Apple Releases iOS 13.1 and iPadOS 13.1; Bringing Many Bug Fixes and Some New Bugs for Blind and Low Vision Users

I’m running iOS 13.1 on an iPhone XS Max and still experiencing odd behaviour with Smart Invert. It does seem better but flicks between standard colours and inverted colours. Sometimes the fix appears to be just changing tabs within an app or switching to another app then switching back.

Thanks for your summary BTW, great work as always.

hey there,
Is there a way I will know if I have that bug before I update? This is a make or break for me, and if this is still a bug I might be on IOS12 for a long time lol.

When reading anything with voiceover, if you come across anything with the letters o n in it, voiceover will not read that word correctly.
For instance, words like won't, don't, are both spoken as dot o n t. This occurs with Alex as well as all the other US voices I have tried testing with.
Interestingly, while this issue occurs on all three of my devices, an iPhone 6S, an iPhone XR and an iPad 6th gen, it does not occur on someone else's iPhone 7+.

Techluver,

There appears to be no reliable way to predict when this behavior will occur. I myself did not experience it on my iPhone XS Max running iOS 13.1 Beta 4; however, when I set up my iPhone 11 Pro Max with a fresh install of iOS 13.1 Beta 4, I did experience the problem after ending a FaceTime Audio call. In my case, I was able to toggle VoiceOver off and back on with the Accessibility Shortcut.

I'm a bit nervous about the phne and facetime bug. During a force restart, how long typically would you need to hold the side button on an iPhone 8 before the Apple logo appears and you can release it?

Also, someone mentioned on the other topic that Daniel had been broken, but nobody else has commented on this. Did anyone else experience this behaviour and if so, has it been fixed with this latest update?

To perform a hard reset you typically wait about ten seconds.

In previous iOS version, after finishing a charge, Voice Over would eventually tell me 100% charged on AC Power. At that point, I'd disconnect the chord from the phone and wall. Today after updating to iOS 13 after over five hours, Voice Over continues to tell me 100% charged, charging, on battery power, charging. It should not continue to say charging. Its actually on AC power. Has anybody else had this situation occur?

Hi,

In the iOS 13 bugs list, there were mention of two bugs in the mail app: unreliable voiceover navigation in the message list of the mail app, and the inability to navigate by lines while composing a message. Has any of these bugs been addressed?

Also, while reading a message thread in the mail app, I noticed that the actions under the messages rotor no longer work. You can hear them being spoken when you flick up and down, but double tapping no longer causes anything to happen.

Thx,
Zuhair.

This whole thing is reminding me more and more of iOS 8. A friend and I were looking at the bug list today, and when we noticed the phone call issue, we both got nervous. I'm surprised at this, since while I want to ensure this thing is stable, I can't hold out forever. Has anyone reported the phone call bug to the accessibility team? Also, I'm curious as to whether this depends on the phone you're using. Is this more likely to happen with older phones than newer ones?

Also, someone is seeing Voiceover not reading words like "don't" and "won't" right. Has anyone reported this to Apple? For the person who is dealing with this, does anyone know of a workaround so they can fix it?

Face it, I recognize that any piece of software will have bugs, and I don't expect it to be totally free of bugs or issues. If that was my expectation, I'd be waiting forever. My expectation is that the OS is stable, and that features I need work. I may hold out until this call issue is resolved, but I can't hold out forever. Eventually, I will need to update. Thanks.

Using 13.1PB4 on an iPhone 8 I still think the notification center doesn't function reliably. When swiping over messages, some are skipped, or VO starts reading messages that aren't there and cannot be found when exploring the notification center. This doesn't happen with only a few messages, however if, e.g. you have notifications turned on for a specific tweeter, you could end up with a lot of them, in which case this happens.
Also, I see no way of activating a link in a twitter notification, whereas this is no issue on 12.4.1.
Also the habit of jumping back to the left top of the screen, e.g. after leaving a mail message, is quite annoying when I I am using the keyboard for navigation.
With kind regards,

Henk.

Apple has been made aware of all of the bugs we've reported in the original post, including the issue of VoiceOver sometimes becoming unresponsive after ending a call.

In IOS 13.0, it is no longer possible to enter your unlock passcode in Braille screen input, without first entering the first digit on the on-screen keyboard. This is a regression from IOS 12.4.x where one could enable braille screen input, and immediately enter the passcode. Can anybody confirm whether this bug still exists in IOS 13.1? Many thanks.

