With apologies for reposting the below, which I initially appended to a thread about IOS 17.2.1 but I am not sure it registered that prominently. Anyhow, here goes:
If anyone has any idea what to do about this could they please help? Even if it's been said elsewhere on this site and I've missed it, help would be appreciated and I apologise for asking again. The issue where my Siri voices are deleted after a battery charge seems to happen much more regularly recently. I thought setting my Siri voice to the same one as I use for Voiceover was a work-around. It worked for a while but now it's no good at all. Does anyone have any ideas It's getting very, very annoying to say the least. Yes I could use a different voice and I probably will have to if this goes on, but apart from that—any work-arounds or solutions? Using an iPhone 13 and UK Siri voice 3 for both Voiceover and Siri. If these voices get debbleted again in the next week I'm stuffed as travelling with only mobile data or free wifi which wouldn't be man enough to redownload.
Comments
Same here
Hello, it's me again, the darn annoying Norwegian.
Hahaha.
I can't express how annoyed I am about this situation.
I have the exact same problem.
All SIRI voices get deleted when charging.
System language = Norwegian.
Default VoiceOver = Norwegian SIRI 1
In my rotor I have UK SIRI 3 but also like 1 and 2 very much.
All damn voices get wiped off my phone every time I charge.
I also like U.S. SIRI 4 quite a bit.
I've tried a few things myself including to have the same voice for both VoiceOver and SIRI itself.
That seemed to work for a while as you pointed out.
I also tried to set up activities with SIRI voices I use in hope that they don't auto-deleted when in use by an activity but no luck.
I have given up and now just use the compact Norwegian voice which is awful and UK Daniel which is ok.
I'm really tired of re-downloading all voices every time I charge my phone.
Fkkn tired.
End of rant and pardon my English.
On Mac too
That is applicable and despicable on the mac.
Sad
Sorry to hear that some of you are having issues with this. So far so good. No issues. Using 13 pro, iOS 17.2.1. Using Tom and Siri 4.
Ooks like it's still a real problem then
Holger I'm delighted you have no issues—you seem to specialise in this tye of comment of late. As to the rest of you I fee your pain. I do wish these bleeders at Apple would sort it out! Yours in solidarity.
Bingo Little
In the past when I had issues with unlucky 13, people were all over me and got crap for calling it that. Know how it feels when you have the issues and people do not relate.
Same in the UK
I have numerous voices in my Activity rota so I can pick the most appropriate one to read Kindle books. Like almost everyone else, the Siri voices keep disappearing. Apple has to be aware of this problem but don’t seem to be in any hurry to fix it.
Testing out a theory...
For those of you having this issue, do you have "offload Unused Apps" turned on?
I know what that particular function is for, but I am curious... 🤷🏼♂️
it hapened
yes.... it hapened when we charge the phone
lower than 50 percent
I'm also having the same problem with Siri voices.
I use Siri voices in Spanish, English, Italian and Portuguese. I do this for different activities.
Nevertheless, I am also tired of re-downloading voices because they just go missing every time.
This is getting absolutely old.
Siri British voices disappearing here too!
Unfortunately on my iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.3 (21D5026f) Siri voices are still being deleted. This has reached the point were having them as an option has become pointless! The voices used to be deleted from my Apple Watch Series 7 but that is no longer the case. It would appear that this problem has been solved on the watch but not on other platforms.
Naught to do with offloading apps
Good thought, Brian. The same had occurred to me and I experimented along the lines you're thinking. It seems to be entirely irrelevant to this issue, however. I have also found that with me, it doesn't matter what charge level you start at. I've tried to identify precisely when this deletion occurs i.e. at what point in the charge cycle. It seems totally random. I appeal to the bleeders at Apple (what a fine word bleeder is, incidentally) to sort this one out! In anticipation of what Dennis Long is about to say, yes, I have reported it.
Re: Naught to do with offloading apps
Well, damn. . . .
So here is another question, and if this has already been answered well, too bad. I am asking again. In theory.
Anyways, are the voices being auto-deleted extras? In other words, 'rotor languages'? Or are they primary voices as well?
