Can't change Siri Voice

On my 2017 iMac, High Sierra 10.13.6, I have Siri's language set to English (South Africa), and Siri's voice set to South African (Female).

I have options available to change the voice to American, Australian, and British, male and female voices.


If I change it to any one of those, after 6 seconds, it changes itself back to South African (Female).

If I close the settings app before it changes, when I reopen it, it has changed back.


If I change the language to English (United States), then I can change between the different voices without issue. South African (Female) is not available here.


If I change the language back to English (South Africa), after 6 seconds it changes the voice back to South African (Female) from whatever was selected.


If I set the voice to e.g. Australian (Female), and ask Siri a question before the 6 seconds is up, she replies in Australian (Female). If I ask another question, she replies in South African (Female), as the 6 seconds is up, and the setting has reverted back...


So my question is, is there some limitation to Siri on OSX that prevents usage of other voices for English (South Africa), or is there something wrong with my system? How would I fix this?


P.S. on both my iPhone 6 and iPad Pro, I've had Siri's language set to English (South Africa), and the voice set to British (Female), for as long as I've had both devices, without experiencing any issues.

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Oct 11, 2018 12:58 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 11, 2018 2:33 PM

Sorry, my brain such that it isn't working today. I just checked High Sierra and if you choose English (South Africa), South African (Female) is the only choice and reverts to it every time.


So, if you want more choices you have to upgrade.

Similar questions

10 replies

Oct 11, 2018 1:32 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks for the reply,


I just logged in with another account I have on the system, and it had language set to English (South Africa) and the voice was set to British (Male). I tested Siri like this, and he replied.

I then set the language to South African (Female) and she replied.


I then set it back to British (Male), and unfortunately after a few seconds, it reverted back to South African (Female)...

Oct 11, 2018 2:14 PM in response to dialabrain

Interesting, I don't have the Irish voice options either. I'm still running High Sierra. This iMac was purchased in March, so arrived with it, and I restored from a Time Machine backup of Yosemite. That might have something to do with this. I hadn't actually tried using Siri on this system until now, so have no pointers as to when this could have started...


I completely forgot about Mojave being available, so upgrading is a possible solution.


Oh, another symptom, these appear in the console when the language is changed, and then when it reverts (a bit quicker since the reboot)

User uploaded file

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Can't change Siri Voice

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.