No Voice Guidance Instructions - Scenic Skip to main content

No Voice Guidance Instructions

There can be several causes for this:

  1. Make sure you have Scenic version 2.2.9 or later
    There was a bug in previous versions, causing voice instructions to stop playing after a while. You can see the version number at the bottom of the settings tab.
  2. You muted the voice by accident
    While navigating, if you go to the navigation menu (big button menu), a few buttons will appear. One of them is a mute voice button. It’s off by default, but perhaps you accidentally tapped it on a previous ride (the setting is remembered between trips).
  3. You have voice volume set to LOUDER or LOUDEST
    The louder and loudest setting use an equalizer to boost the volume. This can make the voice sound distorted on some speakers/headsets, or sometimes even prevent sound from playing all together. Try setting the voice volume to ‘normal’. 
  4. The (music) volume is set very low
    iOS knows two volumes. The system volume (used for system sounds like the phone ringing) and the music volume (used for the voice instructions). When no music is playing the hardware volume buttons operate the system volume (so do not have effect on voice volume). Try using the volume buttons in the Navigation menu (big button menu).
  5. The first guidance instruction is far away
    If the first guidance instruction is far away you will only hear a beep when starting a ride. The first instruction will play just before the turn. Depending on the type of road, this can be 2 miles up to half a mile before the actual turn.
  6. You are not premium
    Voice is a premium feature. If you are not premium, when starting a ride, you will be asked what you’d like to do: Continue without voice or pay 1-credit for voice guidance for that ride. If you chose ‘continue without’ you won’t get any voice.
  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. More info here.
  8. Check your sound settings and connected audio devices
    For 95% of all cases your sound setting 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.
  9. 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
  10. 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.