Voice Control not working with iPadOS 16.1

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firstmacgo Author

Level 1

6 points

Voice Control not working with iPadOS 16.1

Is anyone else having voice control issues in iPadOS 16.1? Any tips or workarounds?

Other conversations that sound similar:

Voice Control Does Not Work On iPad OS 16… - Apple Community

Please,I updated my phone to the ios 16,a… - Apple Community

iOS 16 bug - Apple Community

Voice Control Does Not Work On iPad OS 16… - Apple Community

My devices/observations:

iPhone SE 2nd Gen

with iOS 15, Voice Control and Siri work fine, can be enabled and disabled without issue
after upgrade to iOS 16, Voice Control and Siri work fine, can be enabled and disabled without issue
after upgrade to iOS 16.1, Voice Control and Siri work fine, can be enabled and disabled without issue

iPad 7th Gen:

with iPadOS 15.6, Voice Control and Siri work fine, can be enabled and disabled without issue
with iPadOS 15.7, Voice Control and Siri work fine, can be enabled and disabled without issue
after upgrade to iPadOS 16.1, Siri works fine, Voice Control does not. If enabled, the voice control mic indicator in the upper right stays grey with a slash through it and does not respond to any command.

Have tried:

confirmed the mic physically works by successfully recording a voice memo
disabling then re-enabling Voice Control
rebooting
Killing all apps

Have read:

Use Voice Control on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Have successfully enabled, disabled, and used Voice Control in iOS15, iOS 16 and iPadOS 15. But on my device, after updating to iPadOS 16.1, the feature no longer works as described or expected.

Have not yet tried full reset or downgrade to 15.7

I've contacted support and they seem interested & helpful but no answer yet so I'm wondering if anyone else is struggling with this has any tips or workarounds.

thanks!

iPad, iPadOS 16

Posted on Oct 31, 2022 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

firstmacgo Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 9, 2022 2:09 PM in response to jennyshawjennyshaw

Hi Jenny, a possible workaround that, so far, has voice control working again for me:

Go into Settings -> Accessibility -> Voice Control -> Language

You will probably have one or more languages in the "ready to use" area, one with a checkmark.

Look in the section below called "Available for Download"

Choose any other language and allow all downloads to finish

Try out Voice Control again

In my case, I use "English (Canada)" so I chose "English (United States)" What happened next was that the ready to use area disappeared and it appeared to start downloading both "English (Canada)" and "English (United States)" This confused me as a second ago Canada appeared as "ready to use" but I let both downloads continue. Once both were complete, I had both languages under "Ready to Use" and Canada still had the checkmark. From this point forward, Voice Control has been solid.

Give it a shot and let me know!

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Answer 2

firstmacgo Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 2, 2022 1:41 PM in response to carlca

Thanks for sharing but again, the issue I’ve described is about a specific function called “Voice Control”.

Voice Control is completely unrelated to both Siri and Hey Siri.

Voice Control is an accessibly feature for people who have difficulty using a touch screen. It’s not Siri.

Voice Control documentation:

Use Voice Control on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

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Answer 3

firstmacgo Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 26, 2022 7:54 AM in response to Platonicbomb

Hi, try the steps in my reply here:

Voice Control not working with iPadOS 16.1 - Apple Community

Voice control seems less stable in 16.1 and 16.1.1, but usually I'm able to get it to come back using these steps.

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Answer 4

carlca

Level 1

11 points

Nov 2, 2022 7:52 AM in response to firstmacgo

I have this problem as well. My iPad is only 3 weeks old and I started off with iPadOS 15.7 and Siri worked perfectly. I then upgraded to 16.1 and Siri hasn’t worked since. It seems to be a known problem, and indeed there are a few websites which seem to suggest a possible cure involving changing the language of Siri, usually from US English to UK English. I’m already of UK English so I tried the reverse process, but it didn’t work.

I haven't been using Siri to her full potential; indeed “Hey Siri, take a screenshot” makes up 99% of my usage but it would be nice to have it available on 16.1. Is 16.2 coming out soon?

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Answer 5

firstmacgo Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 2, 2022 10:48 AM in response to carlca

Hi there, sorry you’re having trouble. To be clear, my issue is not Siri. Siri seems to work fine. The issue I’ve described is regarding “voice control”, a separate feature, independent of Siri, that lets you perform tasks that require touch, with your voice. Perhaps that’s what you meant but I just wanted to be sure for any Apple folks might see this and chime in :)

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Answer 6

carlca

Level 1

11 points

Nov 2, 2022 11:03 AM in response to firstmacgo

Thanks for the reply. It seems you might well be right. I've managed to activate Siri by a long press on the Top button. It just seems to be the initial voice-only activation of Siri which is at fault. As I said, it worked perfectly in iPadOS 15.7; it only failed after installing 16.1. Now that I can use the Top button, it's not so urgent - I can wait till mid-December when, I believe, 16.2 is due out.

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Answer 7

Nov 7, 2022 7:43 AM in response to firstmacgo

I too have this problem. I support a service user who is totally dependent on Voice Control to use her Ipad Pro. Since updating to 16.1 the "Show Numbers" command does populate the screeen with numbers but on identifying the appropriate number the blue microphone icon switches itself off. Repeated attempts at "Show Numbers" yield a similiar result. This is an intermittent fault mostly, I think, involving the "Show Numbers" command used on webpages within Safari. Powering the Ipad off, not within the means of my client, seemed to improve the problem but only very temporarilly.

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Answer 8

firstmacgo Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 7, 2022 9:58 AM in response to jennyshawjennyshaw

Sorry to hear. Apple support eventually asked me to consider resetting all settings or erasing all content & starting fresh (not from a backup).

I tried resetting all settings first and after that, voice control worked again. However by the next day it stopped, same symptoms as before.

Finally yesterday I erased all content & settings, started fresh (no restore from backup). Voice Control worked again but turned itself off randomly a few times. Now today it is back to not working at all. Same symptoms.

Very frustrating. Unlike your client I am able to use touch, I am just recovering from an injury that made some arm movements painful, so voice control was a real boon before I made the mistake of updating. I can only imagine how your client must feel.

Hopefully this will be resolved ASAP in iPadOS16.11 or 16.2

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Answer 9

carlca

Level 1

11 points

Nov 2, 2022 2:06 PM in response to firstmacgo

My apologies! When you mentioned the upgrade from 15.7 to 16.1 I mistakenly took this to refer to my problem. I hope you manage to get your problem sorted 😉

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