Developer Beta 8 is out.
By Dennis Long, 29 August, 2023
Forum
Apple Beta Releases
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Comments
Does beta 8 end the focus bug for those who had it?
Please respond if you were having the focus bug with beta 7 to indicate if you are or are not still having it with beta 8. smile. Thank you! Even though Apple doesn't always seem to be on our side, it's really good to know you guys are.
Dennis Long,
Is that iOS 17 letter A? Thought the one from last week was letter A. Did they release another A? Thanks.
still cannot read audio message transcripts
I just tested audio messages, and it appears we still cannot read the transcripts using voiceover.
Install
I'd like to install the betas on iPhone and Apple Watch. Are there any serious bugs? I don't have any focus problems in iOS 16.
Serious bugs.
I only have Beta 7 because I’m on public beta but the only serious one I have so far is that notes is basically unusable. If I go into a note and try to arrow down through the document it only reads the top line of each paragraph. This makes notes completely broken. Other than that, I’ve had a steady improvement with my phone over the last few days. First deleting down to 40% capacity which fixed the Screen curtain on crash. Accidentally installing iOS 17 beta which improved but didn’t fix my focus bugs. Ad blocker re-install that made safari a little better and finally turning off rotor summary for safari in voiceover verbosity. These have made my phone quite usable again after a truly desperate year of utter misery. I’d like to thank anyone who has answered my questions, suggested things or helped along the way. My phone isn’t how I’d like it to be but it’s definitely usable instead of a constant source of frustration and feelings of anger and incapability. Can anyone answer the focus bug question for Bruce in beta 8? I know how much of an improvement it will make to his life to finally have things improve a little.
Focus Bug
I'm currently updating to beta 8, but I have never had any kind of major focus issue. Try resetting your device settings first and then perform a complete factory reset if that doesn't work. I've been using iOS 17 beta for about a week now and I'm very happy to tell you the random instances where VoiceOver stopped speaking appear to be a thing of the past. Once 17 is officially released, I'll update to it and then perform a factory reset to start fresh.
The iPhone is no longer my primary phone. Until Apple has a feature to match the Google Pixel call screen feature, I'll never use an iPhone as a phone. The only calls that get through now are real people who want to talk to me. I keep an iPhone around so I can keep a foot in iOS land.
as answered before
It gets very tiring answering the same question over and over again!!!!! I had the focus issue last year!! It went away in iOS 17. If you want to know if its fixed try it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We aren't going to be able to guarantee it is fixed for you!!!! Why not? We don't have your phone quite possibly. 2 We don't have all the settings configured as you do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS others answered this at least one or two times!!
I think the reason he’s still asking is.
Some of us have had the focus bug fixed, some of us, it’s significantly better and some like him are still suffering. It’s completely reasonable for him to ask if anyone new has seen the bug go away in this update.
Thanks, Andy
True, and much appreciated. smile
Hi Dennis
Dennis,
It's even more tiring having to ask the question, but since most folks simply say they don't have the bug without saying whether they ever did, I haven't been getting an answer. "no, I still have the bug," or, "yes, I had the bug right up until the latest upgrade and now it's gone" are the answers I've been looking for.
Remember, since Apple told me they are addressing the issue in IOS 17, I've been waiting to find out if they've finally overcome the problem for those of us who still have that bug. The only way I'll find out if Apple has overcome the bug is by asking those who had it if they still have it. Even more, as I've previously indicated elsewhere, I've on the verge of either leaving
Apple because, yes, this bug is just that bad, or buying an iPhone 15 Pro on the assurance that the bug is . . at last . . . finally . . gone.
So Dennis, please know that I personally have no desire for you to continue answering the question. No need. I heard you. No reason to repeat yourself. So far as I am aware, unfortunately, Your answer doesn't do those of us who still have the bug any good anyway, and it's clearly wearing you out. While I appreciate the great effort it has cost you to try to be helpful, I assure you again there is no need or reason for you, personally, to do so any more. Again, my question is directed solely and exclusively to those who had and still have the bug, and to those who had the bug right up until they downloaded beta 8. In fact, if you['re wondering, you might want to read my question again. It's exactly the question I asked.
smile. Now go on and try to have yourself a fun day, and thanks again for all your hard work!
Bruce
No worries.
It’s tricky when you are concise and people go out their way to misunderstand.
Public beta is out
I am installing it in my main phone. Cross fingers all for me. Next week I think the RC might be out. This is the second letter A. I did installed it in my iPad 9. No issues there. Now iPhone 13 pro.
Thanks Holgar but it hasn’t fixed Notes for me.
Still completely unusable. Is anyone else having this problem? When moving up and down a note with the arrow keys on a BT keyboard. Only the top line of each paragraph will be spoken no matter which line the cursor is on.
I don’t think the release candidate will be out
I don’t think the iOS 17 release candidate will be out until mid September, which is have to wait until we figure out when I’m out of the Apple event will be. It should be around mid to September, I would be assuming it would be like September 12 or something, or it could be earlier or later, but I don’t know.
RC
Next week. This is the second A as Apple.