I ask because, as I mentioned, I have noticed the auto-delete happen when I change primary voices. Like if I switch from, let us say, Siri voice 1 (US) to Siri voice 3 (UK), the Siri voice 1 will auto-delete. However, I have (not) experienced the 'voice deleting while charging' thing.
Having said all of that, I am wondering if there is a particular setting, or settings, that may be affecting this.
Just a thought. 😑
The work around of changing…
The work around of changing your siri voice both on siri and vo still work for me. I use all u.s voices so I'm wondering if it's related to a particular language?
Disappearing Siri voices Uk iPhone15 Pro Max.
Unfortunately, the voices are deleted even if they’re the default and only voice. No matter what I have tried I cannot get the voices to remain on my device.
How about this?
I've just had a thought and might put it to the test: how about switching the phone to aeroplane mode immediately before charging? Sure, that's not a great solution if you still want notifications while charging but I do my charging overnight so should be fast asleep in any case. I'm wondering if precluding access to wifi or mobile data will mean the iPhone won't delete these voices?
Brian, all of this has been going on with my primary language. Unfortunately the theories you're having about this don't seem to have any bearing on the scenario at all. Thanks for the suggestions in any case. '
No worries
iOS 18 will be "spectacular".
My aeroplane mode plan
It won't take long to report back on this one: it didn't work. back to the drawing board.
Let me ask you guys this: has anyone tried setting up as new to get rid of this problem? I really, really don't want to have to do this as it's then a pain to put everything back, so if someone has already tried without success I would be keen to know so as not to put 10 years on my chronological age.
Setting up as new
No, but I was very close on going the set up as new route because this is driving me mad.
However, I calmed down and decided to wait until I get a new phone.
My XR is showing it's age and when I get a new phone I will set up as new for sure.
I have a feeling that it won't help though.
Mine don’t disappear, but some of them make a clicking noise
Hi,
Happy 2024 to all!
When I use the Siri voices in conjunction with voiceover, they don’t disappear, but they do make a clicking noise while speaking. This is especially true with one of the female voices, but I can’t remember which one right now.
I'm using an iphone 13 pro max with ios17.2.1.
Only seems to afffect Siri voices
I'm having the same issue, with perhaps a minor variation, on both my iPhone and iPad. On mine, if I'm using a Siri voice as VO's default, that one will not delete. However, the voices I use for my other languages (in my case German and Swedish) will mostly disappear. I say mostly because the system behaves as if they are still there when I go in to look at the voices. However, I cannot redownload them nor can I use what the system is reporting to be present until I set the language to another voice. Then the voice deletes, and I can redownload it. Neither setting up a device as new nor the offload unused aps setting changes this behavior.
That being said, I've gone back to using the Nuance voices for my secondary languages for now. It seems they do not delete. I have, of course, filed a full bug report to Apple and I would suggest that everyone here do the same. That is the only way the bug is likely to get fixed. From my initial investigations, this appears to be completely unrelated to Voiceover and rather seems to be a bug in Siri and the voice handling routines that are used to handle management of the Siri voices. I suspect a bug in the procedures that check for language updates to the voices, however I cannot say with certainty. I've indicated such in my report to Apple.
seems to happen before midnight
So I don't know if this has any weird baring on this issue, but I was having this issue a lot right after iOS 17 came out. I noticed that the Siri voices I was using would be deleted quite often between 11pm and midnight. not sure if this means anything, but I have not had this issue happen in the last couple weeks so I don't know what changed. I don't think anything I've done has changed.
I ain't no fortunate one...
No, it ain't me, it ain't me. I ain't the fortunate one but sadly I is and am. Having reported this issue on this forum a while back now too lazy and unable to remember if I actually did. iPhone 12 IOS 17.2.1 or whatever is the latest Region/ Language set to India/ English US. Using Samantha for VO voice and English US Voice 3 for Siri. All voices that I downloaded under Settings/ accessibility/ spoken content/ voices/ English just disappear after I plug my phone to charge in the morning.
Folks honestly, it's time to esclate this matter to apple, it's just beyond my patience now. Please go to feedback.apple.com and report this as a bug for iPhone. I already have reported it and would appreciate the support of the community
I also remember being rediculed by members when I reported such happenings, so much for community respect!
