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iPad vocal Shortcuts randomly stop working when locked

vocal Shortcuts randomly stop working.

I tried using vocal shotcuts years ago as it was unreliable. Years later, this still hasn’t been fixed and it’s frustrating.

i use vocal shortcuts to control my audio system (Bluetooth), like changing playlists, radio stations and volume control.

While they usually work for the day, they will randomly break. Shortcuts containing the switch of radio stations / playlists will randomly stop responding while the device is locked, while they used to work an hour ago. Same goes for volume control. Restarting iPad doesn’t always fix the issue, also closing all apps and restart doesn’t. Sometimes it does, other times not and I can’t find the issue. I repeat, all of these usually work while device is locked but will randomly fail to trigger the shortcut for no reason at all even when device isn’t used the entire day. This makes vocal shortcuts unrealiable and require frequent restart only to make them work again. This problem persists through several iPadOS versions since they were first introduced and I’m very disappointed apple hasn’t fixed this for years. Either remove the feature or finally fix this because this has been going on for years and the problem is strictly caused by some system bug which hasn’t been adressed for years.

1 reply

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Given the nature and persistence of the problem that you describe, you would be best advised to seek assistance directly from Apple Support. You can contact the Support Team using the Support link at top-right or bottom-left of this page.


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Should you choose to do so, if you believe the unexpected an inconsistent behaviour to be a bug with iPadOS, Apple invites submission of Bug Reports via its Product Feedback portal. For iPad and iPadOS:

Feedback - iPad - Apple


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