magicmage

Q: Siri can't do anything... (iPhone 6)

At all.

 

"Remind me to (something)"

"I'm sorry I can't do that."

"Set an alarm for (time)"

"I'm sorry I can't do that."

"Play my music"

"I'm sorry I can't do that."

 

Restarting the phone fixes the problem for a short amount of time, but after a while it goes back to the same thing. Every command ends with Siri telling me, "I can't do that."

iPhone 6, iOS 9.2

Posted on Jan 6, 2016 9:59 PM

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Q: Siri can't do anything... (iPhone 6)

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  • by MacUser174,

    MacUser174 MacUser174 Mar 13, 2016 1:42 AM in response to ericafromblaine
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 13, 2016 1:42 AM in response to ericafromblaine

    Sorry to hear it broke again!  Just to confirm the exact order of what you did; you turned off Find iPhone, iCloud Backup, logged out of the store, restarted, logged back into the store... is that correct in that order?  Any additional steps or restarts on top of that?  Did you also turn iCloud Backup and Find iPhone back on too?  This is an odd software bug (iOS really shouldn't be this finicky), but my workaround fix is still working for me today, and I'd like to understand if you did anything even subtly different.  I haven't restarted my iPhone since it's been fixed and I'm reluctant to do so now it's all working again in case that changes things!  Do you use the same account for iTunes Store as iCloud?

    If all else fails it might be worth hanging on for iOS 9.3 which might only be a week away, instead of doing an iPhone wipe at this point.  There's no guarantee it will fix things of course, but worth a try and it's just around the corner.

  • by O.P.,

    O.P. O.P. Mar 13, 2016 4:42 AM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 13, 2016 4:42 AM in response to MacUser174

    24h+ after : still works for me. I hope it will stay like this !

    thanks again.

  • by PaulWasAlreadyTaken,

    PaulWasAlreadyTaken PaulWasAlreadyTaken Mar 13, 2016 2:29 PM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apple Watch
    Mar 13, 2016 2:29 PM in response to MacUser174

    Thanks, MacUser174. I do, in fact, have different iCloud and App Store accounts. (The result of many years on multiple platforms. I wish Apple would provide consolidation of multiple accounts, but that's another issue.) I logged out of "iTunes & App Store", rebooted the iPhone, confirmed Siri would open Safari, logged back into "iTunes & App Store", and so far, Siri still responds as expected. It has been about a day and a half. Thanks again. Fingers crossed!

  • by ericafromblaine,

    ericafromblaine ericafromblaine Mar 13, 2016 3:39 PM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2016 3:39 PM in response to MacUser174

    Yes, you are correct on the order - (1) turned off Find iPhone, (2) turned off iCloud Backup, (3) logged out of the store, (4) restarted, (5) logged back into the store - and nothing additional. Before I restarted, I did check to see if it worked so I didn't have to restart, but it didn't. Yes, I have the same account for iTunes Store as iCloud. I'm about to try the steps again now to see if there's anything I may have missed. I'll report back...

  • by galligr,

    galligr galligr Mar 14, 2016 12:18 AM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2016 12:18 AM in response to MacUser174

    Thanks MacUser174!!!

    I had the same problem with Siri (not finding contacts, not doing actions etc etc). I tried your 3-steps procedure and now Siri works fine .

  • by barangus,

    barangus barangus Mar 14, 2016 12:27 PM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2016 12:27 PM in response to MacUser174

    This maneuver worked for me once. That is I executed it and then asked Siri to "open settings" ; it did. Then "open contacts"; it did.

     

    I then looked over a few Settings items and then asked Siri "open music" and nothing. No app called Music on the phone. Stopped working from then on.

     

    This is second time that this has happened. Last time only a wipe and restore as new phone fixed it.

  • by O.P.,

    O.P. O.P. Mar 15, 2016 2:16 AM in response to barangus
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 15, 2016 2:16 AM in response to barangus

    Unfortunately you are right and I confirm : if I ask siri to play music it will fail. Then all other function related to loacal/personal data will fail again :-(

  • by MacUser174,

    MacUser174 MacUser174 Mar 15, 2016 11:06 AM in response to O.P.
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 11:06 AM in response to O.P.

