Privacy and speech in the Apple Universe: Bugs?

By Chelsea, 10 November, 2012

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
For lack of posting this twice, it's in the Mac section for now. I am running Mountain Lion on a 2011 Air, and sometimes when I wake the computer up, VO doesn't respond. No speech, no VO-specific sounds. Turning VO on and off again accomplishes nothing, as does muting and unmuting. I'm thinking this may have something to do with the Power Nap feature? The only workaround I've found is to restart the computer completely. Luckily with a fast SSD this doesn't take long, but it is a bit annoying as I never know when this bug is going to show up and it is disconcerting to have the speech totally go away. Anyone else having this issue? My problem on iOS is exactly the opposite. When do not disturb is enabled, my phone doesn't vibrate, but VO will still read my texts, which kind of defeats the point if my phone is next to me. If I flip the mute switch it will shut up, but it's really weird. Better consistency here with 6.0. I just want to get some feedback before I submit something to Apple. Thanks, Chelsea

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Comments

By Bryan Jones on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - 23:55

Hello, I also have a 2011 MBA running ML 10.8.2 but am not experiencing the particular issue of VO becoming non-responsive after waking the system. I am always presented with the lock screen password prompt a few seconds after opening the lid on my MBA, and VO always seems ready to go at that point. I should mention there are other instances where VO flakes out or goes silent on this MBA, but waking from sleep isn't a problem. If you suspect power nap, you could try disabling it in System Prefs / Energy Saver . There are checkboxes for power nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs. Also, you might try giving Applecare a call if you haven't already done so. I seem to recall hearing about SSD-related sleep/wake issues in some systems, but I'm not sure if it applies to your MBA. HTH, Bryan

Hi Bryan, Thanks for the tip. Surprisingly, the sleep/wake feature is the only main place where VoiceOver flakes out for me. and in the other places where it sometimes does this, I still get the distinctive sounds. But anyway, should I call AppleCare or the accessibility team? I think I did turn off PowerNap at one time, but the issue persisted. I'll reconsider. Thanks!