iOS 18 voiceover drifting

By Brian, 30 September, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I have just bravely installed iOS 18 on my iPhone 15 pro. I usually wait until the .1 of a new operating system But thought I would be brave this time. However, I have discovered that using VoiceOver that on a couple of apps VoiceOver continuously drift back to the beginning of the page, for instance Facebook and BBC Sounds app. Very frustrating when you're trying to find out what program is on later in a day. Has anybody else found this? Is there a solution?

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Comments

By Lee on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

Hi,

No never seen this. I have iPhone 15 pro as well and all apps work fine. Have you tried a hard reset? A lot of times this gets rid of weird bugs. You could also try resetting network settings a pain but that also helps.

By Brooke on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

I've noticed this on Facebook the most. It's been an issue for a while but has gotten so much worse in the past week or so. Every time I try to do something, it's flung me back to the top of the page. I think it's also happening in my TV Listings app. It's like the focus issue, but worse.

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

With me is overcast. When i get into a podcast and want to tap on play it changes. Send me anywhere I do not know with focus. Facebook.

By Brad on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

You might want to try downcast, that's what I use.

Although I'll warn you that overcast doesn't allow you to export OPML files anymore, I think the guy is working on it but i'm not sure.

By Chris Smart on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

I experience this in the Dropbox app, and I'm using iOS 18.1 beta 5.

By PaulMartz on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

This issue predates iOS 18, though what you're seeing in Facebook might be a new and more pronounced instance of the problem. During the iOS 18 beta cycle, I opened a Feedback issue and reported several situations where I witnessed VoiceOver focus jumping to often random locations for no discernable reason. According to the status, there are more than ten similar reports, and a fix will be available in a future release.

By Gokul on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

And yes, facebook and in a few other places. Never had the focus jumping issue to an anoying extend before, but now this is a real problem. For context, I'm using IOS 18.1 beta 5.

By Brad on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

As horrible as it sounds, I just deal with it, it's mostly on the web but as I use dropbox now I'll probably experience it there too.

I think it's so frustrating that these companies can always get away with this stufff.

They clame to care about accessibility but things like this keep popping up.

By peter on Monday, September 30, 2024 - 22:12

I feel that Voiceover has a habit of losing focus in a number of circumstances. For example, after activating a button to get into a new dialog and dismissing the dialog or going back, my expectation is that Voiceover should have focus on and speak the button which was activated to bring up the new dialog. This does not always happens.

This is particularly problematic in the News app. When one closes a storey in a particular category, focus is sometimes brought to a story several items earlier in the list of stories. Other times, focus is at the top of the list of stories in that category and Voiceover speaks nothing. It would be nice to have confidence and reliably know where focus lands after closing a dialog.

--Pete