    If this is related to Music , then I'm guessing that out of my originally posted three steps it's the signing out/in of the iTunes store that makes the difference.  If you do that again on it's own (without turning off iCloud Backup and Find iPhone) do you get Siri functionality back?  My Siri still seems to be working, even for controlling Music, but will keep an eye on it.  Just looking for common denominators here, but do you and barangus happen to be Apple Music subscribers?  Perhaps unrelated, but I've also seen a couple of iOS prompts since the weekend asking me to re-enter my iTunes password, which I did.  Have you seen these?  If so, did you re-enter password or dismiss?

  • by barangus,

    barangus barangus Mar 15, 2016 11:11 AM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 11:11 AM in response to MacUser174

    I used "open Music" as an example. Once it stops working it doesn't matter what I ask it to open. But no I'm not an Apple Music subscriber.

  • by EPICcake808,

    EPICcake808 EPICcake808 Mar 15, 2016 11:22 AM in response to magicmage
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 11:22 AM in response to magicmage

    Hey guys, so I did some quick research. I have found 2 solution so far.

     

    1. The solution that MacUser174 came up with

    2. Install iOS 9.3 beta (Or wait until it's released)

     

    I would recommend try MacUser174's solution first, as downloading a beta OS could be risky, and it is not advised to download a beta OS if you will use your device for personal stuff. Also, you could wait until iOS 9.3 comes out, as that will most likely permanently solve your problem.

  • by barangus,

    barangus barangus Mar 17, 2016 5:35 AM in response to barangus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 17, 2016 5:35 AM in response to barangus

    So to follow up a complete wipe of the iPhone from the "Settings::General::Reset::Erase All" followed by a restore from a local (not cloud) backup fixed everything up. About all you have to re-do is fingerprints and re-logging into all apps.

     

    I believe last time this happened to me I tried using a cloud backup and it did not fix the issue.

    So make regular full local backups. The restore is relatively painless.

     

    As always YMMV.

  • by Griffiths415,

    Griffiths415 Griffiths415 Mar 17, 2016 10:06 PM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPad
    Mar 17, 2016 10:06 PM in response to MacUser174

    I read with interest your post about the Siri problems. It seems like in the last week or so Siri performce has been very poor

     

    I've tried restarting the phone etc. but I'm  A little reluctant  to restore as I have to then go in and change all the settings again

     

    I was thinking that this may be due to Apple about to do an update in the supporting Siri.

     

    Either way I can think I'm the only person with this problem. Any other suggestions how I can fix it when I restoring the phone

  • by asloan,

    asloan asloan Mar 18, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Griffiths415
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 18, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Griffiths415

    So I am having the same issue as everyone else. iPhone 6S 128GB and Siri will work once or twice on a restart. For those of you that have made genious bar appointments are the techs aware of this problem? Is it a known issue that they are validating?

  • by PaulWasAlreadyTaken,

    PaulWasAlreadyTaken PaulWasAlreadyTaken Mar 19, 2016 5:36 AM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apple Watch
    Mar 19, 2016 5:36 AM in response to MacUser174

    Just an update on my experience. As previously stated, I signed out of iTunes Store, rebooted, Siri worked, signed back in to iTunes Store, Siri still worked. It's been about a week now and she still responds as expected to everything I've tried. Yesterday, to address a different problem, I Reset Network Settings and rebooted. So that's in the mix too. But it seems like signing out of the iTunes Store made Siri work for me. Good luck to all.

  • by Alfredico,

    Alfredico Alfredico Mar 20, 2016 5:35 AM in response to MacUser174
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 20, 2016 5:35 AM in response to MacUser174

    The solution worked for me. Some days have passed since I followed the steps and still working!

     

    My suggestion is not to sign in back to the services which you log out from until some hours after checking that Siri is back to work

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