IOS 14 Siri and Hands free no longer works

[snifferpro]

Nothing from Apple yet. Still experimenting with phone to see what works and what doesn't.

May just have to wait for next update to IOS 14 to see if issue is resolved.

Will keep all posted.

 

[chscag]

Apple just announced that the iOS 14.2 beta has been released for public testing. We should see an update to 14.2 before long. Whether that cures the problem you're having is not known.

 

[snifferpro]

Heard from Apple support today. Unfortunately I was not home.

Will be scheduling a call and session with them so that they can install a logging program on the phone to see what is going on.

Will keep you posted.

 

[Rod]

@snifferpro, you are correct. I have an iPhones SE 2 iOS 14.1 and I am unable to get Siri to read my SMS messages from the Lock Screen. I have checked my settings and "Allow Siri When Locked" is on but Siri still requires me to unlock the phone to read them.
I assume this is a security measure. Siri can do a number of things from the lock screen but not read SMS messages. As yet I have not found a way around this.

 

[snifferpro]

I don't believe it is a security measure. If that were true, Siri and hands free would not work on other Iphones. Also, Siri and hands free no longer works on my Ipad Pro 4th gen with IOS 14. With IOS 13 it worked fine. Also, my Iphone SE worked fine with IOS 13.

Apple connected to my phone remotely and checked all my settings and found they were all correct. They escalated the issue to engineers and they called me yesterday to have them again connect to my phone and add an logging app to the phone to find out why it does not do hands free with Siri. Unfortunately I was not home when they called but I am scheduling a time for them again connect to my phone.

Not being able to use Siri to read messages hands free is a safety issue. No matter where you mount your phone in your vehicle, if you must unlock your phone to read a message. it now requires you to take your eyes off the road, and art least one hand off the steering wheel to unlock the phone.
Not Safe!!

 

[JMD-2]

If there was a way to go back to IoS 13.6 easily I would do that, but I’m not aware of a way to do that

Why not, as a work-around, wake up your phone and turn off autolock for while you are driving? Plug your phone in if you are worried about the battery. I had this problem sporadically on my previous iPhone 6 and current iPhone X in iOS 13 and earlier. Haven't noticed it yet in 14. Not sure why it happens sometimes; it's annoyed me, but not enough to look into it. If I start out knowing I will be texting/calling via Bluetooth on any particular drive I do the work-around.

 

[snifferpro]

I know that work works, but I should not have to do work arounds for something that worked without fail on IOS 13. Besides, with my memory I would probably forget to put the phone back in Lock mode which is a security issue.

Apple is aware of this problem and I am scheduled for an online session on Sunday to install a logging app to see what is going on.

Apple seems to have acknowledged that there is an issue.

 

[coppercoin]

I have not updated to IOS 14 yet, but I actually have that happen to me on my iPhone 11 with hey Siri. Usually after some update. Maddening when your driving. My suggestion is to go to Settings, Siri and toggle all Siri setting off and then reboot your phone. Then reestablish Siri permissions: Listen for Hey Sire, Press side button for Siri, and allow Siri when locked. It's my go to fix for anything that is broken on my iphone for apparently no reason. Turn option off, reboot, turn back on. Usually fixes whatever bit or byte that has gone rogue. Good luck.

 

[Rod]

coppercoin, I agree with your general suggestion, "Turn option off, reboot, turn back on. Usually fixes whatever bit or byte that has gone rogue" that often works but in this case it did not work for me. Possibly because I did not follow your suggestion entirely. I did turn off Allow Siri When Locked and Press home for Siri but I did not turn Siri off completely by unticking Listen For "Hey Siri" because of the below text message. After restarting and turning the Allow Siri When Locked back on I did think it was going to work. At least Siri did not ask for the screen to be unlocked but after "Working on it" for about 30 seconds it declared there "Was a problem" and to try again which I did but to no avail.

 

[snifferpro]

Just finished with Apple. They connected to phone and verified settings for a third time. Then Installed a Profile app to allow them to get diagnostics of the issue.
I locked the phone and asked Siri to read my last message and got the announcement from Siri that I have to unlock phone.

Did that 4 times, then went to the profile app and it collected the data, compressed it, and sent it to Apple support.

Tech said the fix would likely come with the next update to IOS.

I'll keep all informed.

 

[chscag]

Thanks for the update. I do wonder though if it's something unique to your phone or profile because it does not happen with my iPhone 8 which is on 14.0.1.

