Hunaidi

Q: Dictation not working on Mountain Lion?

I enabled dictation on my mac through the System Preferences. First I tried going to notes and pressed the fn key twice, the Siri like mic appeared and I began to say simple words such us "hello" "how are you" and pressed done. The thre dots appeared for a few seconds then the 'three dots' went left to right and nothing appeared. I've tried this on notes, microsoft word, and also while typing this discussion. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 25, 2012 3:27 PM

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Q: Dictation not working on Mountain Lion?

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  • by deggie,

    deggie deggie Jul 31, 2012 8:41 PM in response to Dominik Reinmund
    Level 9 (54,686 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 31, 2012 8:41 PM in response to Dominik Reinmund

    No, it is only a bug when it is consistently reproducible along an entire class of machines, i.e., easily predictable or reproducible. If it was a true bug no one would be able able to use it, or it would exhibit the same type of problem across the spectrum. But is is working on mine, it is working on a friends MacMini, it is working on my former co-workers iMac (21.5"), it is working on another friends Retina. I do have one friend that had to go the route of the post above yours and switch to Google's DNS.

  • by Dominik Reinmund,

    Dominik Reinmund Dominik Reinmund Jul 31, 2012 8:50 PM in response to deggie
    Level 2 (180 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 8:50 PM in response to deggie

    It should be clear by now that there are several different reasons why Dictation is not working for some.

     

    Some of the reasons are DNS / internet connection related, some others seem 3rd party software related, and yet some others are not quite clear yet.

     

    So yes, it might be too early to call it a bug, but it's also too early to dismiss it entirely.

  • by deggie,

    deggie deggie Jul 31, 2012 8:55 PM in response to Dominik Reinmund
    Level 9 (54,686 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 31, 2012 8:55 PM in response to Dominik Reinmund

    No, I'm dismissing it as a systemic bug.

  • by loyking,

    loyking loyking Jul 31, 2012 10:57 PM in response to iRog
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 10:57 PM in response to iRog

    iRog,

     

    I did the Google DNS switch earlier too just in case it was a case of my MBP not getting through to the servers.

     

    For a short while, my hopes went up because they delay that I usually experience while activating Dictation seemed to have disappeared. However, it was still no go at the end. What was interesting was that an error message with "siri" appeared in the Console the first few times I did this. I have been unable to replicate that message since.

     

    Is it a DNS propagation issue that is the problem here? I suppose with 3 million downloads of ML over 4 days, Apple's dictation servers must be pretty swamped by now?

  • by loyking,

    loyking loyking Jul 31, 2012 11:00 PM in response to deggie
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 11:00 PM in response to deggie

    Deggie,

     

    By any chance are you and all your friends located in the USA?

     

    The few reports I have seen with issues similar to mine seem to be running their Macs outside the US. I am wondering whether if Apple is using other servers for users outside the USA and whether if this might be the problem. I have tried setting the language to all the different options available (Australian, British, Canadian and US) but still no luck.

  • by goofyfootgaijin,

    goofyfootgaijin goofyfootgaijin Aug 1, 2012 12:02 AM in response to loyking
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 12:02 AM in response to loyking

    For me the DNS solution did not seem to work: I tried just adding those DNS numbers to the list given in my network settings (this made the others already listed disappear), but the problem persists.  I don't know a lot about these things, but I do think this is an ethernet server-level problem.  That is, it seems that if some settings (maybe related to DNS, or proxies?) are changed there it will work on my computer.  But I haven't been able to test other machines on the same network yet, so its hard for me to rule out that it might relate to MacBook Pros in general.  But if it were something that affected all MacBookPros, I do think we'd be hearing a LOT more about this. . .

     

    Also, though I am outside the US (Japan), I am able to get through over a wi-fi network (which has minimal security), so I think the country theory doesn't work (though some other countries may of course have problems)

  • by iRog,

    iRog iRog Aug 1, 2012 6:37 AM in response to loyking
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 6:37 AM in response to loyking

    loyking,

     

    I'm sorry the Google DNS did not work for you. As soon as I change the settings on mine and click apply, it works right away. I don't need to restart any application or reboot. I know this doesn't help you

     

    I happened to try it as I had to do that with my iphone sometime ago to get Imessage to work.

