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Sound / Voice Instruction Problems

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If you are having problems with Sound / Voice instructions, like not hearing any voice, the voice cutting off, the first bit of a voice instruction being cut off, low voice volume, etc. then here are some things to try, in order of most likely to solve, to least likely to solve. It’s recommended to try these one by one. Don’t try changing multiple settings at the same time. First try one, and if that doesn’t work, try the next, etc.

  1. Toggle Voice Prompt mode
    Apps can categorize the kind of sound they are playing either as Audio or Voice Prompt. iOS, CarPlay and Headsets can act differently based on that category. If you’re having problems, try toggling the Voice Prompt mode under Settings > Sound & Voice Instructions > Voice and Sounds > Voice Prompt Mode. If it’s currently enabled, try disabling it. If it’s currently disabled, try enabling it. 

    You can also toggle Voice Prompt Mode during navigation, by long-pressing on the speaker icon in the navigation menu.

    On CarPlay you can toggle during navigation too, through the “Play as Voice” / “Play as Audio” button.


    Whenever you toggle, the setting is remembered.


  2. Change the voice volume
    Scenic uses a software-equilizer to boost voice volume for “louder and loudest” settings. Sometimes this can cause problems, or sometimes this can solve things. If your voice volume is currently set to louder or loudest, try setting it to normal. If your voice volume is currently set to softer or normal, try setting it to louder.

    You can also change this during navigation. On iPhone, tap the “speaker with gear” button in the navigation menu. On CarPlay, tap the “Face side profile +-” button (see above screenshot) to toggle between the voice volume settings. 
  3. You muted the voice by accident
    By single-tapping the speaker button in the navigation menu (see first screenshot above) you can toggle between 3 settings: Audio ON, Alerts Only, Audio OFF. Perhaps you accidentally turned this to Alerts Only of Audio OFF. This setting is remembered between navigation settings.
  4. Check your headset priority settings
    Most modern headset have priority settings. Meaning that you can configure which audio gets priority over other audio (Intercom, music, phone calls, navigation instructions). Make sure this is configured the way you like it.
  5. Change Voice Output
    For 95% of all cases your voice output should be on ‘Device Default’. Only if you want to force playing over the iPhone Speakers or to a bluetooth device connected through handsfree phonecall protocol (HFP), choose the corresponding option. HFP might be necessary if your headset does not have sufficient prioritization settings for your needs. If HFP is selected in Scenic, the voice instructions will play as a phone call, which typically gets higher priority than normal audio (like music) from your phone.
  6. Add a pre-voice delay
    Some (mostly older / cheaper) headsets go into a bluetooth standby mode if no music is playing. Whenever a voice instruction starts playing, the bluetooth connection needs to be wakened which can take some time. Sometimes this causes the beginning of a voice instruction to be cut off. Adding a pre-voice delay can solve this, as it gives the connection some time to re-establish before the voice instruction starts playing.
  7. Scenic is used in background / iphone locked / in pocket, but does not have ‘ALWAYS’ location access.
    The ride could be paused and not auto-resumed in that case. If ride tracking is paused you won’t receive voice instructions.
  8. Select another voice/language
    There was a bug in earlier versions of iOS where some text-to-speech voices were not recognised by iOS, thus no voice would play. To correct this, select another voice through Settings > Sound & Haptics > Voice & Language
  9. You have a new phone
    Voices you downloaded previously, on your old device, through the iOS Settings App > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices are displayed in Scenic, but are actually not yet downloaded to your new device. So, basically, Scenic tries to use a voice that’s not available. To solve this, after the restore, select another voice through Settings > Sound & Haptics > Voice & Language ór go into the iOS Settings App > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices and download the voice once more.