Bruce, no one can help you except you
Enlighten me please. There are millions of handsets around the country and the world, and so few have the focus bug. How is anyone's phone, except yours, going to be reliable enough to say yes, this bug has been squashed? I'll always be fascinated of how people are asking for a definite, is this fixed yet before I upgrade? Note that's for either the beta or final releases. If you're feeling brave, update and see what happens. If the problem persists even after a factory reset, then you have your answer and can move on with whichever device you decide is working for your specific needs. Good luck but I'd update, it can't be any worse right? :) The other recommendation I'd do is get to an Apple store by any means necessary and submit the bug in person where someone actually sees what happens and how you interact with it. Here's hoping your answer is what you want.
Bruce
I only had the focus issue like one or two or three or four times on iOS, 17, which is definitely less than what I had on iOS 16. I’m still getting lots of VoiceOver crashing on my iPad six generation, but I’m scared because this is my school iPad. I will write until the public release to download, The public release, I want to install the developer profile on this or the public profile, I’ll write until the actual stable, Luis
Andy Lane
What is the issue with note and tell me how to reproduce it. I open notes and open a file and use 2 fingers down to read and no issues.
Restarting device
I asked Siri to restart my device and she told me she could not do that. Is this a bug?
Holger and Siobhan.
To reproduce, open a note with multiple lines or preferably paragraphs. Using a Bluetooth keyboard, arrow down while not in quick nav. What should happen is each line your cursor lands on should be spoken but with the iOS 17 bug, only the top line of the paragraph is being read no matter which line you are on. I told Siri to restart my device and it worked for me. I don’t think Bruce is asking for a definite yes it will be fixed. As his question stated. He’s asking if this version fixed the problem for anyone who was having problems with focus bugs before installing it. I was in that same situation not long ago. I ended up installing iOS 17 kind of by accident which sounds strange but was how it happened. Anyway, it made some things better for me. The reason I didn’t want to install is because I didn’t want to risk introducing new bugs on top of the horrible one I already had. I do think it’s worth installing the beta at this point though. Other than the Notes bug, I’m not getting anything really bad. Dennis is having an issue with auto correct in Mail and theres another bug with deleting wallpapers but nothing really bad unless you don’t have another device to use Notes on as I do.
Could iOS 17 beta android.
Could iOS 17 beta saviour for all VoiceOver users?
Rotor
When I was using iPhone with iOS 16,6, I set to open my rotor by using 2 finger left or right. When I installed iOS 17 it change to the original command. How to I change it? I forgot. I know Thomas did a podcast on it and like it and use 2 finger righ to move to each rotor and want the sane. Help please. Can not recall.
Andy Lane
OK. Using iPad 9 and logitek slin folio. I open notes, open file and could not get keyboard to read each line using down arrow. VO kept reading the file and could not stop it. Use 2 finger to stop and after that, could not get it to read each line. Each line has info. Amazon line 1, number line 2 friend name line and so on. Could not move even after I enter on edit. Is this what you ment?
Restar and siri
OK. No issues. Works. Siri was updating something. Now it works.
Notification.
VO does not read them if I am using an app. If I leave phone alone next to me, yes.
Rotor gesture
OK. It came back my 2 fingers left and right. I did a search and found how to change. If anyone wants to do so, open VO go to command and touch.
Re: Rotor
To configure a two-finger swipe left or right to go to the next or previous rotor, go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands > Touch gestures, select either the two-finger swipe left or right, and choose the function you want that gesture to perform, E.G. next rotor or previous rotor.
Restarting device using SIRI
Now you just say "restart" then it'll ask you to verify that you want to restart, you say "yes" then it'll restart. Hope that helps.
Tyler
I came back. Thought when I updated to iOS 17 it change it back to the apple factory setting. After several minutes I got it back. Thanks.
Mute
Did anyone notice that voiceover now says silent mode and ring mode when you turn on or off the mute button. Nice In the past VO never told me when I muted or unmuted the button.
vo nice says silent or ring
Yep noticed that in the last beta. As for the person that asks about the focus issue I would agree with someone else in this thread just upgrade and try it. If it is still present reset everything and then see if it is still there. I under stand how frustrating it is. Believe me I would love to be able to say it is gone but I can't and won't give you miss information.
Release candidate will be released soon as Apple announce a spec
Apple will hold a special event. It’s Apple Park on September 13, so release candidate. Should be out soon
spell check bug still exists
to reproduce do the following.
1 go to settings, General, and keyboard.
2 turn off Auto correct and predictive.
3 type something with spelling errors in mail like the following:
Thiss Iss a Tesst.
4 go to misspelled words and correct your mistakes.
5 double check to make sure you got them all. Think of it as a much much longer email and you are doing one final check to make sure you got them all.
6 It will still repeat some words. Usually it repeats at least test if not one or two more for me.
7 What should happen it should speak nothing you corrected all errors. If we could all report it I would appreciate it.
That must be a real pain to deal with
I can’t wait until the public release though. It’s been 17 years of iOS.
Focus issues.
Did I mention that no focus issues with the current beta in 13 pro 128 GB. Never had issues in iOS 16 even with 12 pro. Lucky me and hope it continues.
