Apple – Troubleshoot no speech output from installed speech engines

Apple – Troubleshoot no speech output from installed speech engines


Problem

A customer using Mac OS is having trouble getting speech to work with an application that uses synthetic speech TTS such as Read & Write. 

 

Detail

Many literacy apps such as Read & Write or Claro make use of synthetic speech as part of their facilities, however in some cases this may not appear to work.  Below is a troubleshooting measure on can use in Mac OS to test the speech engines more directly than from within the affected app.


Resolution

To troubleshoot the TTS engine directly use these steps to check the speech engines independently of the app they are using.


 Mac OS Monterey and above

  1. Click the speaker icon in the menu bar on the right and ensure that volume is at least half way up.
  2. Then Click Apple symbol (top left).
  3. Then click System Settings,
  4. In the Search box enter the phrase Spoken Content and then click the result in the list below.
  5. Click the drop down for System Voice and select the speech engine that failed to work before and click Play Sample button.  The speech engine should speak.


Mac OS Big Sur and below

  1. Click Apple symbol (top left) and choose System Preferences.
  2. Then click Dictation and Speech.
  3. Then click Text to Speech.
  4. Then click System Voice.
  5. Then click the drop down to select the chosen speech engine.
  6. Then click Play button to hear the speech. 


Tip
If you select Kathy, Fred or Junior in the list and click Play Sample you should hear the Mac OS built in voices which should work even if the third party engine do not by way of comparison.


Conclusions and action

If speech is not heard when clicking Play Sample or Play button this probably indicates that the problem may be with the speech engine itself (assuming sound settings are OK).


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