad. It sounds more like it did back on iOS 9, but the same voice on my iPad Mini does not sound the same, it sounds worse.
Ah well, that's alright, I just changed my iPad to Samantha and left my phone with the Siri US voice.
Email to apple accessibility re: Siri voices
Wow, fantastic that Apple store employees took the time to replicate the issue and to contact the appropriate people at Apple. It's wonderful to see when employees truly do want to do their job to the fullest, and make every effort to resolve an issue.
So, discovered something interesting yesterday while playing around. Seems that the 7 I just bought doesn't have both variations of the voices, but the 6S I just traded in works as expected. I restored from an iCloud backup of the 6S to the 7, so theoretically everything that worked on the 6S would've worked on the 7. Nope, not the case. Here's the message I just sent to Apple Accessibility.
Hello,
I and others are encountering an oddity with Siri voices, and Iām not really sure how to troubleshoot. Iāll describe the issue in as much detail as possible, and am happy to provide more info as needed.
In attempting to use Siri voices with Voiceover, both variations of the voices are not available on all devices. On an iPad Air 2 running iOS 10, a brand-new 7 Plus with iOS 10, and a new 7 running iOS 10, only one version of each Siri voice is present under Accessibility, Voiceover, Speech. The available voice does not specify itself as compact or enhanced. The name just reads as: āsiri femaleā, for example. For all other voices, the option to download is present, and when downloaded, the voices show both a standard and enhanced version to choose from.
Stranger still, the iPhone 7 exhibiting this behavior was restored from an iCloud backup of my previous 6S phone. The 6S exhibited the correct behavior of showing both variations of the voice, but the restored device does not. Furthermore, I have another iPad Air 2 that does show both variations of the voice. In the case of both iPads, they were not shipped with iOS 10, but rather were upgraded from iOS 9 when 10 was released. One exhibits the expected behavior and the other does not.
Again, happy to provide more info if necessary. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Ricky Enger
Dispelling a myth
@Ricky well done, an excellent email and a very thorough description of the issue. @Blinken223 you're not the first one to have said there is no variant of the Siri voice, but there is, at least for UK English. Siri compact sounds considerably different from siri enhanced, as one would expect. I don't particularly like the siri compact voices but the enhanced ones, female in particular, are excellent.
still no resolution
Just thought I would reinvigorate this topic as we are now a couple of updates down the line from when last anyone posted about this. I still cannot download Siri enhanced voices. the option simply doesn't appear. Is anyone else still having this problem?
for me, I'm glad that for now
For me, I'm glad that for now we can only use the default Siri voice. The Mandarin Chinese-speaking voices all work great when in the default version. The enhanced versions all sound a little off. So I now have Ava for American English plus Siri female default for Chinese. In the default language mode, it automatically switches voices depending on languages.
One thing that I find a little bad is, in the past, I can set my speaking rate separately. If I set 55% speaking rate in the rotor languages, I can let it continue to be 55% while I set the English rate to 50%. Well, this I could take advantage of on iOS 9, but no more now on iOS 10.
Just wanted to share with you guys. That's all.
No change...
Hello... Have Siri Female enhanced on my iphone 6s, but not on the ipad pro 9.7, Running ios 10.1.1. The difference was that I updated to ios 10 over the air on the iphone, and via iTunes on the PC with the ipad... Bloody annoying..... Any ios 10.2 beta's out there seen any updates to VO? Thanks..
Not sure that makes a difference
I don't think it makes a difference how you update. I did both of mine over the air, and while I have Siri enhanced on the Ipad Pro 9.7 I do not on the iPhone 7, bloody annoying as you say. I think this bug is down to what the philosophers might call moral luck (see Williams and Nagel from the proceedings of the Aristottelian Society for more info on this topic). We all have the same intention when we update, we all intend to bring about the same result. that A brings it about successfully and that B does not is a matter of luck. If this carries on I am tempted to ring up apple accessibility and read them the articles on moral luck as a punishment! There are two, so maybe my iPhone 7 could read one using Daniel, and the iPad Pro could read the other using UK Siri female enhanced.
Speeding UP
I only noticed this because I went to see if I could speed up Siri. On my 6plus, Siri is a lot faster. On this 7, she sounds drugged, she's talking so slow. Still, I seem to remember that on my 6plus, the enhanced didn't appear till I used my mom's WiFi connection.