It's September 12, not the 13th
Hi all, It's actually September 12, not the 13th. so, as apple has done every year following their iPhone event, they release the RC, followed by the public release one week later.
No
Wait, hold on, I think I mean September 13 Australian time I think that’s what Apple was saying to me. Crap, sorry., I thought they meant it was September 13 American time, sorry for the confusion
Dominic et al
Thank you, Dominic, and thank to to all, Andy and others, for adding to our small store of knowledge. Some folks think ignorantly throwing away over a thousand dollars is courageous, and they think gathering information before spending hard earned cash is cowardly. Me? i've always preferred to know what's what b efore I reach a decisions. I like to think this greatly helped me way back when to be a better Judge Pro Tem on the Circuit Court of Oregon.
Meanwhile, since Apple wasn't exactly forthright, only eventually acknowledging the focus bug was being 'addressed", it became obvious, as Siobhan put it, no one could help me except me,. Therefore, I sought knowledge.
I thank those of you who offered what information you had in reply to my question every time a new beta came out. Your information established that the focus bug persists, albeit in unknown numbers, and it persists on a variety of devices, despite various attempts to fix the bug, which at best only resulted in reducing the frequency of the problem in some cases.
I also appreciate all the fix it suggestions, from resetting my old iPhone 10s to increasing available memory to using unenhanced voices, all well intended, but all more or less unproductive, at least for my old phone. The only thing that helped my phone was to switch to unenhanced Evan. Using unenhanced Evan reduced the frequency the bug occurred, which was helpful, but because I am hard of hearing, it really isn't helpful for me at all.
And last, to those who criticize those of us who persist in seeking knowledge, you have my compassion. There is just so much you are missing. I hope you find it someday..
share photos in message
Has anyone play with this feature about using a poster instead of a photo? If so, how. Thought you could create a poster.
notifications
none of my notifications will speak like in 16 I tried turing on speak in system notifications in voiceover but it kept reading the notifications and wouldn't stop when I touch the screen
Messaging not showing in iPhone help.
OK. I am not getting messages in my iPhone. Yet they are coming in my iPad 9. Both are using iOS 17 public beta current version. What happen? Help.
Message revisit.
OK. Somehow iOS 17 turn off iMessage.It is OK now. Strange.
Notification and VO.
Still have issues with VO not reading notification when I am using phone. Works well when phone is not. VO does read them. Any suggestion? Is this a bug?
report notification issue
report the notification issue.
Dennis Long
OK. Any solution in the meantime?
no solution
No solution at this time. just go into the feedback app and file the bug.
I’ll will be overwhelmed if you call instead of leaving comments
Truthfully. With All the comments that you guys leave on this website, I wonder if those energies could be used to actually calling Apple accessibility and literally making them go through what you’re going through. I think it would literally overwhelm them and it would make fixes much more relevant. Consider how much time it would take them to go through and deal with all the bugs you guys are reporting. But instead you guys are asking help from people that don’t have the power to help you generally. as always, I am going to encourage that you guys place a heavier focus on actually calling Apple accessibility at 1-877-204-3930. Just so you know you don’t leave a bug report once you consistently update it. You hammer them with information. It’s not a one and done thing. And having a phone conversation with them about these issues (focus, notifications, etc.) would force them to really deal with what you guys complaining about. Whenever I call that line, there’s no wait to get a representative. They are literally sitting there doing almost nothing. They’re so bored that they actually turn voiceover on during the phone call. That is a huge problem. When I call, I want to wait at least five or 10 minutes because I know at that point, you guys are actually calling them and complaining. Why are you constantly coming on this website and going around in circles?
Yes, we’re currently in a beta cycle. So calling them about Beta is it helpful. But most of you are running iOS 16 anyway. In about a month everybody’s gonna be running iOS 17. Please. I am begging you. With all of my heart, I am begging you. Call them. annoy them. Call to such an extent where they don’t get the chance to turn off voiceover. I don’t care if there are language barriers. You obviously have enough knowledge to compose messages. Make the effort to directly communicate with Apple. Again, contact Apple.
Not convinced notifications is a bug
Guys not sure this is a bug. If you are referring to what I think you are VO no longer reads out the notifications when the phone is unlocked. You still get a tone if that app uses them but it doesn't speak. You can touch the top left of the screen to hear the notification and then dismiss it. Works normally on locked screen. I suspect apple have done this so that people don't keep getting interupted when using other apps. I have to say used to find it annoying. What would be good though if this isn't a bug is a toggle switch somewhere so you can choose this option to be on or off. Some people may prefer to have stuff read out even if they are using say audible or music. On another note the weather app is still unusable which is a bigger issue I think if when released it suddenly shows loads of non beta testers get that bug.
Ash Rein
People make reports via email, calls and so on yet apple does not respond appropriately. Blaming the user does not help. Apple is not addressing bugs. There is no communication between reporting, writing down the bugs and send them to the appropriate engineers that address bugs.. You get the nice message Thanks for reporting the bugs we are aware and are addressing them.
My two cents
Ooty. Whilst I understand, it is vital to send reports to Apple, calling them and actually knowing that they using VoiceOver to try and struck the bug maybe vital in some situations.