Warning: Must Have Sighted Assistance With Mouse or TrackPad For Set Up On Monterey Mac Studio

By Bruce Harrell, 15 July, 2022

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Greetings one and all!

Summary:

Don't automatically believe what Apple tells you. If you want to set up your brand new Mac Studio with Monterey (or any other Mac M1 computer for all I know), you will need a helpful sighted person with a mouse or a track pad before you can get VoiceOver turned on.

The story:

Beginning of April I called the Apple Store and spoke with a lovely salesperson who confidently assured me I could simply connect my Apple keyboard, power on my brand new Mac Studio, and voila! VoiceOver would begin speaking! Big happy smile.

I felt slightly suspicious, so i inquired further, in response to which a "senior manager" confidently told me that yes, all I needed to do is connect my Apple keyboard to my new Mac Studio, power it on, wait, and voila! VoiceOver would begin speaking. I asked him if he was sure I would not need a mouse or track pad. He confidently replied that I would not. All I would need is a keyboard.

Thus, happily reassured and feeling pretty excited, I took the bold step and ordered my brand new Mac Studio Ultra!

For the next two and a half months I tried to control my saliva. I was very excited, and when the great day finally arrive when Fed Ex was knock knock knocking on my front door, I was just about jumping up; and down.

What seemed like seconds later, I plugged it in, connected my keyboard, powered it on, waited, and . . . waited, and . . . nothing.

I waited some more.

Nothing.

Finally, after screwing up my courage, I tried command f5. I tried it again. I tried it several more times. All I got was a knock knock sound.

Obviously, I wasn't about to quit and go home. I mean, after all, I already was home, so that wouldn't work. Instead, I called Apple tech support, thanking God I had purchased Apple Care Plus when I bought my brand new Mac Studio.

One junior and one senior Apple technical support person later, I was left with their expert opinion that the Mac Studio I had wasn't working. Sigh. There was nothing left to do but send it back to them to be replaced, hopefully sometime before another two and a half months had gone by. Pout. Mope. Waah!

I sent it back to Apple.

Two weeks later, my replacement arrived, and once again within seconds I had it plugged in, keyboard connected, powered on, and waited with bated breath.

I continued waiting.

I waited some more.

Nothing. Silence. No VoiceOver.

I waited some more.

Nothing. Silence. No VoiceOver!

And, of course, once again I found myself reaching for my keyboard with nervous, frustrated fingers to press command f5.

Knock.

I pressed again.

Knock.

I pressed several times,

Knock knock knock.

Sigh.

By this time as I called Apple technical support, I had the distinct impression I had entered some kind of time loop in some sci-fi show from the 60's.

Again I spoke with a junior, technical support person, who ended up agreeing my replacement Mac /Studio wasn't working correctly, well, really, that it wasn't working at all. Once again I was transferred to a senior tech support person, but wait! This time, the time loop got busted! smile

The senior tech support person I spoke with this time said, oh no. VoiceOver won't come up all by itself. No no no. You first have to use your mouse or track pad to continue past the language selection screens to get to the accessibility screen in the set up process, where you can then activate VoiceOver if you so choose. After that, VoiceOver is on, you don't need a mouse or track pad anymore, and you can carry on with your keyboard. smile.

And you know what? He was right!

Conclusion: Don't automatically believe what they tell you. Talk to somebody first who has already been around that block. Or, if you prefer, check out applevis.com. They have lots of answers already posted. You know, like this one.

Joy!

Bruce Harrell

Options

Comments

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

I have an M1 Mac Mini. I was able to enable Voiceover after plugging in a mouse and a monitor. Why those things are needed is beyond me. Same deal in the bootloader. I grumble every time I have to dig my mouse out of storage. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that Apple staff were unable to help you.

By Tyler on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

The last time I set up a MacBook, which was a couple of years ago, I was able to press the Return key to select English as the main language, then enable VoiceOver with Command-F5. Can the Return key not be used to select the main language anymore or is this an issue exclusive to desktop Macs requiring a display, keyboard and mouse, and Apple's failure to effectively communicate this?

By Chris on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

This is an example of how you never ever ever market your products. This has to be software, because my 2006 Mac Mini doesn't exhibit any of this behavior. The worst that happens is VoiceOver goes busy a little more often if it doesn't detect a screen. Then again, blind people don't make a lot of noise and they're not our biggest market, so they can go take a hike! I'm waiting for a public apology from Tim Cook or someone in accessibility and a commitment to not let something this stupid ever happen ever again. Oh wait, Apple doesn't talk to us mere mortals. They're too high and mighty to you know, actually communicate with their customers that allow them to profit.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

I wonder if this is only a thing on a Mac fresh out of the box? Even after completely nuking my drive on more than one occasion, I've never needed sighted assistance to enable Voiceover before both on a MacBook and on a Mac Mini.

