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Siri not working—at all— on iMac

Siri has stopped working on my iMac, Catalina 10.15.6. If I click on the Siri icon in the menu bar, it highlights but there is no drop-down. If I locate the Siri app in my Applications folder and try to open it, I get the animation as if an app is starting, but nothing after that.


"Enable Ask Siri" is checked in System Prefs.


I've restarted. Any other suggestions?

Posted on Sep 14, 2020 7:49 PM

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Posted on Sep 15, 2020 3:23 PM

Resetting permissions didn't help, and there was nothing untoward in my Startup Items.


I decided to reboot without external peripherals and that didn't help either.


However, the sequence of disabling "Show Siri in menu bar", unchecking "Enable Ask Siri", reenabling "Show Siri in menu bar" and then rechecking "Enable Ask Siri" has got it to work! Go figure.


Thanks again,

Steve = : ^ )

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Sep 15, 2020 3:23 PM in response to DiZoE

Resetting permissions didn't help, and there was nothing untoward in my Startup Items.


I decided to reboot without external peripherals and that didn't help either.


However, the sequence of disabling "Show Siri in menu bar", unchecking "Enable Ask Siri", reenabling "Show Siri in menu bar" and then rechecking "Enable Ask Siri" has got it to work! Go figure.


Thanks again,

Steve = : ^ )

Sep 15, 2020 1:51 PM in response to Erroll

Hey again! Okay so a few things to check:


What do you see in System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items? There could be an app opening automatically causing an issue, if so you can test by removing it “-“ and restarting.


It could be the permissions of your home folder need to be repaired:


https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-permissions-for-files-folders-or-disks-mchlp1203/mac


In this can in Finder > Go > Home, then hit Command i unlock and apply permissions, restart when done and test.


There could also be files active in your user library that are causing an issue, these are usually installed by third party apps, but I’d say better to try the previous steps.


It could also, however be a setting that needs to be changed. Id check in System Preferences > Accessibility, and also in Security and Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility, you can also remove apps from there and restart.


Also in the security settings is firewall turned on? If so can you disable it and test?


Worst comes to worse, you can rebuild your user profile, it typically only takes a few minutes just let me know how those steps don’t work and if need be I’ll give the steps to rebuild (Usually not necessary). Good luck!

Sep 15, 2020 12:19 AM in response to Erroll

Hey there! Strange one.

Since you’ve already tried safe boot:

Does it do the same in another new admin account?

If not, it could be user permissions need to be reset, or there is another setting/preference interfering.

If so, there could be a network conflict, or it’s possible the OS just needs to be reinstalled.

Siri not working—at all— on iMac

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