It will be interesting to see what Apple does include in their next update to iOS, which according to what I have read will be iOS 14.2.

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks for the update. I do wonder though if it's something unique to your phone or profile because it does not happen with my iPhone 8 which is on 14.0.1.

It will be interesting to see what Apple does include in their next update to iOS, which according to what I have read will be iOS 14.2.

Charlie, it happens on my iPhone 11. I block the camera with my hand so facial recognition won't unlock it then do the "Hey, Siri, read my last text message" and Siri responds that I have to unlock the iPhone first. As snifferpro says, totally defeats the purpose of hands-free in a car, unless you have facial recognition and put the iPhone where it can unlock with your face, which pretty much blocks your vision of the road.

 

[chscag]

I fully understand and believe that it's a problem since not only you and snifferpro have stated the same thing but others have also. I do wonder though, why it doesn't happen with my phone?

If I can ever grab hold of my wife's iPhone 11 long enough to test it...... Sometimes I think that phone is attached to her. LOL.

 

[Rod]

Same for my wife's iPhone XR and as stated my iPhone SE2.

 

[chscag]

Well, I tested my iPhone 8 again.... And no matter how it's locked, Siri answers me and carries out what I ask.

Again, I'm using iOS 14.0.1.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, I tested my iPhone 8 again.... And no matter how it's locked, Siri answers me and carries out what I ask.

Again, I'm using iOS 14.0.1.

Remind me how the 8 was locked? Sounds like the issue is hardware related and tied to how the hardware is locked down.

 

[chscag]

Remind me how the 8 was locked? Sounds like the issue is hardware related and tied to how the hardware is locked down.

Normally I let the phone time out and self lock after 3 to 5 minutes. (Depends on whether or not I'm at home.) When it locks, I need to enter my passcode or fingerprint to bring up the home screen and use the phone. (No facial recognition for the 8.) I have also tried it after purposefully locking the phone by pressing the side button.

Like I said above, I haven't tested my wife's 11. I do not want Siri to recognize my voice instead of hers, and she does not like Siri. (Must be a female thing. LOL)

 

[Rod]

Like I said above, I haven't tested my wife's 11. I do not want Siri to recognize my voice instead of hers, and she does not like Siri. (Must be a female thing. LOL)

You know you can make it a male voice, my wife has.

 

[MacInWin]

You know you can make it a male voice, my wife has.

Yes, that is "Sir I."

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I don't believe it is a security measure. If that were true, Siri and hands free would not work on other Iphones. Also, Siri and hands free no longer works on my Ipad Pro 4th gen with IOS 14. With IOS 13 it worked fine. Also, my Iphone SE worked fine with IOS 13.

Apple connected to my phone remotely and checked all my settings and found they were all correct. They escalated the issue to engineers and they called me yesterday to have them again connect to my phone and add an logging app to the phone to find out why it does not do hands free with Siri. Unfortunately I was not home when they called but I am scheduling a time for them again connect to my phone.

Not being able to use Siri to read messages hands free is a safety issue. No matter where you mount your phone in your vehicle, if you must unlock your phone to read a message. it now requires you to take your eyes off the road, and art least one hand off the steering wheel to unlock the phone.
Not Safe!!

Hold on a second. Yes, that should be a security measure IF you have disallowed previews of messages on the lock screen. Otherwise, anyone could use Siri to read messages that are not supposed to be readable when the phone is locked. Correct? If that's the case, then check Settings » Notifications » Show Previews. From there, if Always isn't selected, try changing to that. There's a similar setting that can be set for individual apps, so check those also.

That all said, I don't use the Hey Siri feature but I went through the motions to set it up and tried out my theory above. Despite having set that option to Always, as well as the counterpart in the notification settings of my email apps, Siri wouldn't read my emails to me unless I unlocked the phone first. I'm on an iPhone Xr running iOS 14.0.1.

Doing some reading, and I'm not wrong about the above. Here's a discussion on Apple's site with someone who had this identical issue on iOS 11:

ios11 - siri can't read text messages fro… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

The solution in that case? Disable and re-enable Hey Siri, in addition to checking the notification settings as above. There's also a toggle under Face ID & Password to allow Siri on the lock screen. Now, in my case none of this got it working for me. But these logically and by my reading ARE the settings to review and set. I think that at this time, it pretty clearly is a bug for Siri to be inaccessible despite all the correct settings enabled. Only other thing to try is to make a local backup to your computer; restore iOS 14 clean; then restore your backup.