Braille Translation Services is running, when I don't use Braille devices.

By Michael, 30 June, 2023

Forum
Braille on Apple Products

Hello all,
I currently use a Mac book air, and every now and then it seems to be running something in the background. The fans get quite loud and when I investigated in Activity Monitor, I found that something called 'Braille Translation Services' was running.

This is strange, since I do not use any Braille Hardware and (to my knowledge) I haven't enabled any braille settings.

I have looked a little bit on the internet, but only found how to configure Braille settings. Could someone provide some information about how to either turn off a setting that I have missed or disable what ever is running? I have never used the braille part of Voice Over before, so I am confused why it would be running and doing nothing?

thanks,
Michael

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Comments

By Tyler on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 00:32

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

After quitting the process, does it come back in reaction to anything? This could help isolate its source.

I also don't use any braille devices, but have never seen this process in Activity Monitor. Have you ever used a braille device with your Mac? If so, removing it from VoiceOver Utility or Bluetooth Settings may cause the process to stop appearing.

Finally, the only other thing I'd consider is resetting all VoiceOver preferences by opening VoiceOver Utility and choosing File > Reset all VoiceOver preferences. Before doing this, however, you may want to go through and document your VoiceOver customizations, so you can more painlessly reconfigure VoiceOver to your specifications after the reset.

HTH

By neosonic2 on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 00:32

How do you know this particular process is the cause of the problems you've been experiencing with your MacBook Air (sluggishness, a high amount of fan noise, etc.)? is the process using an excessive amount of memory or CPU, especially when compared to other processes? I recognize that this may be a process you are not expecting to see in Activity Monitor, but macOS uses lots of processes most individuals may not be expecting to see running. Some of these are short-lived while others are resident in the background. So, the bar that determines whether this particular process warrants your concern is not that it's running even though you don't expect it to be, but rather the amount of system resources it's consuming.

By Michael on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 00:32

Thanks for the tips, I know that the process is taking up about 4 times as much CPU usage as Voice over (about 90 to 100, whatever that means).

It has only started to happen over the last week, which could be because I have started using my Arduino again. I am usually in the Terminal app when it starts. After browsing the web for a bit, it doesn't happen, but I can't get it to happen again in Terminal. It is probably not connected to the Arduino, but would it be somehow activated by serial communication?

I haven't tried to quit the process before, but it does seem to turn off (gradually reducing its CPU usage until nothing) when I close Terminal.

I will try stopping the process the next time it happens.

Thanks again