spinning wheel icon next to wi-fi indicating network activity

Edward Snowden helps explain how apple security actually functions. Check it out, he is a hero. Truth will set you free!

Well, machinist_5, I just tested the Dictation, and I don’t get a perpetually spinning network activity indicator (next to my Wi-Fi indicator [I don’t have Cellular activated, at this time]).

iPad Pro 12.9” 2nd gen. IPadOS 14.1.

Dr_Pain wrote:

I even got it to trigger by doing voice dictation in Notes.

“even” isn’t a surprise. ALL dictation requires sending the spoken text to a speech to text server at Apple; no voice to text is actually done on the phone. So if it didn’t spin when you are dictating that would mean something was wrong.

Have you tried closing all taps in all of your browsers? A lot of websites update continuously or intermittently whether the browser is currently open or not.

And have you tried the troubleshooting step I posted earlier:

Turn Wi-Fi OFF. Go to Settings/Cellular and Reset Statistics. Use the phone for a while, then check which apps have used data.

I’m not sure whether or not Apple and WhatsApp use the same technology. I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking, but in my layman’s knowledge, iMessage and WhatsApp are similar technologies, in that they’re not SMS/MMS.

But I don’t think iMessage or WhatsApp is the problem, it’s the speech-to-text engine or servers. I used dictation to compose an email in a third-party app a few minutes ago, and the spinning icon returned as soon as I started using the dictation (stock keyboard). It persisted until I restarted the phone.

I’m going to try Lawrence Finch’s troubleshooting steps later today.

I’m also considering installing GBoard and seeing if it happens when I use speech-to-text through that keyboard. What I don’t know right now though is whether or not GBoard uses Google’s services for that feature, or if my iPhone would still be using Apple’s services for that? Anyone here know?

If GBoard uses Google’s services, and the spinning icon issue doesn’t occur then, well that pretty much definitely tells you where the issue is.

Update: I installed GBoard. It does utilize Google's servers instead of Apple's, and I am able to use dictation without getting the persistent spinning network activity indicator. In fact, I don't even briefly get the indicator (I'm trying this on WiFi at the moment).

Unfortunately, GBoard seems to be implemented in a rather clunky fashion in iOS. I can switch to it easily enough, but there should be an option to simply make it the default, rather than still have the stock keyboard with a key for switching between keyboards. More importantly, it's the GBoard dictation that is really clunky. After switching to GBoard, if I tap the microphone key, the screen for dictation pops up, but the service immediately stops with an error message of "Sorry, I didn't quite get that." If I return to the keyboard and try again, it happens again. The only way to actually dictate anything is to allow the error message to happen, and then tap the microphone button from the error message screen. Then I am able to actually dictate a message. To make matters worse though, I cannot see any of my dictation until I am done, and then the text populates all at once in the text field.

With Apple's stock keyboad, I can see the text populating as I dictate, which is exactly the way it should work, and is exactly the way GBoard works on Android. Third-party keyboards work properly on Android, at least all of them that I ever tried. I'm not flaming Apple here, I'm just wondering if GBoard's clunkiness on iOS is specific to GBoard, or if this is the way that Apple handles all third-party keyboards.

I think this definitively shows the problem is with Apple's dictation service. Is anyone else concerned that the persistent spinning icon is an indication that the dictation service never stopped, and the phone's microphone is still "on" and continuing to send data to Apple's servers??

Next step is to try and monitor cellular data use while the network activity indicator continues to spin.

I can't help but notice that nobody seems to be talking about the "Hey Siri" thing. As silly as it sounds, it seems to work for me most of the time. It is much less annoying than having to restart. Just set up Siri so that you can just say "hey Siri" without having to push your home button. Make sure all of your apps are closed as well as pages on safari. Then say "hey Siri". Give it a second or two and then say "never mind" The frustrating little data wheel will disappear most times.

Even if that does work as a band-aid solution, I do not want to enable Siri, so it's not an option for me. If that does work though, that also makes me think it might have something to do with that DNS Services process I pointed out earlier. I'm not very knowledgeable on networking, but my layman's understanding is that DNS services are used to locate and make the initial connection to a certain domain or server. If that is the process that continues running when the indicator is continually spinning, maybe it's not breaking the connection once dictation is done through the keyboard, but then activating Siri causes DNS services to make the connection to the server again and then it disconnects properly? I could be way off though.

All I am saying is that my data wheel starts spinning as soon as I do voice to text. It will not stop for days unless I do one of two things. Either restart the phone or the hey Siri thing. Not sure why it works for me and not for others. I am still in communication with Apple and will be sure to let you know if something positive develops.

I’m sorry, Machine_Ruse, but you have a quite incorrect understanding of how the Domain Name Service (DNS) works: all DNS does is translate an internet name, like www.apple.com into the IP (Internet Protocol) address (the numbers separated by periods).

Unless there is something quite wrong with your DNS setup, this takes milliseconds.

Exactly. Using only Wi-Fi no data sim card removed the phone voice to text functions perfectly. In fact I am dictating this message on my old phone. No data wheel. This has got to be relevant. I just don’t know what it means.

Based upon where you are seeing that, Machine_Ruse, I’ll accept that those are Apple Processes (given nicer, human understandable names).

You would have had to have been doing a lot of DNS lookups (accessing a lot of web addresses) to use about 0.1 MB in approximately 30 minutes. (Each DNS transaction takes no more than about 100 B.)

You had twice as much in Push Notifications. Three times as much in Messaging Services. Both, far easier to do.

One simple question: Why is it a problem? It’s just a fact of life. It doesn’t affect use of the phone in the least. From reading this thread, it doesn’t use much data or battery. It just IS. And apparently iPhones have been doing it forever.

It does use battery and my data used 2 gb in 3 days but if I shut off dictation in settings everything is fine with out the use of dictation so for the price you pay for Apple products and considering how long Apple has been doing iPhone devices this should not be a issue actually it’s really not professional you typically get iPhones because they are supposed to be bulletproof and smooth just my 2 cents

I agree with everything you said that is what is going on with my phone I have an iPhone SE second generation and when the dictation window closes the wheel continues to spin after using Siri or restarting the phone or resetting settings it will fix it until you use the dictation again and then it will do the same thing