“Hey Siri” misbehaving/broken on iOS 12.4/12.4.1 with iPhone 8?

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“Hey Siri” misbehaving/broken on iOS 12.4/12.4.1 with iPhone 8?

Hey Siri has always worked fine on my iPhone 8. After recently updating to iOS 12.4 I noticed I’m having problems with hey Siri.

When I say “hey Siri” my phone hears me and activates the Siri UI but then it quickly closes before I can give a command. Siri dictation and holding the home button to invoke it both work perfectly. I actually noticed that if i use Siri via the home button, the hey Siri function starts to work again (then stops working after a short while). Hey Siri starts working and then stops working totally randomly.

I’ve just done a full clean instal of 12.4.1 from iTunes (currently the latest firmware). So the phone is totally stock iOS (no apps installed or restored data) and the problem still persists. Any ideas what I can do? I’ve run out of my years apple care warranty so I’m a bit reluctant to goto an apple store.

Video of broken Hey Siri (no audio)

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/WDGUeIh

iPhone 8

Posted on Aug 29, 2019 1:01 AM

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Answer 1

Jdaly97

Level 1

4 points

Sep 12, 2019 5:35 AM in response to c t e

I've been having this issue non-stop lately. I tried everything else that came up in this forums and other places.

What I found to work was this removing all bluetooth devices (I only left my Apple Watch connected). Siri's sudden start and stop behavior is very similar to the one I get if Siri hears "Hey Siri" on multiple devices and is assuming its another device that responded. I had a suspicion that it was actually my AirPods - they've been causing all sorts of issues lately... (am I being forced to upgrade?!)

The moment I removed the extra bluetooth devices, it worked immediately. ymmv

I have an iPhone X and older Airpods and Series 3 watch.

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Answer 2

c t e Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 21, 2019 6:01 AM in response to Jdaly97

Thank you for your reply. I actually found a thread on here a few days after I posted, detailing that Bluetooth might create the issue. I tried switching Bluetooth off and hey Siri worked perfectly! As soon as I switched it on again hey Siri was broken again lol. For a few weeks I kept turning off my Bluetooth (when I wasn’t using my earphones) which definitely worked as a temporary fix.

For some reason, hey Siri has now started working 100% of the time with Bluetooth on!? I don’t know what has changed. Very strange.

I also did a full fresh restore of iOS 12.4 on my old iPhone 6. So the phone was completely stock and never had any Bluetooth devices connected to it. The exact same problem with hey Siri was happening (obviously just when it’s plugged into power - won’t work otherwise on iPhone 6). As soon as I switched Bluetooth off hey Siri would work. Switch Bluetooth on and hey Siri would brake again. So two separate devices both replicating the exact same issue. Definitely some issue with software/Bluetooth dating back to iOS 10 (from what I’d read on other topics about the Bluetooth solution).

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“Hey Siri” misbehaving/broken on iOS 12.4/12.4.1 with iPhone 8?

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