Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Yendog

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
169
22
Sonoma, CA
Okay... so Siri on my phone has become next to worthless all of the sudden. I have no idea what happened. I will say things that I say 6-10 times a day normally to her... like "send a text to Rachel Smith"

My wife... who i text like this all day.

The really annoying this is that on the phone the text will say "Send a text to rachel smith" but then siri will just F it up completely saying "did you mean Charlotte Worth" or "who would you like to send it to"

this is happening all over it.. can't find my fathers name.. that I use constantly etc... but it will display it perfectly...

any ideas.... she's about 60% worthless now...

I've done all the tips.. turned her on and off, turned off bluetooth (didn't help and i need it anyways) reset network settings, rebooted phone multiple times...

wondering if it is just a server thing but not sure why it would be just on my phone.

really incredibly annoying.
 

Yendog

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
169
22
Sonoma, CA
To me it sounds like something has happened with your phone's microphone. Have you done any checking in that direction?


I wiped it down a bit. But if the text is showing up flawlessly on the screen I don't see how it could be the microphone. The annoying thing about this is it's not that Siri isn't working for me. It's that things that she used to successfully do many many times a day now the sudden aren't working at all
 

yep-sure

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2012
495
564
Melbourne, Australia
Siri is basically useless.

The "hey Siri" from across the room works, then it doesn't pick up a single word after that.

I have my phone in my hand right now, trying to get Siri to set a timer for 1 hour, and I get nothing... It's not picking up a single word, like I'm not even talking.

It's been useless since day 1.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Siri is basically useless.

The "hey Siri" from across the room works, then it doesn't pick up a single word after that.

I have my phone in my hand right now, trying to get Siri to set a timer for 1 hour, and I get nothing... It's not picking up a single word, like I'm not even talking.

It's been useless since day 1.
Weird, it's rare that it doesn't work for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ohio.emt

BradWould

macrumors 6502
Apr 11, 2015
272
252
Nova Scotia, Canada
Siri is basically useless.

The "hey Siri" from across the room works, then it doesn't pick up a single word after that.

I have my phone in my hand right now, trying to get Siri to set a timer for 1 hour, and I get nothing... It's not picking up a single word, like I'm not even talking.

It's been useless since day 1.


I use Siri and the "hey Siri" function for my HomeKit devices all the time. I've never had any serious issues. She works great for me.
 

jgelin

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2015
904
1,073
St Petersburg, FL
Try turning Siri on and off again, it will remove the personal data and voice patterns she thinks she has learned proper overtime. Then after some use it should be back to normal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris

southerndoc

Contributor
May 15, 2006
1,837
509
USA
I also have had issues over the past month or two. When I say "Hey Siri, play such and such song by this artist" it will play something totally unrelated about 50% of the time.

If I use the dictation feature for text messages (like click the microphone), it gets everything I say accurately 99% of the time. So it's not a microphone problem for me.
 

orbital~debris

macrumors 68020
Mar 3, 2004
2,238
5,905
UK, Europe
Siri used to work fantastically for me. It's like magic when it does.
Lately, I've noticed Siri frequently responds to most requests with "Here's what I found on the web for ____".
This is on my iPad and iPhone.

Siri on Apple Watch is excellent, as it is on Apple TV. I think some tuning has been done on these products.
I'm hopeful that on release of Siri on Mac, there'll be across the board improvement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jgelin

Yendog

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
169
22
Sonoma, CA
Try turning Siri on and off again, it will remove the personal data and voice patterns she thinks she has learned proper overtime. Then after some use it should be back to normal.

yes as I said i already toggled her on and off a couple of times.
[doublepost=1458492071][/doublepost]and yea... Siri is far from perfect... and has never been perfect but she has been extremely useful for me and I user her probably 10-15 times a day...

The STRANGE thing that I can't figure out what the heck is happening is that the TEXT shows up perfect but she can't figure out what to do.... and commands that I have used at least once almost every day for years now don't work!?!? Not sure I have support on my phone anymore but maybe I'll try apple support tomorrow.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jgelin

stooovie

macrumors 6502a
Nov 21, 2010
836
314
If she doesn't understand your voice commands, try changing the dialect in Settings. I find she understands much more when I set it to British English. There are seven dialect options for English alone.
 

