Screen Reader no longer working

[Ferran]

[Pixel 7, Android 14 latest update 2024/09/05]

I have had problems with the Screen Reader for a while in that it always asked me whether I wanted to scan the whole screen (or something like that) and then didn't work until I pressed the button a second time - annoying, but it usually worked in the end.

Now, the button has ceased to work entirely and just disappears after pressing it. Restarting the phone didn't work and I didn't find anything relevant in the app settings. I'm a bit hesitant to completely reinstall Pleco because I am (perhaps wrongly) afraid to lose all my settings etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, by 'latest update' do you mean the latest update to Pleco too? What version number does Pleco list in the About screen?

The latest Pleco update actually should have addressed that first problem, which related to some changes Google made to how apps can create/access screenshots - now we obtain screenshots a different way (through the Accessibility framework) that doesn't produce so many extra prompts.

Is "Pleco Screen Reader" enabled in your system accessibility service settings? If not, go in and enable it - the app should be prompting you to do that automatically but perhaps that's broken somehow. Also, double check sure that Pleco has permission to draw over the screen - that option should appear on the page for Pleco in your installed app settings - though it's likely that that's working already if the floating button appears.

If you already have the latest version of Pleco and the Pleco accessibility service is already running, something may be crashing, in which case if you send us a bug report we can try to dig into why that's happening. Go into the system Settings app / About Phone and tap on 'build number' seven times until it flashes 'you are now a developer'; then, go into the newly added 'developer options' page in settings and you should see a 'take bug report' option. Go back into Pleco, launch Screen Reader and tap on the button to get it to vanish again, then go back into that 'developer options' page, tap 'Take Bug Report,' and share that via email to support@pleco.com.

 

[Ferran]

Sorry, by 'latest update' do you mean the latest update to Pleco too? What version number does Pleco list in the About screen?

The latest Pleco update actually should have addressed that first problem, which related to some changes Google made to how apps can create/access screenshots - now we obtain screenshots a different way (through the Accessibility framework) that doesn't produce so many extra prompts.

Is "Pleco Screen Reader" enabled in your system accessibility service settings? If not, go in and enable it - the app should be prompting you to do that automatically but perhaps that's broken somehow. Also, double check sure that Pleco has permission to draw over the screen - that option should appear on the page for Pleco in your installed app settings - though it's likely that that's working already if the floating button appears.

If you already have the latest version of Pleco and the Pleco accessibility service is already running, something may be crashing, in which case if you send us a bug report we can try to dig into why that's happening. Go into the system Settings app / About Phone and tap on 'build number' seven times until it flashes 'you are now a developer'; then, go into the newly added 'developer options' page in settings and you should see a 'take bug report' option. Go back into Pleco, launch Screen Reader and tap on the button to get it to vanish again, then go back into that 'developer options' page, tap 'Take Bug Report,' and share that via email to support@pleco.com.

Thanks for the swift reply. I updated it to the newest version (which perhaps coincided with the screen reader ceasing to work entirely, but I'm not sure), it is activated in the accessibility settings and has all the rights I could activate - I didn't find the "draw over the screen" option, though. Only whether it is allowed to be shown over other apps.

Anything else that I could have missed? I'll do the bug report.

Edit: Just sent the report, the version number is 3.2.97 by the way.

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, don't seem to have gotten that bug report - are you sure you sent it to support@pleco.com? Any chance the email bounced for some reason?

 

[Ferran]

Sorry, don't seem to have gotten that bug report - are you sure you sent it to support@pleco.com? Any chance the email bounced for some reason?

That's odd, I wrote it to
support@pleco.com and it didn't bounce. I'll try again.

 

[mikelove]

Still no luck - could you save the file somewhere and then send it as an attachment to a DM?

 

[Ferran]

How strange - both mails are in my outbox and appear to have been sent, but apparently didn't complete the process. I've now resent it from my outbox, hopefully successfully now.

I unfortunately can't upload it here because of the file size.

 

[mikelove]

Still no luck. And I'm not seeing any recent crash logs on Google's end from a Pixel 7, unfortunately.

I just DMed you a link to a shared Dropbox folder - can you upload the files to there?

 

[avren]

Hey, just googled for this problem and found this thread. Wanted to confirm I am experiencing the same bug. App was working fine a few days ago (not sure how long ago, 3-10 days) but now I have the same problem, if I click on the floating bubble, it just disappears and I can't screenread. This is one of my most used features to confirm tones and pronouncations, so hope to see it back up and running soon.

I do have accessability settings properly set up allowing pleco to read the screen and draw overtop. I am using the latest android version for S21 Ultra, Pleco version 3.2.97

 

[mikelove]

Thanks.