Not sure the midnight thing is the answer
First off to the immediately preceeding comment, I believe I have said I have reported this and lots of other people have too. I, for one, did not ridicule you.
I don't think the time of day is the answer. I had this hapen mid-afternoon a week ago. I wish you were right. What a shame there aren't any decent qulity third party synthesisers to choose from while this sorts itself out. I'd use Ivona Brian any day.
Siri voice deletion not time dependant.
As an experiment I did not charge my iPhone as I usually do. After 24 hours of usage with the device not being charged all voices were still available. On charging completion however voices were deleted.
Possible solution
The issue seems to be with charging the device.
Solution: Do not charge your device.
Use device until battery depletion.
Next, put away your pretty paper weight and get out your Abacus.
Thank you. I have spoken. 😑
Brian, that won't work
Basic mental arithmetic is something I accomplish comfortably in my head, Brian, so I don't have an abacus, nor do I use my iPhone as a calculator. besides, what would be the point of putting away a paperweight? surely a paperweight should be used to weigh down paper? If you're going to make jokes, you need to thihnk them through properly. as it is, there's probably a job for you in the Christmas cracker manufacturing line when december comes round.
Back to the topic, It may be that altering one's charging habits really is the only answer - allow the phone to get up to something less than 100% then stop charging it. I did that earlier, got up to 85% and my siri voices were still there.
If only Ivona Brian would save me from this!
Battery charging suggestion?
I wonder if under Optimised Battery Charging the limit is set to 80% would this resolve the issue as the charge level would never hit 100% worth a try.
Not just Siri, not just charging, not time, not primary vs rotor
Everyone's experience is different, but for me the voice deletion problem has been occurring since late in the iOS 16 cycle and still continues on 17.2.1 on my iPhone 11. I first thought it was a charging thing or night thing or rotor language thing but have since experienced it during the day and while unplugged and with my primary voiceover language.
I included more details here in another thread:
https://www.applevis.com/comment/160369#comment-160369
Jake mentioned that with the non-Siri voices they appeared to have switched but not been deleted until after changing the voice selection, which is required to get the preferred voice back. I think the non-Siri selected voice has indeed been deleted, which triggered the audible voice change, but it's not obvious that it's been deleted since it appears (key word APPEARS) to still be selected in the speech settings. Since it's not possible to download a voice while it appears selected, it's necessary to switch to another voice to be able to re-download the preferred voice and select it again. I could be wrong though -- the next time the voice changes I'll explore the spoken content speech settings to check if my preferred VO voice is still downloaded before going back into the VO speech settings to re-download. Stay tuned I guess...
Very interesting that Malcolm13 reported that even default voices are getting deleted. I had thought that those people using the default voices (both Siri and non-Siri) would not have this problem. Good to know.
WOW
Feel happy that I am not having this issue. Hope Apple address this but she who should not be mention, has a better chance of becoming president. Good luck to all who are not having this issue. Hope it continues.
An idea
Disclaimer: If this has already been suggested, my apologies. . .
Has anyone tried the following?
1. Go to Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices.
2. Setting the voices for any/all the languages you would use.
First, I am aware this technically does not have anything to do with VoiceOver. At least it shouldn't, however, as I have mentioned above, the only auto deletion I personally have experienced is if I go to change my VO voice manually, the voice I was using prior auto deletes.
Currently I have Siri Voice 1 (US) as my VO and Siri. I also have Siri Voice 1 (US) as my default US voice in the aforementioned Spoken Content setting.
Having said that, I would encourage everyone to give this a try. What have you got to lose?
Finally, @Bingo Little, my humor is always funny sometimes! 😜
@Brian and the rest
This is what I call a Oxymoron: my humor is always funny sometimes!; make up your mind is it always or sometimes :)
OK all said and done this is a bug that is affecting certain devices since IOS 16, other issue that has been chasing and haunting me is the Shortcuts application and since this issue is being carried over from my older devices i.e. 5S, SE, SE2 and now 12 I am afraid something is corrupted in my iCloud account. Because I always restore from iCloud back up. I don't see anything else as to why this bug is a repeated offender.