Daria

macrumors regular
May 31, 2011
133
20
Northern California
yes as I said i already toggled her on and off a couple of times.
[doublepost=1458492071][/doublepost]and yea... Siri is far from perfect... and has never been perfect but she has been extremely useful for me and I user her probably 10-15 times a day...

The STRANGE thing that I can't figure out what the heck is happening is that the TEXT shows up perfect but she can't figure out what to do.... and commands that I have used at least once almost every day for years now don't work!?!? Not sure I have support on my phone anymore but maybe I'll try apple support tomorrow.

I hope you do call Apple; several times they have helped me fix stuff on Mac which is out of Care, and mostly have not been charged anything. They'll tell you if there's going to be a fee, and how much it will be. One time I paid $19.95, but that included a total of about 3 hours Tech phone time, and 2-3 subsequent phone calls. Once they assign a ticket number to an issue, they stay with you until the problem is solved.
 

CTHarrryH

macrumors 68030
Jul 4, 2012
2,950
1,474
Like the rest of the world if you ask Siri a basketball score question she only looks for Men's basketball and not women's
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Like the rest of the world if you ask Siri a basketball score question she only looks for Men's basketball and not women's
Seems like it you specify women's basketball it will do the job just fine.
 

JM

macrumors 601
Nov 23, 2014
4,083
6,377
I ask Siri to text someone, and it says "I don't have a number for ________"

Yes you do, Siri. Yes you do.

I feel you pain, OP
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,156
Siri can be strange....

Why would it ask me this?

image.jpeg

It recognized "Steve Taylor" than ask me if I meant him or "Dave Nelson"?

I find it exceptionally annoying when I say "hey Siri send a text to Steve that says (message)" and when I look at the screen it says "says (message)".
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
10,923
5,367
192.168.1.1
Try turning off contacts from your iCloud account, allow it to delete them from your phone, then turn back on contacts in iCloud settings and allow it to re-import your contacts. That helped me once when Siri seemed to forget who my wife was, and seemed to think there was no phone number for her when I said her full first & last name.

Just make sure you save a backup of your contacts someplace, like on your Mac, just in case.
 
  • Like
Reactions: orbital~debris

Yendog

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 26, 2010
169
22
Sonoma, CA
Siri can be strange....

Why would it ask me this?

View attachment 622415

It recognized "Steve Taylor" than ask me if I meant him or "Dave Nelson"?

I find it exceptionally annoying when I say "hey Siri send a text to Steve that says (message)" and when I look at the screen it says "says (message)".


yes thats the crap i've was getting as well.... um.. she gets it right.. its spelled right and everything but then completely screws up
[doublepost=1458688472][/doublepost]
Try turning off contacts from your iCloud account, allow it to delete them from your phone, then turn back on contacts in iCloud settings and allow it to re-import your contacts. That helped me once when Siri seemed to forget who my wife was, and seemed to think there was no phone number for her when I said her full first & last name.

Just make sure you save a backup of your contacts someplace, like on your Mac, just in case.


no cause its not just with the contacts.. its with everything she does... add to reminders list, open such and such app.
[doublepost=1458688555][/doublepost]UPDATE.

Siri SEEMS to be back to normal or pretty close to it now... maybe apple was screwing around with her server before the OS releases the other day but after that and upgrading my iOS she seems to be working better... '

she defiitnely has her good days and bad days... and good times and bad times... good luck to all and thanks for the help.. i'll keep you updated.
 

southerndoc

Contributor
May 15, 2006
1,837
509
USA
I'm still having trouble with it. For instance, when I say "play Jeremy by Pearl Jam" I sometimes get Jeremiah Love Don't Change (which isn't even in my music library).

I hate it when I tell Siri to play something and it plays from Apple Music (streaming) instead of from my music library.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.