Hello Sam T,

I just checked on iOS 13.1 Beta 4, and I was able to enter my passcode using Braille Screen Input if I entered a number sign before the numbers. This capability isn't anything I recall having tried before, so I'm not sure how this worked in the past or if requiring one enter a number sign before the digits is expected behavior.

Thank you, yes, I've always used a number sign, and what you describe was the correct behaviour experienced in IOS 12.4, so it appears that this has been fixed for 13.1. Thanks.

If you're using a strictly numerical passcode, having to use a number sign before the first digit makes sense.

Thanks,
Shersey

Subject line says it. I thought it was only me having the continues to charge thing. I'm sure this is fixed in 13.1 as that would be even visual enough to get their attention. Apple, I mean.

A couple of bugs I've found not mentioned are:
sometimes when pressing the sleep/wake button voiceover will not speak the time, instead it plays the item activation sound.
When you engage Siri voiceover will sometimes speak causing her to hear what voiceover said and not what you said so try to wait until voiceover is completely finished speaking before engaging.

If you use MBraille, do not update to 13.1. It works fine with 13, but as of 13.1, all VoiceOver feedback ceases. This includes any typing feedback setting you may have, as well as movement and editing feedback done from within the MBraille keyboard. Sorry, I'm unable to speak to the behavior of any other third party keyboards.

Happens with Alex, enhanced Ava and enhanced Samantha. Those are the ones I've tested on. Compact voices don't seem to do it.

Hi all, as the subject says
After updated on IOS 13.0 since day of lonch officially
Im experiencing VO speach rate issue
I lost full control on VO speach rate, i try to increase and decrease the speach rate
From both way going to accessibility settings and through the rotor, but not able to do so.
Does others and beta testers of AppleVis team and public testers and normal users like me, have experienced such VO speach rate issue? And is their any work around?
Does Apple has fix this issue in 13.1?
Thanks

How about that bug. Is that fixed in 13.1? I didn't see any mention either way of that one. A bit on the annoying side when you think you're reviewing a message by character only to find a context menu that doesn't work. Thanks.

I have had this issue before. Please follow the steps outlined below to fix it.
1. Go to settings>accessibility>voiceover>speech.
2. Swipe right until you hear the roader languages heading, and select add new language.
3. Select the language that is your default. Meaning, if US english is the language/voice voiceover reads to you in, select US english and choose a different voice.
4. When you want to adjust speech rate, switch to this language in the roader, and adjust its speech rate. This will change the speech rate of your default voice as well.
For reference, what voiceover is actually doing is changing the default speech rate for languages you aren't selected. So if you run across, say, Russian characters somewhere, the rate at which those are spoken will have been changed, rather than your default voice's speech rate. Don't ask me why, but there you have it.
I hope this helps.

From what I've seen, I think I'm holding out until 13.2 to ensure these issues get resolved. As I said before, given this is a major update, I'd rather play it safe than have an unstable OS. But I can't hold out forever. In the meantime, if you have to update, does anyone know of a workaround for the call issue? Thanks.

dear all, I just wanted to know whether these bugs have been fixed in IOS 13.1 which I found to exist in 13:
1. While selecting a new language in the rotor settings by going into the speech settings for voiceover, when I swipe write to English India and double tap on it, nothing happens. However, when I tried the same thing with English US, it happened. I had downloaded Ava before updating and when I deleted it, it automatically switched to an Indian voice named Rishi but there still was no language under language option in voiceover.
2. When I go and select Siri female under English India voices and double tap on it, nothing happens. However if I do the same with Siri male, it does what it is supposed to do.
3. When I’m selecting the language in Voice control settings by double tapping it to change the language, nothing is happening. The language option is not activating.

thank you.

Hey all! Can anyone confirm if the bug that made apps such as Goodreads crash is fixed in 13.1? I ask because the person who made the comment said that Goodreads was 1 of the apps that was crashing. And I use that app several times a day.

I've brought this up in several other related threads. I'm currently running IOS 13.1 PB4 on mhy iPhone Xr and experiencing the following apps crashing on launch: Nearby Explorer (paid version), Envision AI and LastPass. This started with the first beta of 13.1 and despite my reporting it via the Feedback app, the problem has persisted. If you depend on these apps, I recommend waiting until the issue is fixed.

