Actually it won't remove them. I found this out when browsing to /System/Library/Speech/Voices I managed to clear 4 gigs out by removing the voice folders except for alex of corse.
I didn't know about the system folder, will have to check that out. But here's how I've done it, and I think this deletes the unwanted voices from the list of available voices in the pop-up menus for the voice preferences. Go to the VoiceOver Utility, and in any of the pop-up menus on the Speech tab under Voices choose the Customize option. This will bring up a search field where you can type in a voice name, and there's also a list of available voices. It seems to me that this list contains all freely available voices on Apple's servers. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. Just check the checkboxes for the voices you want to keep, and uncheck those you want to remove. Some of them are checked by default. Hth.
Jake, while your right in that un-checking the voices you don't want or need anymore from the custom menu does get rid of them from the pop up where they live. At least for me, it has been the case that they still live on the system in the location previously mentioned in one of the above comments. I do know though and I have tested this myself that if you remove the HQ voice from again, the above comment and later decide that you would still like to use it. The next time you go to check it in the list of voices, it will just simply download again and hopefully once completed give it a bit of time or maybe re-start the system and try the re-downloaded voice again and it should be present again for you to use. Of course, since you've downloaded it, the size of the voice is used up on your hard drive again.
Please everyone, take note: I wouldn't recommend uninstalling the compact voices because:
1. They don't take up too much space anyway.
2. They maybe updated in a future OS.
3. Unless you really know you don't want them, and go ahead with deleting one of them, for me at least I was unable to get the compact version back. By this, I mean it didn't have the compact version displayed in the custom list of voices to choose from. So making an educated guess I'm assuming that compact voices don't get downloaded again. Once you've gorton rid of it, its gone. So just something to bare in mind.
For anyone interested it was Samantha compact I got rid of. Its alright for me though because I don't use that voice but it was a bit of a shock discovering that she wasn't in the custom voices to choose from.
Its not worth for me though performing a clean install just to see if I can restore her back to Voiceover. lol
Finally, back up, back up and once more for good measure, back up!!!
I can't stress that enough before making such changes to your system such as deleting voices. One does so at there own risk.
Its something we learn the easy way, or the hard way. :)
Comments
Uninstalling voices on the macc
Go to your drive, system, library, speech, voices, and delete the voices you don't want.
Actually it won't remove them
Actually it won't remove them. I found this out when browsing to /System/Library/Speech/Voices I managed to clear 4 gigs out by removing the voice folders except for alex of corse.
Take care.
A Simpler Way to Do It
I didn't know about the system folder, will have to check that out. But here's how I've done it, and I think this deletes the unwanted voices from the list of available voices in the pop-up menus for the voice preferences. Go to the VoiceOver Utility, and in any of the pop-up menus on the Speech tab under Voices choose the Customize option. This will bring up a search field where you can type in a voice name, and there's also a list of available voices. It seems to me that this list contains all freely available voices on Apple's servers. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. Just check the checkboxes for the voices you want to keep, and uncheck those you want to remove. Some of them are checked by default. Hth.
While your right
Jake, while your right in that un-checking the voices you don't want or need anymore from the custom menu does get rid of them from the pop up where they live. At least for me, it has been the case that they still live on the system in the location previously mentioned in one of the above comments. I do know though and I have tested this myself that if you remove the HQ voice from again, the above comment and later decide that you would still like to use it. The next time you go to check it in the list of voices, it will just simply download again and hopefully once completed give it a bit of time or maybe re-start the system and try the re-downloaded voice again and it should be present again for you to use. Of course, since you've downloaded it, the size of the voice is used up on your hard drive again.
Please everyone, take note: I wouldn't recommend uninstalling the compact voices because:
1. They don't take up too much space anyway.
2. They maybe updated in a future OS.
3. Unless you really know you don't want them, and go ahead with deleting one of them, for me at least I was unable to get the compact version back. By this, I mean it didn't have the compact version displayed in the custom list of voices to choose from. So making an educated guess I'm assuming that compact voices don't get downloaded again. Once you've gorton rid of it, its gone. So just something to bare in mind.
For anyone interested it was Samantha compact I got rid of. Its alright for me though because I don't use that voice but it was a bit of a shock discovering that she wasn't in the custom voices to choose from.
Its not worth for me though performing a clean install just to see if I can restore her back to Voiceover. lol
Finally, back up, back up and once more for good measure, back up!!!
I can't stress that enough before making such changes to your system such as deleting voices. One does so at there own risk.
Its something we learn the easy way, or the hard way. :)