Voiceover and the log on screen OSX Ventura

By Graham, 28 August, 2023

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi,

I’ve just upgraded to OSX Ventura on my new MacBook pro.
To get Voiceover started at the log in window, I accessed system prefs, lock screen, accessibility and clicked the button that says turn VO on at the login screen.
However this only seems to happen for one log in. After that the setting is lost so I have to press cmdf5 or cmd and triple click the touch ID key.
Is this a bug or is there another way to enable turn on at the log on prompt that works permanently?

Kind regards

Graham

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Comments

By Brian on Friday, September 8, 2023 - 14:05

Unfortunately this is a bug I 'believe' introduced in Monterey. I find its best on either macOS version to just leave the option disabled and then just manually press Command + F5 at the login screen. Having said that, my best advice would be to time your system through a couple of 'Restarts' and 'BootUps' from a powered off state. i.e. While on your Desktop, press Control + Power button, then choose restart, immediately time how long it takes to reboot to the login screen. For example it takes my MBP running Monterey approximately 34 seconds from a Powered off state and between 35 to 38 seconds on a Restart. Granted I have an older intel MBP.

HTH. 😅

By PaulMartz on Friday, September 8, 2023 - 14:05

You're not alone. I'm experiencing the same behavior. In fact, the one time VoiceOver does appear to turn on, it seems difficult or impossible to bring focus to the password field. In other words, I enter my password, but there are no keyclick echoes. Turning VoiceOver on manually with Command+F5 produces superior results.

The existence of this issue is quite baffling. One engineer with a couple of hours on his hands ought to be able to reproduce and resolve it. Maybe I should apply for a management job at Apple. LOL.

By Jimmy on Friday, September 8, 2023 - 14:05

Yes, it does happen here on my Mac, running 13.5.1.
And as @PaulMartz said above, Voice Over has a serious bug with interaction with the password field specifically, and the whole log-in screen in general when it is set to launch automatically.
I suspect that is the reason they keep turning this automatic launch at log-on screen off regardless of our setting of choice.