Dictation will not use external microphone

Question

Level 1

11 points

Dictation will not use external microphone

Dictation works fine for me speaking directly into the internal microphone but I cannot seem to get it to work with any external microphone whatsoever. These mics work fine for other applications, and when selected from Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation the little microphone icon on that page does monitor the external mic correctly. However, when I hit the keyboard shortcut to actually use dictation it will always use the internal mic regardless of what mic I have selected. Since I typically work with my mac in clamshell mode this means it's completely non-functional.

Any help troubleshooting this?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 12, 2021 11:45 AM

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Answer 1

Jeff_W.

Community Specialist

Jan 14, 2021 4:46 PM in response to zhands

Hi zhands,

Thanks for having a look at those settings.

Have you tried turning dictation off, restarting your Mac, and turning on dictation again?

Give that a try, and also test dictation's behavior in another user account:

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Let us know what happens.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

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Answer 2

KMB_12

Community Specialist

Jan 14, 2021 12:11 PM in response to zhands

Hi zhands,

It seems you're having trouble with Dictation and we can help.

You took some great steps to isolate this issue. Were you following along with this article?

If your Mac doesn’t recognize text and commands you speak

Make sure your microphone is selected in both System Preferences > Sound > Input, as well as in System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation.

Does any other app recognize your external mic? What if you record in Voice Memos, does that work?

Let us know how that works.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

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Answer 3

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Jan 16, 2021 1:14 PM in response to zhands

Hi zhands,

Thanks for giving these steps a try.

With the issue persisting as such, we recommend you contact Apple Support for help isolating the issue.

Contact Apple Support

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

Reply

Answer 4

zhands Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 14, 2021 1:42 PM in response to KMB_12

Yes my mic is selected explicitly in both settings. (I'm not using 'automatic')
Yes other apps recognize my mic. QuicktimePlayer, Zoom, GoogleHangouts, Discord, etc

As you can see below even the preferences page for dictation is picking up me speaking (left) but notice the actual mic bubble for dictating in the text document (right) does not recognize any input whatsoever. (there is a graphical blip right when it opens tho)

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Answer 5

zhands Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 15, 2021 7:13 AM in response to Jeff_W.

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I've restarted my machine a few times. I just explicitly tried turning dictation off, restarting, and turning it on again but that has not fixed the issue.

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Dictation will not use external microphone

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