"VoiceOver can use a USB braille display to control this computer" dialog on system start in Sonoma

By Mlth, 12 March, 2024

Forum

macOS and Mac Apps

Hi
After upgrading to Sonoma, I get the following dialog on system startup, and sometimes when turning on VoiceOver:
"VoiceOver can use a USB braille display to control this computer. This will allow other USB accessories to connect even when your computer is locked. You can change this in Settings."
I'd really like to turn this message off, but unfortunately, I'm not sure to which setting they're referring. As I'm on an intel mac, I can't control settings for USB accessories in "security and privacy", nor do I have a braille display added in VoiceOver Utility>braille>display tab.
Has anyone run into this, and know of a fix?

Best
M

Options

Comments

Offering suggestions

Try having a peek at your startup options, for both macOS as well as the voiceover utility. There may be a new setting in Sonoma 14.4, that you can toggle off to prevent this from happening in the future.

Thanks for the ideas Brian!…

Thanks for the ideas Brian!
I just checked the "general" panel in VO utility as well as the login items and lock screen settings, but unfortunately no luck there either. I'll keep digging!
If inspiration strikes again for other places to look, be sure to let me know.

Privacy and security

Hello,
Under privacy and security there is a setting that says allow accessories to connect.This setting is a pop up button with several options underneath it. Depending on the option you choose, this should get rid of that message. At least I think it will.

System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility

I'm not getting this message, but one possible place to check is System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. I use VoiceOver and don't have a braille display, and have nothing in the list of allowed apps except DropBox. If you are also not a braille user, you may want to remove anything from this list that sounds related to VoiceOver or braille.

HTH

Confirming This Pop-Up

I vaguely recall seeing, or rather hearing, a similar message when first connecting my eReader via USB to this Mac. I didn't have the eReader when I had my other Mac, and that was Intel-based. This is a Silicon-based one, and I just authorized the eReader access. On a side note, the device is working well. I currently use it mainly as a Braille display with VoiceOver. I have also used it for its primary purpose, i.e., reading Braille material from BARD. I currently have a few more audio things in my wish list and then I think I'll switch over to reading Braille material and just go back and forth.

Thanks for all of your input…

Thanks for all of your input guys!
@Greg Unfortunately I have an intel mac, so this popup-button doesn't appear for me. It might very well be a false positive from VoiceOver, where it expects this setting to be present though.
@Tyler Good suggestion. As far as I understand it, this privacy setting is also related to some UI-automation related things, but I'll mes around with it and see if things change. Unfortunately, nothing related to VoiceOver or braille is in the list though.
@Ekaj More and more I'm thinking this might be a case of VoiceOver thinking that I'm on an Apple Silicon mac and not an intel one. I just wrote Apple Accessibility as well to see if they've got any ideas.

best
M

Same issue

I also have this issue, and I'm on a intel i9 CPU MacBook Pro from late 2019. None of the above suggestions was applicable for me neihter unfortunately. So please do keep us posted about any updates about this from Apple Accessibility :)

Same issue here

I've also got an Intel Mac.

I have never used a Braille display with my Mac. Except, early last month, I plugged my Braille display into my Mac, just to charge it, not to use it. This message has popped up every day since, some indeterminate time after a reboot. Sometimes it's the first thing on my screen. Other times, I reboot, use my Mac happily for a few hours, then this dialog pops up out of nowhere.

The dialog contains only an Okay button, no other options. A web search turns up only this AppleVis discussion.

Email Apple Accessibility

I emailed Apple Accessibility about this, described the issue and pointed them back to this discussion. I'll let you know if I receive a reply.

I'd love to hear what they…

I'd love to hear what they said. I believe they escalated the bug to the appropriate team when I mailed them about it.
I downgraded from sonoma due to unrelated issues regarding drives formatted in ExFAT, so unfortunately I can't verify whether the bug is still present with my configuration at the moment.

Best
M

Oddly enough, this only seems to affect intel

Oddly enough, this bug only seems to be present on Intel machines. On my 2018 MacBook Pro, on the latest OS version, this dialog is still present whenever I restart my computer. However, on my M3 pro, I restart the computer, and this dialogue never shows up. No idea why it only shows up in intel, however, but its annoying.

A Suggestion

Try to disable VO on startup then re-enable again.

No easy fix

I was hoping Apple Accessibility would get back to me, advise me to cd into some cryptic directory, and remove some obscure plist file. Instead, I got this response:

Hi Paul,

Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. We wanted to let you know that our team is aware of this issue, and is currently investigating solutions. We will let you know if we learn of a fix in a future software update.

M-class Macs

I hate updating my hardware to get rid of a bug, but I'll probably be on an M4 Mac Mini before Apple comes out with a fix for this one.

Thanks for the update, Paul!…

Thanks for the update, Paul!
I use both Mac and Windows due to work, but I'm not sure where I stand with regards to primary personal machine yet, though I'm leaning towards Windows due to efficiency considerations. We'll see when upgrade time comes.

Best
M