Is there a problem with Speakable Items in Lion?

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Level 1

17 points

Is there a problem with Speakable Items in Lion?

I have long enjoyed talking to my Mac. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard I encountered a conflict between Speakable Items and the Screen Saver and Energy Saver Preferences. What happens is that immediately following a first spoken command to Speakable Items, my system would no longer obey the System Preferences I had set for the Screen Saver and Energy Saver. I spent many hours discussing with Apple Support, assuming the the problem lay within my own system, all to no avail. After my own experiments and the technician's experiments at Apple Support, we found that the problem seems to occur on any Mac running Snow Leopard, that it is a bug in the OS. I have had to work without using Speakable Items since then, very annoying.

I anticipated that this bug would get cleared with Lion, but I have just upgraded to Lion and one of the first things I tried is to resume using Speakable Items. Before my first spoken command, Sceen Saver and Energy Saver correctly obeyed the preferences I had set. After my first spoken command, Sceen Saver and Energy Saver failed to activate just as with Snow Leopard. Is this a persisting bug carried over from Snow Leopard into Lion or a problem within my own system?

Posted on Sep 7, 2011 10:05 PM

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Answer 1

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Feb 29, 2012 3:41 PM in response to Ted Hopkins

This bug still has not got resolved. If you like to talk to your Mac, please join me in pestering the Apple software engineers to resolve this bug. Fill this thread with comments on your own experiences with this bug and/or start additional threads seeking repair for this bug. Let us hope the repair appears soon and we can use Speakable Items without messing up our screen savers and Energy Saver.

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Answer 2

Aug 3, 2012 9:44 PM in response to Ted Hopkins

I had similar issues. On every opperating system i've had. Now I have Mountain Lion. Dicatation works like a charm, along with all the other perks, but speakable items are dead. With lion sometimes they would work, then they would go a few weeks without working. Then randomly during music or someother noisy activity it would play the command regognize sound (whit) and proceed to do something. It has been totally random, and I have no idea why.

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Answer 3

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 4, 2012 1:19 AM in response to Kieran McKenna

Yes Kieran,

I noticed that Speakable Items is no more with Mountain Lion. I will miss not being able to speak commands to the computer, but then I haven't been able to do so for sometime now. I look forward to trying the dictation feature that takes its place. I have only given it a few brief tries so far and it seems more accurate than Dictate. I really like not having to wear a microphone. I feel concerned about the long delay between my speech and the text appearing, though.

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Answer 4

Aug 4, 2012 4:20 AM in response to Ted Hopkins

Ted, I've tried multiple things from multiple forums, none of them worked. I did find a solution though. I knew using a Time Machine backup could modify some important files in the new OS. I made sure Speaking was switched off. Then I opened my library directory and opened my preferences folder. When I had it open I entered time machine. I chose the most past backup and scrolled through till I found the speech preferences. (com.apple.speach..... Etc) There should be about 6 files. Select only those 6 files and restore them. When finder asked it it should delete the old files or keep both, delete the old files, they are your current preferences. Then I did this to the speakable items folder just in case. When I turn Speach Recognition back on it was right as rain.

Hope that helps, not everyone uses Time Machine.

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Answer 5

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 6, 2012 12:22 AM in response to Kieran McKenna

Interesting Kiernan,

But wouldn't that clobber the new Dictation feature in Mountain Lion? Was the conflict with sleep/screen save preferences gone aswell?

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Answer 6

Aug 6, 2012 6:41 AM in response to Ted Hopkins

I thought that might be a problem, but when I looked at the library files and the preferences, they didn't over lap. Dictation is now a feature paired text to speech. Speakable items are now in access ability with voice over and the rest of the handicapped helpfull settings. They do not interfere with each other.

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Answer 7

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 7, 2012 11:31 AM in response to Kieran McKenna

Thanks Kiernan,

I looked and found Speakable Items among the Access preferences. This certainly was unexpected as Speakable Items is a speech feature.

Anyhow, I activated Speakable Items and gave it its first spoken command. I asked for the time. Then I left the computer. When I came back, well after my screensaver should have kicked in, even after my computer should have gone to sleep, I found my iMac fully awake, just as I had left it. Clearly, Speakable Items still interferes with the Sleep and Screensaver preferences.

Ted.

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Answer 8

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 7, 2012 11:38 AM in response to Ted Hopkins

The bug still persists in Mountain Lion. Hey Apple software engineers, why can we not talk to our Macs without clobbering our Sreensaver and Energy Saver preferences? This has gone on far too long.

Ted.

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Answer 9

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Jan 27, 2013 7:23 PM in response to Ted Hopkins

Actually Speakable Items does remain with Mountain Lion. In System Preferences, it has been moved away from Speech & Dictation into Accessibility. This bug, conflicting with the screen saver and sleep, must be a real frustration for people with special needs and have more need to access their computers by voice than you and I.

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Answer 10

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 26, 2013 1:12 AM in response to Ted Hopkins

I have updated to OS X 10.9 Mavericks and find the bug continues to persist. I just gave my first Speakable Items command since the upgrade, then left my computer to do something else for a while. When I came back, I found my computer still fully wide awake, no screen saver active nor asleep as set with my Energy Saver preferences. Through Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, and now Mavericks, why does this conflict bug between Speakable Items and Screen Saver/Sleep not get fixed?

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Answer 11

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Feb 3, 2014 7:53 PM in response to Ted Hopkins

I suggest all who wish this bug to get fixed pester http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html and let them know that real concern exists with the way this bug has been permitted to linger.

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Answer 12

Ted Hopkins Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 18, 2014 9:59 AM in response to Ted Hopkins

Hurrah, I can now talk to my computer without clobbering my energy saver preferences and screensaver. With Extended Dictation in Yosemite replacing Speakable Items the problem is finally gone!

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