Siri not working in Sierra?

Hey guys. Is anyone noticing in Sierra that if you go to System preferences in the apple menu, then Siri, if you then set the keyboard shortcut to Function+Space bar, then close system preferences, and try to then activate Siri, it isn't working by then pressing FN+Space bar? What's even more bizarre about this is, I am totally blind, and use Voiceover. I've tried this by the way both with Voiceover turned on, as well as turned off. I had another developer who is sighted help me look, and they confirmed what I'm fixing to describe is happening both with VO turned on, as well as when it's off. Basically, anything that would require pressing the escape key to cancel out of stops working at this point after pressing FN+Space bar to activate Siri. You'd think that wouldn't be rellavent, but apparently it is. I don't see this issue with the escape key not responding until I try hitting FN+Space bar, find that Siri didn't activate, then try moving around. The only way I can get my escape key to work again at this point is to reboot the system. This is a mid 2012 macbook Pro with optycal drive, no retina display, 13 inch, and again is obviously running the dev beta seed 1 of Sierra. Objectively, I just want to see if anyone else both with Voiceover on/off are able to reproduce these problems. If not, can you all maybe give me a few things I can try to better figure out what on earth is going on? Before you ask, this isn't a matter of Siri just not hearing me. I don't think it's even being activated, as I don't even hear the little ding that indicates that I've launched anything, and plus, I never get any voice feedback telling me that Siri didn't hear me. Yes, under system prefs, Siri, I do have siri enabled, and yes, I do have voice feedback enabled. I'm using the english male, although none of the other english based voices seem to be working either. I just wonder if maybe it only works on Sierra if you have a certain year mac or newer. I'm wonderring if my hardware is too old, or even if it's hardware specific. I filed a bug, but I figured I'd also check here.

Replies

I am had issues where siri will work once and then will no longer be responsive. Changing the setting or turning Siri On and Off did not do anything.


A restart seemed to fix the problem, but I am sure you tried that already.

Hi Bigtom. Thank you so much for your response; it's very much appreciated.


Yeah, seems a bit buggy. It'll definitely be very interesting to see if anyone with hardware similar to mine can get Siri to work. Again, I'm using a macbook pro mid 2012 13 inch with CD drive, and no retina display. You're lucky. I couldn't even get Siri to work some of the time, let alone all the time consistently. Has anyone up here got similar hardware? If so, can you please test this both with, and without Voiceover enabled, and let us know if you can reproduce my problems?


Thanks, and god bless.

Siri does not respond for me at all. Even if I click the icon nothing happens. I'm having the same issue with iTunes. Late 2015 Retina 5k iMac running beta 16A286A

Try holding Option + Space and see if Siri works. I never had issues with Siri in my MacBook.

Mine NEVER worked even on beta builds. On top of that if I try to press the siri icon my ESC key stops working. I posted about it here too and another user reported the exact same problem


Running on a late 2011 MBP 13

My MacBook is exactly the same. MacBook Pro Mid 2012 no retina 13'. For me, Siri works perfectly. First, try updating to macOS Sierra GM instead of Developer Preview 1. Then, check if Siri is allowed in settings (System Preferences > Siri > Enable Siri).

Same thing is happening to me on macbook pro 15' mid 2015 after update,

Im thinking about a clean install to try but not right now...

It works on several of my Macs, but it refuses to work on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014). I've tinkered with turning it on and off, plus turning dictation on and off, and I've confirmed that the internal mic is functional as the default input.


Siri works if I use my headset, but any time I try to use the internal mic, it doesn't seem to hear me.

I have a Mac Pro (Late 2013) and the SSD is partitioned into 3 volumes: 2 JHFS+ and 1 NTFS Boot Camp. The 2 macOS partitions are both running 10.12 as of yesterday. For the HFS partitions, the first, I'll call it "1", is my "every day" use volume. Mail, Safari, VLC... everything I use every day is on 1 and it has a ton of apps. 1 is always the last to get updates for the OS. The second one, "2", is what I call a "reference volume". 2 has nothing on it except for any given macOS, sometimes betas (not for 10.12 however). Nothing else is on 2. I've never opened or configured Mail, iCloud, or anything on 2. Maybe used Safari on it once or twice (and then emptied cache and deleted all cookies, etc.)

Well, Siri works fine on 2, but functions in NO WAY on 1. I've tried changing the hot keys, rebooting, disabling/re-enabling, reinstalling 10.12 from both the downloaded installer and from a bootable USB stick. She can appear in the menu bar, and in the dock, or just the menu bar only, but clicking on either results in nothing -- no errors, no popups, no odd behavior... no behavior at all. Doesn't even beep. I can't find any plist files or anything else associated with it so I have NO idea where to even start in that respect, except drilling down into the console, which I will do when I have the time (probably tonight). Interestingly the "Automatic" setting seems to indicate my USB headset is the default mic and not the Thunderbolt display mic like on 2... That's the other thing I'm going to mess with tonight; audio input settings, unplugging devices/resetting NVRAM, SMC, etc.

Update: This fixed my issue; try entering in the Terminal:


launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist


killall NotificationCenter

Go to -Settings - Keyboard -Dictation -Turn dictation on. The same thing happened to me and this fixed it.

Thank you very much, I have been fighting with this since Siri came out and this is the first solution that worked.

same here. but if i restart itit works once