By chris R on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Did you try Pressing FN with command? That used to work for me. Remember function keys are set up as media keys as default so have to hold down function to turn them into f1 f2 etc. Command function f5 used to always work for me if command f5 on its own did not.
I set up my new M1 mac Mini last year with just a keyboard.
Chris

By techluver on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

This seems really odd to me. I don't use a Mac studio but I use an m1 max MacBook Pro and I was able to set it up all by myself.
Well this could be an issue because I was looking into getting an m1 Mac mini as a server (one of many possibilities), and I don't have a monitor nor a mouse.

By techluver on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Thanks. I don't have a tv either lol. the only screens I have in here are my MacBook screen and my iPhone screen.

By Chris on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

The monitor issue can be solved by purchasing one of the fit-Headless HDMI adapters. These trick the computer into thinking it has a display connected. I can understand why it does this to an extent, but requiring a mouse to be connected? Are you kidding me?

It doesn't matter, the damage has been done. I don't care about the Mac at all anymore. False advertising is really hard to get over. I'm a little sad my initial comment was deleted, as I think that's a very reasonable response after the treatment from Apple, but obviously someone disagrees. The point is that we should be able to purchase any Apple product we want and expect it to work as advertised. I wish you the best of luck with your new Mac Studio if you end up keeping it despite this insanity.

By Bruce Harrell on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Hi Jenna, hi Chris,

Yes, a mouse was required. Yes, I tried fn command f5. Knock. No VoiceOver.

It's working now, though, although I'm feeling leery about migration assistant. Seems that simply transferring over files, apps and settings isn't enough for some apps, such as Sibelius Ultimate. I've been working all day today to try to get it up and running, even though I have a perpetual license for it from avid.com. sigh.

Bruce

By Igna Triay on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

That's odd. 've done migration for sibeleus before and no problems. I have a perpetual license as well, and have migrated all my data including sibeleus from one computer to another.

By Sebby on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

It's too bad you had to go through all that nonsense just to learn something some of us could just have told you, if only we had known your predicament: mouse or trackpad required at first boot prior to display of language picker; completely unnecessary afterward. Why Apple doesn't make this clear, or why the requirement even exists, is quite beyond me.

I'm happy to report that FitHeadless isn't needed now, as it once was; indeed, it actually slowed things down on my M1 Mac Mini.

Migration Assistant? Well, that's just another bag of hurt …

By Bruce Harrell on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Hi both,

Chris, your original message is still here, at least on my system it is.

I tell you, I seem plagued by weirdness with computers. Seems like I always have been, too.

Triay, do you remember if you had to do more than just migrate to get Sibelius up and running? I'm presently trying uninstall/reinstalling, and I'm expecting a Monday call from Sweetwater tech support if I don't succeed.

Thanks!

Bruce

By Igna Triay on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Bruce, I just had to do the migration and that was all, I was up and running without having to do anything else. I just launched sibeleus after migrating and no problems at all.

By wiljames on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

I saw Chris's original post. The post was removed on a complaint from David Woodbridge. He said something about age? if you listen to what kids listen to, that point is moot.

By Pax on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Hi.
I had no problems configuring my M1 Pro MacBook, vo begun to speak when I just started it, the language selection screen voice began to speak, after that I turned vo on and configure it.

By Bruce Harrell on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Hi. MacOS 12.4. Don't know how to find the firmware.

By Wavegirl on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

I recently acquired a M1 Mac mini and setting it up required a pointing device. I didn't know this. I thought I could set it up without any of that but nope. I had to get a trackpad in the end.

By techluver on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

Let's say I were to get a Mac mini. Could I use the trackpad on my MacBook Pro and its monitor to get set up? I don't own either thing so would have to buy a monitor and a mouse just for 30 seconds and honestly that's insane.

By tyler chambliss on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

It used to be that on the intel mac mini and pro you could just use a keyboard, but it would for some stupid reason it would say busy busy all the time and be using more resources. I've gotten tired of Apple's weird decisions in general lately. It's like they think all their users are stupid so they design stuff around users being stupid or preferring visuals over faster user interfaces and better features.

By Bruce Harrell on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 16:50

I asked Apple support if I could use my iMac Pro screen as the screen for my Mac Studio. they said no. However, the Mac Studio does work without a screen, which is fine with me since the only time I need a screen is when VoiceOver hangs.

About a mouse or a laptop touchpad, I suggest you ask a friend who has a Mac to borrow their mouse or trackpad. After all the run around I had with Apple and my Mac Studio set up, it turned out that the sighted assistance was only to select English and activate VoiceOver -- only two steps -- and then I could operate it all myself.

Anyway, I'd loan you my own track pad, but I suspect we live too far apart.

Good luck,

Bruce