Hi all, I'll try and keep this brief, but it's got me stumped as to what is happening here...
I got a new M4 Mac Mini and went through the setup process with Daniel as the default voice as I'm in the UK.
These are the issues I was encountering with Voiceover on, which I've never experienced before on any of my previous Macs.
Quick Nav wouldn't allow me to use up and down arrows to select items, but I later found out by experimenting that by holding down Command and using the up and down arrows, it would work as expected.
using the VO keys and Space to select items would just result in the tinny, dink sound and again, wouldn't select items.
With further discovery I found that by holding down those keys on an item for several seconds would eventually activate it.
In addition general navigation with Voiceover was erratic, with occasional jumping around headings and being a bit of a pain all round.
I managed to do an update from my portable preferences with the Serena voice that I regularly use on other Macs and this seemed to fix the problem.
However logging in again today and Serena is now behaving in the same way, with the same irritating Voiceover navigation and selection quirks.
I'm not sure if this is related to something on screen visually blocking or altering VO behaviour.
I keep getting notifications about startup items being added and other system notifications, but using VO and N just results in it saying that there are no notifications and VO F1 or F2 doesn't work either.
Basically I'm very confused and if anyone has had this before, or could shed some light on what is happening here I'm be most grateful.
Comments
Notifications
Hello, first of all, congratulations for your new mac. I only can answer your last point, to access those notifications you must use VO+O, instead of n.
Regarding the other issues, i honestly don't have any clue why it might be
happening, i hope you'll be able to fix them soon.
What brand of keyboard are you using?
Hello, I am also planning to buy a Mac Mini. After reading your description, I feel a little worried. I want to give you an idea, what brand of keyboard are you using? Is it Apple’s official Magic Keyboard or another brand? If it's another brand, try changing the keyboard to see if it helps. Looking forward to hearing further progress.
Reset VoiceOver preferences
If you haven't already, you may want to try resetting all VoiceOver preferences by opening VoiceOver Utility and choosing File > Reset all VoiceOver preferences. If the issues your experiencing are caused by corrupted preference files, resetting could address them.
If you still have your old Mac, you may also want to try exporting your VoiceOver preferences by opening VoiceOver Utility and choosing File > Export preferences, (or pressing Command-Shift-E) and then importing them into VoiceOver Utility on your new Mac. This will override your new Mac's existing VoiceOver preferences, as opposed to portable preferences which, from my understanding, are run directly from the external drive where the files are stored, and thus do not persist when the drive is disconnected.
HTH