     

    I am currently living in Grenada. (Caribbean)

     

    On another note, since upgrading to ML, I found that I had to "unlock" a feature to install a few third party applications. Dictation comes preinstalled so i doubt its related, but maybe something in Security could be blocking you. I'm really not sure though. Sorry!

  • by Raju K,Solvedanswer

    Raju K Raju K Aug 1, 2012 9:59 AM in response to Hunaidi
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 9:59 AM in response to Hunaidi

    I had called the Apple Helpline a few days back and after an unsuccessful troubleshooting the problem was bumped to someone who said was from the engineering team. After another few rounds of trouble shooting he called me back and asked me to add the following DNS entries

     

    1. 208.67.220.220 and

    2. 208.67.222.222

     

    and restart my machine. After these changes; the Dictation on my iMac is working.

     

    PS:Previously I was having the Google DNS entries which now I have removed.

     

    Hope this helps others.

  • by rlking05,

    rlking05 rlking05 Aug 1, 2012 12:12 PM in response to Raju K
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 12:12 PM in response to Raju K

    I tried both the Google DNS and the entries above without success.  At first, I thought it might be 1Password which was causing my problem (someone on another Apple thread mentioned this) because when I disabled it, Dictation worked for awhile. 

     

    However, this was short-lived and Dictation went back to working sporadically.  So, then I started disabling other third-party software, namely BackBlaze, a backup program.  Pausing it has allowed me to use Dictation for awhile now.  I'm not sure how long this will last, but for me personally, Dictation does seem to be affected by other software. 

     

    And then again, as mentioned on this thread, others are finding it's DNS related.  So hopefully we will all find out the answers, because when this program works, it's awesome.  

     

    drking

  • by nicwalmsley,

    nicwalmsley nicwalmsley Aug 1, 2012 1:00 PM in response to theo7777
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 1:00 PM in response to theo7777

    this fixed it for me

    theo7777 wrote:

     

    In settings, under dictation and speech, make sure that whatever audio input you are using is selected (below the purple microphone icon). Mine was set to automatic by default, and did not work. Changed to internal microphone and now works like a charm.

  • by ndacev10,

    ndacev10 ndacev10 Aug 1, 2012 2:55 PM in response to Hunaidi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 2:55 PM in response to Hunaidi

    This works for me... im outside the US

     

    Change the DNS

     

    1. 208.67.220.220 and

    2. 208.67.222.222

     

    and restart my machine. After these changes; the Dictation on my iMac is working.

     

    Thanks for sharing Raju K

  • by khad,

    khad khad Aug 1, 2012 8:55 PM in response to Dominik Reinmund
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 8:55 PM in response to Dominik Reinmund

    Hello folks,

     

    I just wanted to make any 1Password users in this thread aware of an issue which may be affecting your use of Dication. This will not help folks who see the Dication microphone prompt appear but have network issues. With the issue I am describing, the prompt will not appear at all and a single tone is emitted. It is similar in every respect to the behavior exhibited when attempting to invoke Dication in a password field.

     

    This will only apply if you are running 1Password and hide the 1Password app using the "Hide 1Password" menu command or the ⌘H keyboard shortcut. If that does not describe your situation, you will need to do some further investigation.

     

    There is an issue with 1Password in Mountain Lion where hiding the main application will enable Secure Input. The problem is related to Dictation insofar as Dictation is not available when Secure Input is enabled. Our friends at Smile (makers of TextExpander) have a great explanation of Secure Input:

    Any application can enable Secure Input. With Secure Input enabled, all typing is passed directly to the active application — no other applications can observe your typing. Secure Input is used for entering passwords and other sensitive information. This means that if malicious key-logging software or “spy-ware” somehow gets on your system, it cannot record your passwords. Secure Input is generally enabled when you type into a password field. Some applications also enable Secure Input at other times.

