There are two voices on your child's screens, and each starts in its own way. Work out which one is missing, then go through the checks below in order.
| Voice | When you hear it | How it starts |
|---|---|---|
| The book's voice | When your child presses the play button ("Read to me") or the headphones button ("Just listen") in a book | Your child taps it, in any book |
| Pip's voice | When Pip says something, on any of your child's screens | Off until it is switched on |
Check the device first
- Turn the volume up, and if the phone or tablet has a silent or mute switch, check that too, because on some devices it silences the voice.
- Check that the sound is not going to headphones or a speaker connected to the device.
- Press the play button again. A browser only plays sound after somebody taps, so if nothing happened the first time, the next tap usually works.
- Keep the book on the screen. The voice stops when your child switches to another app or the screen turns off, except when they are using "Just listen".
Pip does not speak
"Let Pip speak" is off for every reader you add until somebody switches it on. You can switch it on in Readers, then your child, then Settings, under "Listening and Pip". Your child can also press the speaker button under Pip, which is labelled "Pip reads aloud", and whichever of you changed it last is what the setting shows. Everything Pip says is always on the screen as text as well. Pip's voice has more.
The book has a different voice, or none
- Age groups. Books for readers in "Ages 2 to 5" and "Ages 5 to 7" are made with a recorded voice. Books for "Ages 7 to 9" and "Ages 9 to 12" are read by the device's own voice, which sounds different on each device. You can have a chapter book recorded with "Have it read aloud" on your child's Books tab; see Having a chapter book read aloud.
- Books in Spanish. When a book written in Spanish has a recording, it is read in Spanish, so it can sound a little different from the English books even though, with our current settings, it is the same voice.
- Your own recordings. A recording you made of a book is kept with the book, but your child's reader does not play it yet, whatever "Voice for read-along" is set to. Your child hears the book's usual voice instead. See Recording your own voice.
- A slow connection. If a recording stalls for a few seconds, the book carries on in the device's own voice.
- No voice at all. If the device has no voice of its own and the book has no recording, the play button is replaced by "Let’s read this one with our eyes." Try another browser.
- Reading to someone. When your child chooses "Read it to someone" at the end of a book, the book opens with no voice, because your child is doing the reading. Close the book and open it again from their shelf to get the voice back.
The voice stopped partway
- "Stop reading aloud after". You set this on your child's Safety tab under "Time and bedtime". In a book with a recorded voice, your child can also choose "10 min", "20 min", "30 min" or "Grown-up's" in the book's settings. When the time is up, the voice stops and Pip appears with the words "That is enough for tonight. The rest will still be here tomorrow." "One more bit" closes that message and starts the timer again, and the play button starts the voice again.
- "Books that can play in a row". When your child is listening, the story stops after this many books and Pip asks whether to carry on. The first choice, "Just the one, then ask", stops after one book.
- Bedtime and the night light. Neither stops the voice. While the night light is on, which is at bedtime unless your child has changed it in the book's settings, the quiet sounds behind the story and the page-turn sound stay off. See Time limits and bedtime.
The highlight does not keep up
With a recorded voice, the highlight follows the recording itself, so it keeps pace in every browser. With the device's own voice, some devices never say which word they have reached. When that happens, the book moves the highlight by an estimate based on word length and punctuation, so it can run a little ahead of the voice or behind it. Trying another browser on the same device can help, because the device voices each browser offers are not the same. Read-along explains the tools in a book.
A book kept on this device
A book kept for reading without the internet brings its recordings with it, so it plays offline. It also keeps the settings it had when it was kept, such as "Let Pip speak" and "Stop reading aloud after". If you have changed those since, remove the book from "Books on this tablet" and keep it again. See Reading offline.
Still no sound
Try the same book in another browser. If it is still silent, tell us the book's title, the device and the browser. Signed in, use Help in your dashboard; otherwise, write to support@taletykes.com.