iPod IPod shuffle in Ventura lost voiceover title/author?

[Richdmoore]

I have a 4th gen iPod shuffle that I let me 7 year old daughter use. I was having some issues with macOS Ventura hanging on it, but was eventually able to restore it from scratch and load her songs. Unfortunately, the voiceover isn’t working for song titles/singers when I loaded the songs with Ventura.

After pulling my hair out for quite awhile trying various restores and other tricks, I fired up a copy of macOS Mohave via parallels, and was successful in both restoring the device, (and after syncing with iTunes) voiceover worked with the shuffle again.

My question is is it just my system, or had voiceover been discontinued if syncing with Venture or other MacOS computers where iTunes had been discontinued?

If someone has either done this, or wishes to perform an experiment and see if they have the same results I would be grateful to know if I need to explore more solution, or chalk it up to Apple discontinuing a feature on more modern Mac’s.

(FYI, I was syncing using an Intel 17 iMac, I understand the results might be different with apple chips.).

 

[actonca]

I still use an iPod shuffle daily - I'm having the exact same experience. Other issues:

1. Syncing is inconsistent. I've been having to restore the iPod shuffle daily to sync - manually disconnect it once the process is hung, reconnect, and I've been able to get it to work.
2. Music will give the error code "This iPod cannot be synced at this time (-244 error).
3. Music will say the iPod is open in another window when its not.
4. One Shuffle is just not seen by Ventura.
5. iPod shuffle's popping up in the Finder's sidebar is inconstant at best.

I recognize that Apple would rather me use Airpods, but having borrowed my wife's pair, I still think they are a poor substitute for quality earbuds and physical controls.

 

[Richdmoore]

I still use an iPod shuffle daily - I'm having the exact same experience. Other issues:

1. Syncing is inconsistent. I've been having to restore the iPod shuffle daily to sync - manually disconnect it once the process is hung, reconnect, and I've been able to get it to work.
2. Music will give the error code "This iPod cannot be synced at this time (-244 error).
3. Music will say the iPod is open in another window when its not.
4. One Shuffle is just not seen by Ventura.
5. iPod shuffle's popping up in the Finder's sidebar is inconstant at best.

I recognize that Apple would rather me use Airpods, but having borrowed my wife's pair, I still think they are a poor substitute for quality earbuds and physical controls.

thanks for the confirmation of problems with the latest macOS. I will just have to keep it in parallels now to sync/load. It’s a shame we both have issues with the latest os.

 

[Acronyc]

Just wanted to post that I have had similar problems with my 4th gen iPod shuffle. My 4-year old son uses it to listen to music and stories. I went to add some new playlists on it in Ventura and it would not sync, always giving me some error. I couldn't restore it from scratch either, as it always hung on the restore.

Eventually I was able to use my Windows box to restore it and sync his playlists. I imagine that support for 12 year old iPod shuffles that have limited use isn't high on Apple's support priorities, but it is ironic that it won't work on my Mac but will work on Windows.

 

[zz01]

I have the same problem and loading the latest OS patch didn't fix it. voiceover gives -244 error...

 

[gcbarrie]

I was getting the -244 error, too. Narrowed it down to VoiceOver and after a lot (and I mean A LOT) of searching, I found a post where someone tracked the error down to "voice not available." I figured out that the default voice for my iPod Shuffle 3rd gen. is Alex, and noticed that VoiceOver in Ventura does not automatically include Alex.

Long story short, open VoiceOver Utility, select Speech, select Voice dropdown, and then select Manage Voices. Download Alex and you should be able to use VoiceOver on your Shuffle.

 

[actonca]

I was getting the -244 error, too. Narrowed it down to VoiceOver and after a lot (and I mean A LOT) of searching, I found a post where someone tracked the error down to "voice not available." I figured out that the default voice for my iPod Shuffle 3rd gen. is Alex, and noticed that VoiceOver in Ventura does not automatically include Alex.

Long story short, open VoiceOver Utility, select Speech, select Voice dropdown, and then select Manage Voices. Download Alex and you should be able to use VoiceOver on your Shuffle.

Thank you - this worked perfectly for me.

 

[zz01]

Thank you - this worked perfectly for me.

awesome! I would have never figured this out!

 

[zz01]

I was getting the -244 error, too. Narrowed it down to VoiceOver and after a lot (and I mean A LOT) of searching, I found a post where someone tracked the error down to "voice not available." I figured out that the default voice for my iPod Shuffle 3rd gen. is Alex, and noticed that VoiceOver in Ventura does not automatically include Alex.

Long story short, open VoiceOver Utility, select Speech, select Voice dropdown, and then select Manage Voices. Download Alex and you should be able to use VoiceOver on your Shuffle.

Sorry. meant for you! Awesome

 

[Richdmoore]

I was getting the -244 error, too. Narrowed it down to VoiceOver and after a lot (and I mean A LOT) of searching, I found a post where someone tracked the error down to "voice not available." I figured out that the default voice for my iPod Shuffle 3rd gen. is Alex, and noticed that VoiceOver in Ventura does not automatically include Alex.

Long story short, open VoiceOver Utility, select Speech, select Voice dropdown, and then select Manage Voices. Download Alex and you should be able to use VoiceOver on your Shuffle.

I will have to try that.