Not getting audio clips while trying to use Google Mandarin speech engine

[PisoMojado]

I have selected "Google Mandarin (Taiwan)" as my speech engine, and for new clips recently nothing happens - the note mentions a file by the right name, but no file is downloaded by that name.

I don't know how to produce error logs (I tried to find a way online), but if someone can show me, I'm happy to.

Anki Version Info:

Anki 2.1.54 (b6a7760c) Python 3.9.7 Qt 6.3.1 PyQt 6.3.1
Platform: Windows 10
Flags: frz=True ao=True sv=2
Add-ons, last update check: 2022-10-11 08:45:29


===Add-ons (active)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])
Chinese Support Redux v0142 ['1128979221', 2021-03-28T21:19, 'None', mod]

===IDs of active AnkiWeb add-ons===
1128979221

===Add-ons (inactive)===
(add-on provided name [Add-on folder, installed at, version, is config changed])

[PisoMojado]

On further review, it looks like every speech engine has this issue for me. I still can't figure out how to elevate the log level for the addon, or if debug logging is present. It does not come up in the console while running Anki.

[MTH88]

Hi! Same thing happens to me, it has been a couple of weeks since my new cards do not get the audio.

The field "sound" is filled out (for example: [sound:话题_google_zh-CN.mp3]), however, when I review the card it does not reproduce any sound. For older cards, they reproduce the sound, so I guess it's something that only happens to the new cards created.

I tried to add new cards in another computer with another account but I had the same problem. I have selected the "Google mandarin (PRC)" speech engine.

If someone could look it up it would be great!! :). Just let me know if I can send any log or something that helps to identify the problem.

Thanks a lot!

[PisoMojado]

I did some deeper digging, and I was able to identify the issue. google.cn is no longer accepting requests for TTS via gTTS. You can reproduce this with that project's CLI:

PS C:\Users\michael> gtts-cli '超' --tld cn --lang zh-TW --output 超.mp3
Error: 404 (Not Found) from TTS API. Probable cause: Unknown
PS C:\Users\michael>

This project is currently directing traffic to google.cn via the tld argument in gTTS. Changing it to google.com resolves the issue.

Please see push request #215 for the fix. While working on this, I also noticed a lot of the APIs in Anki have been marked deprecated, so I opened #216 to address these changes, as well.

[PisoMojado]

I'd also like to go ahead and compliment the author(s) for their documentation in the README.md. I should have read it at the very beginning, it was very helpful for getting setup to debug the add on and figure this out, so thanks!

[MTH88]

This worked! I am very grateful, I wouldn't have been able to identify the problem myself :). Thanks a lot!!

[thechesu]

I'm getting the issue with all the speech engines.

As a non-programmer, I do not understand how to implement the fixes that you suggest. Would you be able to explain in simple terms, on how to implement these fixes please?