Does this apply to both the text version of Screen Reader (top button) and the OCR version (bottom button)? If you go back (button or gesture depending on your phone configuration) after the button disappears, does it reappear?

Also, if you tap on the Screen Reader sidebar menu item again after the button has disappeared, does it reappear? If so, when you then tap on one of the buttons in it, does it disappear immediately or does it prompt you to turn on the accessibility service?

 

[avren]

Does this apply to both the text version of Screen Reader (top button) and the OCR version (bottom button)?

Interesting, normally I have the Screen Reader option disabled to make the floating button as unintrusive as possible, so I reactivated it to check your question. Upon reactivating the Screen Reader option (now both Screen Read + OCR options visable), both options work as expected. When I turned off Screen Reader again, OCR still works at expected, and if I turn off OCR and only have Screen Reader, it also works fine. Basically after activating Screen Reader, every configuration works as normal again. I even tried turning off the floating button and turning it back on and it still works.

I couldn't check the answer to your other questions since after doing that first thing fixed everything!

 

[mikelove]

Thanks!

How were you activating it when it wasn't working? Through a shortcut icon or a Quick Settings Tile or something else?

 

[avren]

I have always just turned on the floating button, so no matter what I was doing on the phone, I could press the semi-transparent OCR button, I really didn't use it any other way. My phone usage habits never really changed either, played with with Pleco settings, been doing the same thing for years. My only guess is maybe when I let android update to whatever is the latest, something clashed with Pleco? As of now its on One UI 6.1, Android version 14.

--(just realized you could have meant it this way) if you meant activating the screen reader, I would long-press the floating button and choose "show reader icon"

I just tried rebooting the phone to see if it would reproduce the bug. It does reproduce the bug, after reset I am back where I started with the floating button vanishing after pressing it (currently just have the OCR button visible). Now I can check your other questions, and finally I'll try the same thing to "fix" the bug after.

If you go back (button or gesture depending on your phone configuration) after the button disappears, does it reappear?

Pushing the back button does not make the floating button reappear, I see why you want to check this, its usually how I would exit the "OCR" mode and remove the green border of OCR.

Also, if you tap on the Screen Reader sidebar menu item again after the button has disappeared, does it reappear? If so, when you then tap on one of the buttons in it, does it disappear immediately or does it prompt you to turn on the accessibility service?

After the floating button disappears, if I click the sidebar menu to turn on screen reader/ocr, first press does nothing, second press does make it reappear (assuming that means its still "open" and i'm closing then reactivating the button), and there is no prompts for accessibility services (under normal circumstances I do get that prompt the first time turning it on after phone reboot -- also note this time after reboot first time activating the floating button from sidemenu also did not request any accessibility features). Same behaviour, just click button, button disappears.

Oh and one more notable thing, after the button disappears, if I turn the phone screen off and turn it back on, the button returns. Not sure if there is any other circumstance it returns, but have noticed the button will return after some time.


Hope this helps, let me know if I check anything else. Really appreciate the app, it is fantastic.

EDIT: Oh forgot the mention, if I do what I did the first time to "fix" the problem, it fixes it still, as soon as I did what I did mentioned before, everything works as expected and I assume it probably will until I reboot the phone again.

 

[Ferran]

Sorry for answering for a while - for some reason the bug report function is acting a little weird (as in: the files don't seem to be saved and the sharing option doesn't seem to work properly). Perhaps it's just my incompetence.

Thank you Avren for the input - holding the reader button to activate the screen reader does indeed work. I just realized that I confused my terminology and the thing I had mostly been using before was in fact the screen OCR. I used to only have the OCR button because the reader often had problems even before and the OCR was the only reliable (and slightly more versatile) option.

Activating both buttons seems to have done the trick for now - both are working.

 

[Purple]

Just commenting on here with the same issue, found this thread through Google.

Pleco OCR has just stopped working a few days ago, a reboot doesn't fix it. Pressing the OCR button just makes it disappear. (But it returns if you turn the button on/off in pleco settings, or lock/unlock your device. Still doesn't work obviously though).

Device: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
OS: Android 14 (OneUI 6.1.1)
App: 3.2.97

 

[Purple]

Update: As @Ferran said, enabling both buttons has restored functionality. Even after disabling the reader again OCR is working.
I couldn't really find much in the syslog either, no traces or specific crashes

 

[mikelove]

Thanks - we have a fix for this uploaded to our beta channel now, if you go to our Google Play product page and sign up for beta testing it should hopefully show up on your device within a few hours.