iPad Speak Screen Not Working After iPadOS 16 Update? (Fix!)

speak screen not working ipadOS 16

Speak Screen not working iPadOS 16


Speak screen not working on iPad after iPadOS 16.1 update? Siri won’t read out the screen when using ‘Hey Siri’? You get the default reply: ‘Sorry, there’s nothing to read here.’ This issue could be related to the iOS 16 Siri problem, that we covered a couple of weeks ago!

Speak Screen Not Working On iPad?

This glitch has been reported by John:

“With iPadOS 16.1 on my new iPad Pro 12.9 inch, Siri will not speak the screen when prompted with a spoken command: ‘Hey Siri, speak screen.’
This is not an issue with iPad Pro 11 inch with 15.7 or with iPhone 14 Pro Max with 16.0.3. I am low vision and so I need for this to work.”

We’ve found a similar complaint on Apple’s Discussion forums:

“Siri will not speak the screen after users install the 16.1 OS update. The screen dims a little bit and then Siri says: ‘Sorry, There’s nothing to read here.’ This happens with Apple News, Pocket, websites with Safari, etc.”

How To Fix iPad Speak Screen Not Working?

Perform the following troubleshooting steps:

1. Turn Speak Screen On and Off

Sometimes, after an update, if a feature isn’t working you can fix it by disabling it and turning it back On a couple of seconds later:

  • Open Settings and tap on Accessibility.
  • Go for Spoken Content.
  • Turn Off Speak Screen.
  • Reboot iPad and turn the feature back On. Does it help?

2. Change Siri Voice

  • In the same Spoken Content settings, tap on Voices.
  • Tap English and select a different voice for Siri.
  • Download the new voice and retry the ‘Hey Siri, speak screen’ command!

3. Change Siri Language

If Speak Screen still doesn’t work you should also change the Default Language setting, in the same Spoken Content Accessibility menu.

Switch from Current Locale to English or the language that you’re using most of the time.

Workaround for Speak Screen Not Working

If nothing from the above works, you have to select the text on your iPad / iPhone, that you want Siri to read out and then command Siri no speak screen!

However, this isn’t an ideal solution for visual impaired users that might have a hard time selecting the text manually!

Have you managed to fix iPadOS 16.1 Speak Screen issues? Do you have a better solution or other problems to report? Share your feedback in the comments!

Related: For more iPadOS 16 bugs and available fixes please visit our extended review.