     

    Since Dictation will not work when Secure Input is enabled (e.g. in a password field) you will find that you will be unable to use it when hiding 1Password due to the current issue.


    We're investigating a fix for this, but the workarounds for now are:


    1. Restore or "unhide" the main 1Password app if you have hidden it to "release" Secure Input.

    2. Refrain from hiding 1Password. (Minimizing 1Password does not cause Secure Input to be enabled, so that will still work.)

    3. Switch to another application rather than hiding 1Password and optionally use the "Hide Others" menu command or ⌥⌘H keyboard shortcut which will hide 1Password as well as all other applications not currently in focus. This does not enable Secure Input.

    4. Obviously quitting 1Password will also release Secure Input.

     

    I hope that helps for now until we can get this resolved. It appears to have just started in Mountain Lion, so we are still determining what exactly is causing it.


    If we can be of further assistance with 1Password, please let us know. We are always here to help!

     

    ---

    Khad Young

    Forum Choreographer, AgileBits

    http://agilebits.com/support

  • by glassfish,

    glassfish glassfish Aug 1, 2012 9:11 PM in response to Hunaidi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 9:11 PM in response to Hunaidi

    I've read a number of these and have seen numerous solutions but none of them have worked for me until I started to explore on my own. In my case, I can reproduce it 100% of the time when AppTamer is enabled. When I disable AppTamer it works, when it's running, Dictation doesn't work at all.

     

    So, if you're running AppTamer try disabling it and give it a shot. Hopefully this helps someone.

     

    However, I'm unsure which process AppTamer is disabling...

  • by danbasson,

    danbasson danbasson Aug 1, 2012 10:48 PM in response to Hunaidi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 10:48 PM in response to Hunaidi

    First of all, I want to say thanks to everyone for trying to solve these issues.

     

     

     

    In terms of my problem I'm having, my problem seems a tiny bit more serious, not anything to do with my DNS or a specific app blocking the dictation.

    My problem is actually with the microphone, the internal microphone doesn't detect any input at all, no levels or anything and so when I go and use the dictation, it then detects no levels and doesn't 'dictate'

     

    I'm very very stuck... At the moment I can't exactly take my MBP into Apple because I'm and editor and 3d animator and use it heavily for my work, so yea.. Stuck!

  • by loyking,

    loyking loyking Aug 1, 2012 11:24 PM in response to danbasson
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 1, 2012 11:24 PM in response to danbasson

    Thanks to everyone for chipping in with their solutions!

     

    I have tried the DNS trick (both the Google DNS servers as well as the one suggested by Raju K) with no success. The internal microphone is selected correctly and is working fine. I am not running 1Password.

     

    My suspicion is still a connection issue between the MBP and Apple's servers. Enabling Dictation takes a long time (easily half a minute compared to nearly instataneously on my iMac on which dictation works), and generates a connection error message in Console. After pressing Fn twice and recording my spoken words and then either clicking on "Done" or pressing Fn another time, I get the blinking purple dots for another 10 seconds or so before the dreaded trembling dots appears. The microphone icon then disappears, with no results. This is accompanied by 3 more error messages in the Console indicating that there is a connection problem of some sort.

     

    Files in the Library/Prefences folder give further clues, including missing lines in com.apple.assistant.plist and com.apple.assistent.token.plist on the MBP (the iMac has lines with data tokens which help Dictation to work). Trashing these files and allowing the system to regenerate them do not solve the problem. Duplicating these files from the iMac and MBP didn't work presumably since Apple somehow assigns a unique identifier to each machine.

     

    I have spent some time on AppleCare on this and even the senior person who took my call couldn't isolate the problem with Mountain Lion being so new. I have emailed AppleCare a copy of my log files as well as a videoclip showing the problem and am waiting for an answer while their engineering department tries to figure out what's wrong. As a last resort, I was advised that I may want to consider a clean install of the OS to see whether if that works. I might consider doing that on an external disk and see whether if that works. I will report back with my results.

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