Just updated to latest software version, and now can't use the phone

By Alice B., 28 October, 2019

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I'm using an iPhone 8, and just updated to the latest software version. I noticed that things were a little screwed up, so I reset the settings. The phone powered back on, but when I tried to get into voicdOver by pressing the home button three times, nothing happened. I wanted to restart the phone, so I pressed and held the power button to turn it off, but nothing happened. I can tell it's on, but that's about it. Any help would be much appreciated@

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Comments

By DrummerGuy on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

Let's see if this works:
First, if you are able to summon Siri, ask Siri to turn on VoiceOver.
If that does not work, then quickly press up volume, then in the down volume.
After that press and hold the side button for about eight or 10 seconds and your phone should restart. (Note)
The side button is the power button.
Hope that helps.

By Bingo Little on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

Since updating to IOS13, a reset seems to turn off the tripple click accessibility shortcut. Believe me, i had to reset my phone something like twenty times following the update in order to cure my battery problems and I can confirm that consistently the accessibility shortcut is disabled by a reset. it sounds like this is what is happening here. You can turn on Voiceover by summoning Siri, though this can be a bit tricky as, for example, if you have reset all settings then your phone might ask you if you want to enable Siri the first time you try to summon her, and of course you won't be able to read that alert. Sadly in that case you might need someone sighted to enable Siri for you, and then ask Siri to turn on Voiceover.

By DMNagel on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

It really should be reported as it takes away our independence.

By Bingo Little on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

I have reported the issue. I also demonstrated to a genius at the Covent Garden Apple Store in London, who also passed it up the chain of command. Glad it's sorted for you, alice.

By Troy on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

Yeah that needs to be fixed, I guess if this happens to anyone else another alternative would be to use iTunes and go under accessibility options.

By Lukas on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

Do they even have quality control for accessibility at all, when a bug like this can make it into production releases? Same goes for the really nasty bug where VoiceOver and all auditory output from the phone whatsoever can crash if you are on a call with wired headphones and VO on. The workaround which seems to be working reliably for now is to turn VO off before the call ends, and then turn it back on. So, are you saying that just resetting the phone to factory defaults, i.e. erasing data and settings, deactivates the accessibility shortcut, whereas if you use recovery mode with iTunes, it still works? Because when I had to reset two phones recently, and one of them even had to be recovered with iTunes, this never happened to me and the shortcut worked just fine. By the way, how do you recover an iOS device using a computer on macOS Catalina? Has this feature also been moved over to Finder? Somehow, I doubt it.
Lukas

By Alice B. on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

I just reset the settings without erasing anything. I know the phone is on because, when I plug in the earphones, I can hear music, but I can't stop it, because there's no pause button on the earphones, and no speech on the phone. When I press the power button to try and stop it that way, nothing happens.

By Brian Tew on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

In reply to by Alice B.

Does that have any effect?
I believe that is supposed to stop things like music.

By Lukas on Saturday, October 26, 2019 - 15:27

It is a VO only gesture, not iOS itself, so you need to have VO actually running at the moment to have it do anything. It not only stops and plays music but also answers and hangs up calls, starts and stops the stopwatch if you are on the respective tab of the Clock app, takes a photo or starts and stops shooting a video in the respective place, and so on. I believe it even silences an alarm or timer that went off, etc. Basically, it's contextual, but still a VO thing.
Lukas