Word read aloud

Question

Hi there, i have problems with my read aloud, somehow i can manage to get Aria to speak with a natrual voice. Everytime i press read aloud, the default voice comes up, Aria's name won't even appear in the read aloud select voice in the document. But when i go to settings, i her voice in Narrator. This is a problem i often get, are there any step by step or way to fix this? I have put ajusted my settings both in word and on the computer, but it still won't read. Though i am not sure i have done everything right of course, but i do believe i have them right. The natural Aria voice has read before, but often it switches back to the defult voice, which mostly is the voice named David.

:)

Answer 1

Have a good day Isa!

Thanks for reaching out.

From what you described, the natural Read Aloud voice you were previously using (such as Aria) is no longer appearing or being used in Word, and the reading keeps switching back to a default built‑in voice like Microsoft David. At the same time, Aria is still available in Windows Narrator, which might indicate the issue is specific to Word’s Read Aloud voice handling rather than a system-wide voice problem.

Your symptoms look quite similar to a recent Word known issue where Neural voices might be unavailable in Read Aloud in Word after updating to version 2604 (build 19929.20090) (Last Updated: April 30, 2026)

When Word can’t use the neural voice (for example due to this build issue), it might automatically fall back to the older offline voices.

To resolve this issue, please try updating Word to the latest build:

• In Word, go to File > Account (or Office Account).
• Note the Version / Build (check if it’s 2604 / 19929.20090).
• Select Update Options > Update Now, then restart Word (and reboot Windows if prompted).

If the natural voices are still not working as expected after updating, also try running an Office Online Repair to see if that helps:

• Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps
• Select Microsoft 365 / Office > Modify
• Choose Online Repair > finish > restart PC

Hope this could help. Feel free to post back if you need further support!

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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.

Answer 2

Aria is a Neural Voice provided through Microsoft’s online text-to-speech service, while the “David/Zira/Mark” voices are the older, local Windows voices. Word’s Read Aloud can switch back to the default local voice when the online Neural Voice is not available or when language/connection/account conditions are not met.

Use the following checks to keep the natural voice available and reduce switching back to David:

1. Confirm sign-in and connectivity
   • Make sure the Microsoft 365 account is signed in inside Word.
   • Ensure a stable internet connection; Neural Voices require online access.
   • If Read Aloud is missing or not behaving correctly, close Word, sign out of the Microsoft 365 account, sign back in, and restart Word.
2. Check language settings
   • Read Aloud uses the proofing language of the text.
   • In Word, select the text that should be read.
   • Go to Review > Language > Language > Set Proofing Language.
   • Choose the correct language for the text and apply it.
   • Start Read Aloud again.
3. Verify that the language is supported for online TTS
   • When online, Read Aloud tries to detect the language and can support multiple languages in a single document.
   • If the language is not supported by the Speech service, Word will fall back to local voices like David.
   • For supported languages, see the list under Language and voice support for the Speech service in the Read Aloud documentation.
4. If Neural Voice disappears or becomes robotic
   • This can be caused by a temporary issue in the latest version of Word or in the online service.
   • A common workaround is to close Word and restart it after confirming sign-in and connectivity.
   • If the voice quality suddenly changes to a robotic local voice and does not recover, wait and try again later; similar issues have been reported and then resolved by service updates.
5. If Read Aloud is not available at all
   • Ensure the Microsoft 365 account is signed in.
   • Restart Word or log out and back in.

These steps align with how Read Aloud selects voices (online Neural vs. local) and how it depends on proofing language, supported languages, and Microsoft 365 sign-in.

---

References:

• Listen to your Word documents
• Fix text-to-speech reading in wrong language
• Natural-sounding Read Aloud voice in Microsoft Word changed by itself to robotic default voices - Microsoft Q&A