Read Aloud Stopped Working

Question

Read Aloud Stopped Working

Joshua Jensen 20

I started using the Read Aloud feature on my Windows 11 PC the other day for the first time. I began to change the voice, when all of a sudden, it froze up. I refreshed and it completely broke. The play, FF, RW, and Voice Option buttons are gray, and when I hover the mouse over them, the curser turns into the NO symbol.

I already restarted Edge and my computer, updated Edge, cleared the cookies, and used the 'Repair" button in settings. Nothing. Now what?

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Vikki-T 6,335 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Joshua Jensen,

I understand how frustrating this must be, especially since Read Aloud stopped working right after you tried changing the voice, and you have already tried several of the usual fixes such as restarting Edge, restarting the PC, updating Edge, clearing cookies, and repairing Edge.

To narrow this down, could you please confirm a few things?

Does this happen on every website, or only on one specific page or PDF?
If you open a normal text-based webpage, does Read Aloud work when you press Ctrl + Shift + U?
Are you using any Edge extensions, especially reader mode, ad blocker, accessibility, translation, or script-blocking extensions?
When you open Voice options, were you using an online/natural voice or a local Windows voice before the issue started?

In the meantime, please try these steps:

Test Read Aloud in an InPrivate window Open Edge and press Ctrl + Shift + N. Then open a simple webpage with regular text and try Read Aloud again.
Temporarily disable extensions Go to Edge > Settings > Extensions, then turn off all extensions temporarily. Restart Edge and test Read Aloud again.
Try a Guest profile or a new Edge profile Select your profile icon in the top-right corner of Edge and try browsing as Guest or create a temporary new profile.
Check Windows text-to-speech voices Go to Windows Settings > Time & language > Speech, and make sure a voice is installed. If possible, try switching to another voice, preferably a local/offline voice, then test Read Aloud again.
Test with a different type of content If the issue happens with a PDF, try a regular webpage instead.
Reset Edge settings as a next step If the issue still happens, you can try Edge > Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their default values. This will reset startup page, new tab page, search engine, pinned tabs, and disable extensions, but it should not remove favorites, history, or saved passwords.

While my initial response may not fully resolve the issue, I truly appreciate your cooperation as we work together toward identifying the most effective solution. Thank you so much for your understanding.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Joshua Jensen 20 Reputation points

2026-06-20T23:53:24.25+00:00
We're getting somewhere! I opened a guest profile and the read aloud worked. I opened the same site on my regular profile, and it didn't work there.

Here is what the answers to what you asked:

This happens on every website.

It does not work there.

No extensions are used.

I was using Windows voices.
Vikki-T 6,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-06-23T09:03:28.38+00:00

Hi Joshua Jensen,

That’s a helpful finding, thank you for testing that Read Aloud works in Guest mode but not in your regular Edge profile.

Please try resetting the affected profile: open Edge in your regular profile, go to Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their default values, then restart Edge and test Read Aloud again.

If it still does not work, the cleanest workaround would be to create a new Edge profile and test Read Aloud there before enabling full sync. If the issue comes back after syncing, a synced profile setting may be causing the problem.

Thank you so much for your understanding.
Vikki-T 6,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-06-24T12:46:27.05+00:00

Hi Joshua Jensen,

Is there any update from you?

If yes, please feel free to let us know.
Joshua Jensen 20 Reputation points

2026-06-28T23:19:40.21+00:00

Good evening. I reset the settings and it still does not work.

I made a new profile and it works there.
Vikki-T 6,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-06-30T09:02:54.76+00:00

Hi Joshua Jensen,

Thank you so much for the update, and I'm truly very happy to hear back from you.

If you ever have any other questions or run into anything in the future, please feel free to post your question on the Microsoft Q&A Forum anytime. I’ll always be here and ready to assist you.

Wishing you a great experience ahead!
Joshua Jensen 20 Reputation points

2026-07-02T13:59:31.37+00:00

But how do I get it to work in my current profile?