Dear everyone, In IOS13.0, the audible clue when unlocking with Face ID is unreliable, sometimes it doesn't produce the sound even though the phone is unlocked. In this connection, I wonder whether the inconsistency is solved in IOS13.1? Thank you.

While I'm not superstitious, I can understand this sentiment. In many superstitions, 13 is said to be an unlucky number. However, I'm optimistic that iOS 13 should be stable enough by either 13.2 or 13.3. Personally, I'm not sure what else Apple can do after this. Eventually, there will come a time when they can't go any further with iOS, but that's a point for another time.

Anyway, I'll be watching this, talking with experts and waiting to hear if and when these issues get resolved. Thanks.

Hi all. I read somewhere that Flicktype was compatible with ios 13 but its broken if using ios 13.1 . Can anyone confirm this please? Many thanks in advance we

I just tried the Good reads app on my Iphone and I am running IOS 13 and I do not have that app crashing. When it crashs for those of you who are having this issue, Have you thought of going into your ap switcher and seeing if it will open from there?

In 13 whenever I use siri when the iPhone is close, voiceover states posible text and I am not able to use siri. I have to tell her to cancel and restart because she wants to send a message saying posible text. Hope this is not happening in 13.1. I am finding this blank.

Yes, Flicktype works with regular iOS 13, but it's broken as a third party keyboard on 13.1. Luckily, it still works as a stand-alone keyboard app, which is more of a pain having to copy and paste, but it's better than toting a bt keyboard around everywhere, without flicktype or mBraille, that would be my only option. :)

I've never had goodreads crash, but does anyone using iOS 13 or 13.1 notice when they search for a book, the results don't read? So it's a matter of guesswork when finding the book. This is annoying, but very very minor compared to the bluetooth audio bug and the no flicktype as a third-party keyboard bug, but those are other topics for other days. :)

Hi,
In iOS 13.0 I've been getting repeated $$ characters that appear with Vo. When reading character by character, they never show up... This is only related to VO, and nothing else. Not sure if this issue has been resolved in 13.1 yet, but will upgrade on tuesday and see what happens.
Thanks for your help. I've restarted the phone several times, no dice. I'm looking forward to see what comes up with 13.1.

I did report this with Daniel and they said they couldn't reproduce the issue.

Hey all!
I hav"a question about blocking senders in Mail app.
Does it work even if you use 3rd party email providers?
I ask because I use Apple's Mail app, but I have my Gmail account connected 2 it. I know this may be a dumb question. But, this is 1 feature I'm really looking forward 2 using, because I have some email newsletters that I want 2 not see in my inbox again, but no matter how many times I move them 2 the junk folder, it never works. And 2 unsubscribe from this particular newsletter, you have 2 print out a copy of it, & put unsubscribe & actually send it 2 this adress by mail in Arizona! So, I'd appreciate any feedback on whether it works with 3rd party email providers or not. Thanks!

Yes, this does remind me of iOS 8 with the going and coming of serious VoiceOver bugs. Even in the sighted world, I have seen developers comment that an iOS release cycle this sloppy has not occurred since iOS 8. I am having very poor luck with iOS 13.1 beta 3 on my 2019 iPod Touch. I have deleted my beta profile and hope to get the final iOS 13.1 on that device soon. I will say that the iOS 13.0 public version is working great on my iPhone 7, so I will probably let sleeping dogs lie tomorrow. All of this to say, thank you so much to Applevis for your tireless and frustrating work to help us all do better with our iDevices!

All,
Be interested if anyone else has experienced this. When replying to an email in mail using BSI as the keyboard, longer messages, will often crash leaving the BSI keyboard vissible on the screen voiceOver becomes completely unresponsive and a force restart is the only method for getting it sorted. I have this happen at least twice daily.

For those who are having problems with words with apostrophes, check your punctuation setting. I find that if you have it set to read no punctuation this will include pronouncing words with apostrophes correctly. The trick is to set it to some punctuation on the roter and then your words should pronounce correctly.

After reading all of the reviews here and others in various news outlets, what becomes clear to me is that Apple did a shoddy job bringing this new release to the market. Of course, they pride themselves on quality but in this case, I feel that they blew it (as did many others). Here's hoping that they do a much better job on iOS 14.

I've reported my issue with voiceover speech through the feedback app. I did it over two months ago. And it's still broken.

Well I called it unlucky 13 before it was release. I was correct. Hope when iPhone 13 comes up, apple call it something else.