I deleted all the downloaded voices as I wanted to add the same one I use on my iPhone. However, now that the voice list is 'empty', I am unable to click the drop-down menu to choose and download a new voice. The 'speech' functionality still works but now uses a very basic and monotone female voice. Couldn't find anything online regarding this issue.
MacBook Air
Ended up chatting with Apple Support and later getting escalated to a call.
We ended up reaching two solutions (one still untested).
The first one (which is what I went for) was to create a new administrative account. In this new account the system could 'read' the system voice files; I even tried to get it stuck again by unchecking them and it still let me access the drop-down menu. At this point I just deleted the other account and signed in with iCloud to transfer all my files there.
The second option (which I didn't try) was to use disk utility. They linked me to this article to follow for future reference: How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support (CA). They told me to make sure to start from the bottom volume and work my way up running the first aid option.
If neither of these two options had worked, I would have had to reinstall macOS. How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support (CA).
Hopefully this can be helpful to someone.
Ended up chatting with Apple Support and later getting escalated to a call.
We ended up reaching two solutions (one still untested).
The first one (which is what I went for) was to create a new administrative account. In this new account the system could 'read' the system voice files; I even tried to get it stuck again by unchecking them and it still let me access the drop-down menu. At this point I just deleted the other account and signed in with iCloud to transfer all my files there.
The second option (which I didn't try) was to use disk utility. They linked me to this article to follow for future reference: How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support (CA). They told me to make sure to start from the bottom volume and work my way up running the first aid option.
If neither of these two options had worked, I would have had to reinstall macOS. How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support (CA).
Hopefully this can be helpful to someone.
If you click on the Up-Down prompt in System Voice and select customize It should show you a list of voices you can select and put them back on your selection menu. I am not sure if the voice on your iPhone is in the MacOS list but scroll down the list on your Mac and see if it is not there.
Latest Monterey 12.3.1
I also just found an older thread from September having the same exact issue with the same initial cause:
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the problem is that I am unable to click the Up-Down prompt. I am not sure how well the screenshot is illustrating it but the button is greyed out.
How did you delete all the voices? Did you remove them from system library?
I just uncheck all of them from the list and clicked 'delete' when prompted. I then opened my iPhone to check what the voice I have there is called and, when I returned, the setting was greyed out.
What version of macOS are you running on your MacBook Air?
Glad you found the older thread. Hope your fixing it goes smoothly.
It will always be helpful to several users who use this forum. Thank you for posting.
Cannot Select System Voice
