Voice Over Bug Causes Blank Screen

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Level 1

0 points

Voice Over Bug Causes Blank Screen

While playing around with the voice over feature within the iPad general settings I discover a serious bug which ended up requiring me to restore my iPad. After turning "voice over" to the on setting the first problem I encountered was a never ending pop up button asking whether I wanted this feature on or cancel. Once I selected yes, i moved back to my home page and while trying to shift screens to my second page of applications my screen went completely black. I was able to get the device to announce things on the screen however I wasn't able to see anything. I shut it off and on several times which didn't resolve this, and lastly I connect my iPad to my primary desktop in an attempt to back it up. It took nearly an hour to back it up and feeling comfortable seeing my paid for applications appear on the application screen I restored my device. Not the end of my issue- just the beginning. The restore did not complete restore my device back to its original state. My device although empty of all its newly installed apps came back to a blank screen with the stupid voice over announcements still activated. I spend well over an hour playing touch and guess where the voice over on/off button may be to finally by chance find the on screen off button. To make the matter worse my more expensive applications (ie. Elements- awesome btw) is gone, and didn't make my last backup (of course). I have a call scheduled with apple support for 5:30 pm today to discuss and hopefully resolve this matter. At the very least I expect to have Apple restore and/or pay for my missing apps. Parting advice- do not use the "voice over" function.

Any advice on how to turn this off next time if this happens again.

Ipad, Windows 7

Posted on Apr 5, 2010 1:13 PM

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Answer 1

StevePug2

Level 2

376 points

Apr 7, 2010 1:01 AM in response to srusick

I'm afraid to check out your bug! Best leave it to the Apple rep. I'm sure you'll find satisfaction even though you've been through a lot. Sorry. However, regarding your missing apps. The iTunes store knows what apps you've purchased. If you ever need to download them again, iTunes will simply say that you've already downloaded the app and tell you to click OK to download it again for free. This works on the iPad if you originally downloaded the app on the iPhone. You get it free again on either platform.

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Answer 2

Apr 7, 2010 1:31 PM in response to srusick

@srusick, That's not a bug. You have the 'screen curtain' feature of VoiceOver enabled. You can disable it by doing a 3-finger triple-tap gesture. You can also use iTunes to disable VoiceOver: press "Configure Universal Access" from the device sync screen.

More about VoiceOver gestures:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/how-to/index.html#accessibility.voiceover-gestures
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/vision.html

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Answer 3

srusick Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 10, 2010 5:35 PM in response to James Craig

okay not a software bug then, but certainly not intuitive and rather poor software development. 3 x fingers x 3 taps when your screen goes completely blank, pure genius

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Answer 4

Apr 13, 2010 7:03 PM in response to srusick

To give some more perspective, here's a differing opinion from a blind user.

"One of my favorite little dumb features is the screen curtain. I use it on my iPhone. If you tap the screen three times with three fingers together, the screen will go blank. This might save battery... No evidence yet to support this, but it does keep people from looking at what I'm doing. Don't forget to turn it back on if you want to show off your vacation photos!"

http://www.afb.org/blog/blog_comments.asp?TopicID=6149&FolderID=25

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Answer 5

sew65

Level 1

5 points

Jul 20, 2010 1:29 PM in response to James Craig

Thanks so much! Thought I would have to spend the day at the apple store.
So much easier:)

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Answer 6

Feb 9, 2013 5:05 PM in response to srusick

Okay, thanks. The 3-finger triple tap got the screen to come back alive. But I still have a major UI problem: there is an outline around any screen element that I tap on, and regular tapping is not working as expected. And since I can't unlock the home screen, iTunes won't let me sync it or access it at all. Major problem. I call this the "Inaccessibility Feature".

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Answer 7

May 12, 2013 9:48 PM in response to srusick

Ok I need some help here. I did the triple click my iPhone replies that the voice over is off but the screen still remains black. How do I get my screen back to normal.?

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Answer 8

Jan 10, 2014 3:30 PM in response to Zac Schultz

I know it is about a year later but I hope this might help someone else. I turn voice over on and my iphone 5 and after using a finger gesture, my screen went dark and won't come back on. I tried 3 finger gestures, etc. with no luck. I could hear a call come in, an alert that I had programmed, turned off and turned on from the siri voice. I could also hold the button and the phone ask for a voice command. Well, I held the button for "voice command" and all I said was "turn voice over off" and wala, the screen came on. I was back to the "voice over select screen" and the voice over select button was back in the off position. With a sigh of relief, and the thought of what dumb luck, I could not believe it. Hope this helps someone.

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