You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

"Start Speaking" command and Voice Over always uses Alex voice

I'd like to set up my Mac so it can read aloud text on news websites, but I don't like the default system voice called "Alex". I prefer the "Siri" voices that you can download and enable in System Preferences.


However, no matter which voice I enable in System Preferences > Accessibility > Spoken Content, my Mac always uses the Alex voice for everything, even though I have (ostensibly) disabled or "deleted" the Alex voice, along with the other voices that come enables by default.


I would like to use the command Speech > Start Speaking and Stop Speaking commands in Safari to read text on websites that I view using Reader mode.


Thanks for your help.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.5

Posted on Sep 3, 2021 1:42 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 3, 2021 2:20 AM

Reset NVRAM.

Restart in Safe Mode, then restart normally again.

Select a voice in System Preferences. Does it work?


If the problem persists, Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.


1 reply

"Start Speaking" command and Voice Over always uses Alex voice

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