Gang up, keep sending feedback and hope it is soon addressed. Downloaded Siri voices from Spoken Content are deleted each time the phone is plugged in for a charge. I download the Siri Voices from Settings/ accessibility/ Spoken Content/ Voices/ System Voices/ English
@Bingo, thanks for your support, much appreciated. Perhaps when you get the time look up posts with my username specially the one about Siri Shortcuts
Referencing my post
Updated: Trouble with automations when triggered | Shortcuts IOS 16.6, still relevant
https://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ipados/updated-trouble-automations-when-triggered-shortcuts-ios-166
gone again
short of taking the phone off charge every 20 or so minutes to check that they're still there, I'm out of ideas on this one. I will give brian's spoken content suggestion a whirl. incidentally, I thought the irony-laced oxymoron was actually rather well taken.
Re: Gone again.
The only suggestion I have left is to go into Settings and Battery. Then Battery Health & Charging. In here there’s a setting Charging Optimisation which Is probably set to None.
You can select 80% limit. This means that the device will only charge to 80% this may solve the problem as charge level will never get to 100%. If this doesn’t work I’m out of ideas.
Battery settings
Malcolm13 may be on to something. I currently and perhaps coincidentally, have both 'Optimize Charging' and 'Clean Energy Charging' enabled. I cannot say if this was on by default, if I turned on these features, or if my cellular provider enabled those settings, but regardless they are on.
So give that a shot, charge up your paper weights, and pray. 🙏🏼
I doubt that
First of all set charging limit to 80% is only available on iPhone 15 models.
I'm not 100% sure of that but definitely not available on my XR.
I can only choose on/off and battery optimization is currently on and have been on for ages.
I have manually been watching charging lately so to avoid charging over 80%.
However, all siri voices is deleted regardless of how thorough I monitor charging.
I have just downloaded all siri voices yet again and the need for a charge is fast approaching.
Hooray!
Ha ha!
Brian
Well my 13 pro paper wait is charge every night to 100% and my voices are OK. However I use Tom and Siri 4 for voice. Lucky me so far.
deleted at 41%
That is indeed what happened. I got to 41% and they were, once again, gone. Doesn't look like this 80% thing is the answer. I, too, have an iPhone 13 so cannot set the charge limit to 80% like you iPhone 15ers can. what an infernal annoyance this is! The only silver lining is last week when I was on holiday I met a very nice and helpful lady who is also an IT engineer, has a friend at apple and who has read this thread. Sadly, we have tried all the suggestions she made but I believe she will do what she can to raise awareness with the bleeders at apple.
Sign out of iCloud
Delete all the voices you have downloaded turn off find my iPhone sign out of your iCloud account restart your phone then go to settings, accessibility, spoken, content, voices English, and download the voices you want to use after they are downloaded restart your phone do not try to download all voices together download them one by one observe your phone For a few days without being signed into iCloud if the voices are not deleted there is something technically wrong with your iCloud account. I tried this today. Looks like when I sign into iCloud. The problem occurs charge your phone as you would without you being signed into iCloud.
Re: Sign out of iCloud
This reminds me of the dreaded Keychain on macOS. Where if you had an old email account in the past, and have since removed it, Keychain will attempt to re-add the account on every reboot.
So irritating.
I had this issue with an old exchange account for college, and I finally just left it in 'Internet Accounts', but otherwise disabled. The account doesn't even exist anymore, so whatever. . . 🤷🏼♂️
This issue with auto deleting voices seems somewhat similar. Especially if it has been narrowed down to our individual iCloud accounts.
Perhaps it is not so much that our iCloud account(s) is messed up, but there is a universal syncing issue with these voices?
Oh boy
Guess what?
I re-downloaded my default Norwegian voice 1 (not the same as siri itself use) and UK English siri 3.
Yep, only two voices and of course I also have them both in my language rotor.
I charged my phone and this time no auto-deleting.
I came to 80% and then I stopped charging and both siri voices still there.
This has never happen since iOS 16.something.
Usually all voices are deleted within minutes after starting to charge.
I did not sign out of iCloud, put it on aeroplane mode, hold my breath or anything like that.
