Siri can't control phone functions

Hi Macidiot_1979,

If you are having trouble with Siri understanding your voice commands, take a look at the troubleshooting steps in this article. For instance, what happens when you turn Wi-Fi off and give Siri a command using your cellular network? Take a look at these steps and reply back if the issue still persists.

Use Siri on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Get help with Siri

• If "Hey Siri" isn't working, make sure that "Hey Siri" is turned on under Settings > General > Siri.
  
• Siri might say, "Sorry, I'm having trouble connecting to the network," or "Try again in a little while." This is probably a network issue. Check your Internet connection and try again later.
  
• If Siri isn't available or responding to questions, see the next section.

If Siri isn't available, or doesn't understand or respond to questions

After each step, see if you still need help:

1. Make sure that your iOS device has an Internet connection through Wi-Fi or cellular data.
   
2. On your iOS device, make sure that Siri is turned on under Settings > General > Siri.
   
3. Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
   
4. On your iOS device, go to Settings > General > Siri and turn off Siri. Then turn it on again.
   
5. Make sure that the microphones on your device aren't blocked. For example, if your device has a protective case, remove it.
   
6. If you're using an iOS device, try to use Siri with a headset. If Siri works, get more help with the microphones on your device.
   
7. Contact Apple Support.

Happy Holidays!

I am having the same problem on my iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 9.2. The problem isn't that Siri doesn't understand, the problem is that she can't perform the action. She understands me perfectly. When I ask her to perform an action on the phone, she clearly understands it, then goes to apparently perform the action, but comes back after a few seconds and says, "Sorry I can't do that right now."

For instance, when I say "set a timer for 10 minutes," Siri responds with, "Setting the timer..." (That's what I mean when I say she understands me perfectly)

She will then after some time say, "We've had a problem, can you please try that again." Unfortunately trying it any number of times never works. The only temporary fix is to restart the phone.

IM having the same problems. She won't make calls, or appointments, or set alarms. She can however tell me the time or the weather. But if I ask her to set my alarm for 7am, she replies with setting your alarm... But then comes back and says she can't do it. She also cannot launch any apps because I ”don't ha an app by that name". I tried Photos, Mail, Calendar, etc. I've wiped and restored from a backup. I've reset settings. I've restarted. I've shut down. I've disabled Siri, enabled Siri. I've disabled Hey Siri and renabled it...no luck

I Had the same problem after upgrading to iPhone 6s 64GB.

After finding this thread, I tried turning Siri off, shutting iPhone down and more-enabling Siri after a reboot. Now it's working again.

Before I had tried to deactivate and re-enable Siri with no effect. Maybe that works for someone else, too.

Same and problem here, restoring and "updating" the iOS from iTunes fixed the problem for two hours, and then it stopped working again! Any ideas? 😝

iOS9.2 iPhone 6 Plus

NB its working on my iPad though, so not a network problem.

I am also having the same problem. It occurred when I bought a new iPhone 6S 128 model, replacing an iPhone 5S. My specs are listed below. I used to be able to ask Siri to "play my Jazz Favorites playlist" and it could access it immediately. Now, it takes a long time to searching and said, "Sorry I can't do that right now." I have tried all of the suggestions mentioned above as well, including soft and hard resets, using the my cellular connection and different WiFi networks, and a full restore of my software.

My fear is that Apple is not aware of the problem for the next update. Is there somewhere that this can be reported? I have suggested features before using a form on the website, but this is more of a software issue. I pray that this will get resolved soon. Like others, I depend on Siri to control my phone in hands-free situations.

iPhone 6S 128 gb

Version: 9.2 (13C75)

Carrier: Verizon 23.3

I Am having this problem on 6plus, ipad pro and mini 4 too. Looks like we need a update fix for 9.2.

+1 for turning off Siri, hard reset of phone (home button & sleep together until screen goes black and the Apple logo appears) then turning Siri on again.

I also switched from USA to Brit voice for good luck, not sure if that was it or not, but now I have Siri back on the Lockscreen making reminders and controlling my music.

Same problem here.

Tried turning off Siri, rebooting iPhone and then turning Siri on. It worked for only one minute, then the problem came back

Any other idea?

Since my post my Siri situation has spun out of control. I've tried most everything everyone has suggested, and it's hit and miss. I have a 5S and #rd gen iPad, the phone is by far the worst for Siri issues, but the iPad seems to be developing the same troubles.

She hears me, tries to do what I ask then says she can't if it's from the lock screen. Once the phone is open, I'm still have occasional fails where she can't search the internet or whatever.

I'm thinking we either have to see if we can still downgrade to 9.1 by downloading the ipsw and waiting for Apple to push a fix via 9.2.1 whichever number they choose.

All in all and in the end super, super frustrating. I use Siri a lot from the lock screen and on top of that my 5S home button is failing only after 1.5 years of ownership. Very frustrating indeed.

Yup. Im having the same issues as well. When asked for information Siri is quick to give it to me, but when asked to do certain things like set alarm/timer, launch an app, dial a phone number, set reminders etc.. it doesn't do it. Just says "Setting the alarm .." and then it says that it wasn't able to. I lad an iPhone 6s Plus 64 GB. I restored my iPhone from iCloud backup, nothing. Erased my iPhone and set it as new, nothing. Took it to the Genius Bar and got the phone swapped for a new one and it worked at first, but the same problem started happening again so it MUST be a software issue. After doing research I've been told that installing the 9.3 beta resolved this issue, but i don't feel comfortable having a beta installed on my phone since its still very buggy. My partners iPhone 6 64GB was having the exact same issue as well and he erased his iPhone, set it up as new and that seemed to do the trick for him, but for me it did not work. I filed a bug report with Apple at bugreport.apple.com please report this issue so Apple can fix this in the next software update. Cheers!

Same issue for me too. I had it on a 6 and now a 6s. Siri works for a little while after a reboot but returns to the problem soon after

Same here... Iphone 6s plus 128gb with 9.2.1 running. Siri will tell the time but not open apps or make phone calls!

I have rebotted, restored, set up as new, used restore from icloud the lot. Turned off handoff etc etc. Nothing. So thanks Apple. can we now fix this?