Hi,
Today I encountered a very weird issue. When I booted my M1 MacBook Air it chimed like normal and when the login screen came up Voiceover only read a few words and then stopped reading. I was unable to put in my password or move around the screen-it would just beep at me like when you press a wrong key command. So I held the power button to turn it off and restarted again. This time there was no Voiceover at all so I toggled it on with CMD F5 and again it just said "system window" and wouldn't let me do anything So I toggled it on and off again and rebooted once again. This time there was no voiceover again so I got sighted assistance to read the screen via video call on my phone and was told the login screen was up and the password field was in focus. I started typing and was told my password was showing up as I typed so once done I toggled voiceover back on and pressed Return to login. Once logged in Voiceover was fine. Now when I reboot or shut down and boot fresh Voiceover doesn't start talking on the login screen unless I manually turn it on. Is this a bug in Mac OS 12.3? I didn't make any changes to anything after I shut it down last night and booted it today except for plugging it into an outlet to charge for a couple hours. It's not a big deal to toggle on VO when the login screen comes on but I am confused and frustrated that it is happening because as far as I know nothing has changed on my end. Is anyone else having this issue or is there a way to fix it? Vault is not on and I set VO to speak on the login screen when I did the initial mac setup a few months ago and it's been fine until today. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
By shanahanw, 25 March, 2022
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Click on the trackpad
Hi,
This is an issue which has been introduced with Monterey last year. The only workaround I know is to click on the trackpad (at the bottom left) after VoiceOver said something like "System window - installation status". This should locate the focus to the password field. I personally cannot confirm that VoiceOver is silent after a reboot or cold boot. Have you already checked System Preferences > Users & groups > Accessibility options?
Yes, a bug!
I reported this to Apple as soon as Monterey came out. The only workaround is to tap twice on the trackpad.
Avoiding the Bug
If I use automatic login will I avoid this bug?