I'd say pure luck.
Have no fear, it happened again
Just pure luck yesterday.
Today all siri voices deleted after charging for approx 10 minutes / 48% - started charging at 32%.
Good to know that order has been restored.
Pretty sure it's naught to do with iCloud
Albeit I haven't signed out of iCloud, I have charged my phone in circumstances where I have made it impossible for it to talk to iCloud i.e. no wifi, no mobile data, no bluetooth for good measure. still happened.
Last night I charged the iPhone to 85% and hung on to the dear old voices. I've another cunning plan in the works and if it does turn out to be the answer I will share it.
I have a work-around
This work-around has done the job for me every time since I started with it. This is what you do:
1. Prior to charge, shut the phone down, or alternatively run the battery right down so it shuts down automatically.
2. Put the phone on charge.
3. The phone will, of course, come back on. Don't unlock it and enter your passcode and whatnot until you take it off charge again.
Now, before the usual suspects start kicking off, I am not saying that solves the problem; it doesn't. you shouldn't have to go through such a performance just to charge your phone. You should be able to use your phone while charging it without fear of losing the Siri voices if you happen to lock it for a bit. If, however, you're a charge overnight person (as I am) this does, at least, prevent the purge of your Siri voices - or, at least, so it would appear.
Perhaps this discovery has helped us isolate what might be going wrong here? I'll leave that to wiser technological heads than me to expand upon in the comments.
You know. . .
Of all the ideas floating around in my brainmeats, I never would have thought of rebooting the iPhone and not logging in until charging was complete.
Bravo, Mr. Little. Bravo.
Siri voices still deleted in latest beta.
Thanks for the workaround Bingo I’ll give it a try.
Unfortunately having updated to iOS 17.3 (21D5044a) yesterday my Siri voices were still being deleted so it looks as if this issue will plague us for a while yet.
Strangely enough I used to have the same behaviour on my Apple Watch series7 but this has been resolved in Watch OS but not in iOS.
If my work-around works consistently
My hope, if the work-around works for all of us, is that this will help track down the bug. I'm not a scientist but if the problem doesn't happen when you've not entered your passcode after a restart, there must be some significance in entering your passcode after a restart. maybe the iClouder earlier in this thread was onto something, though I still don't see how given that this deletion thing still happens even if the iPhone is not allowed online. Anyway, I hope my idea at least mitigates the problem for everybody.
Solution with 100% success rate
Use a non-Siri voice for VoiceOver.
Now I realise that technically speaking this doesn't actually solve the problem of downloaded Siri voices being deleted, but you must admit that this solution does have the distinct virtues of breathtaking elegance and being absolutely reliable at all times ...
Seriously though, this has been a thing for a while now, and after the third, fourth, fifth time it begins to lose its appeal, especially on Apple Watch where just getting the bloody things down the metaphorical wire is hard work because the download frequently fails, gets stuck or needs to be restarted again until it works. So report it to Apple, choose a non-Siri voice, curse Tim Cook for all eternity, and move on.
I am fed up!
I am using a non-Siri voice i.e. Samantha for Voice Over. My region is set to India. Siri Voice is English United States. Voice 3. I still am facing the other Siri voices getting deleted after charging my phone, these voices are downloaded from: Settings/ accessibility/ Spoken Content/ System Voices.
Another strange observation: I changed Voice Over voice from Settings/ accessibility/ Vision/ Voice Over/ Speech to something else but when I go to the voice Samantha wanting to delete it, after hitting the edit button on that screen, Samantha says Used by Voice Over! I restarted the phone but it's still the same case, although Voice Over voice was changed it is still registering Samantha as the voice used by Voice Over...
Stop telling me what voice I ought to use!
Sebbie, I'm delighted that this is so trivial that your solution works for you; and you're right, of course, this is very much a first world problem. I could use Daniel, Oliver, Jamie, whatever. I remember someone saying something similar a few years ago when the PacMate Omni didn't implement UK Braille properly. Why not just use American Braille, said they? It's pretty much the same, after all. Well, because I don't want to! And so no, I shall not move on; I want my Siri voices always to be there!