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iPhone Dictation not working iOS 16

Hello,


I recently upgraded to iOS 16 and since doing so my dictation has stopped working properly. It was working at first but it has stopped.


I have tried disabling/re-enabling dictation and "hey siri" and other related settings, as I read this on the internet. I would disable, perform a restart, and re-enable. This didn't seem to resolve the issue.


I also made sure I had the latest version of iOS 16 - which I do - 16.0.2 (20A380) - Not sure where to go next.



[Re-Titled by Moderator]


iPhone 14

Posted on Sep 29, 2022 5:03 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 2, 2022 6:44 PM

Dictation doesn't work. In any app. For anything. In any way. I cannot dictate a text. I cannot dictate a search. It's like the phone doesn't hear my voice when I press the microphone button. I can speak on the phone, but I cannot use any other voice-activated features. This started happening a week or so ago, after upgrade.


see the red circle in the photo? That's all I get. Little blue spinning circle.


What other info do you need?

127 replies

Oct 19, 2022 5:40 PM in response to romaine

I spent hours with Apple customer service today working on this issue. I updated my phone about a week ago and dictation and series stopped working yesterday. I was able to get dictation to work by changing my language to English UK version as well but that has not fixed the Siri issue. I have an appointment with a Genius Bar tomorrow at the Apple Store but after reading this I’m thinking about cancelling it since it doesn’t seem like they’re going to be able to fix that issue tomorrow and I don’t wanna waste my money or time.

Oct 23, 2022 1:44 PM in response to chrisfnicholson

Chrisfnicholson that was REALLY REALLY funny - favourite & colour….


So I took a chance & actually walked into my local Apple Store to see about the dictation problem. In addition to the issues you all cited - inaccurate dictation (adding words/phrases not even close to what I actually said) there is a SUPER annoying little window popping up numerous times making SURE I really want to keep dictating in the language I’m using. Can’t stop it & it covers the text I’ve just dictated so I can’t check for mistakes. GET IT TOGETHER APPLE.

Oct 26, 2022 12:01 PM in response to DeeYo

So update...I did what everyone suggested - adding English UK, English NZ & English Canada and used them for a few days. (man, that was harder than I thought. Period/dot/full stoop...cheesh!) & just now deleted those & added the American English back in. Looks OK, but I'm still assessing, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, has anyone figured out a work-around to that little window that pops up a million times while you're trying to create a text message? Mine shows up in English & in my other language & continues to ask me if I want to continue dictating. I did ask at the person at Apple store, but this was the same person who said she had never heard of ANY dictation problems, so I turn to you REAL geniuses to see if anyone has solved this. Thanks!

Nov 13, 2022 11:31 AM in response to wesleyfranks

So **** frustrating. This is the first time in years and years of buying only Apple products that makes me wanna switch over to android.


Dictation is a lifeline for a lot of people & a great convenience that we have all gotten used to. If Apple can’t figure this out they’re going to start losing a lot more customers.


I’m so over it.

Nov 15, 2022 5:32 PM in response to rmanbike

Hi Manbike: it’s not that my dictation is not working. It IS working but so badly it’s a joke. It’s just very inaccurate since I upgraded to 16.0. It puts words in that I didn’t say, missed words I do say - not even close to what I intended. It’s to the point where I can’t really use that feature anymore and it was very critical to me. So it’s the inaccuracy that I’m talking about. I don’t really understand with a company as large & innovative as Apple, how an important feature that people depend upon has gotten WORSE with time.

Nov 20, 2022 7:34 AM in response to Keither37

After automatic update to iOS 16.1.1, my voice to text and Siri dictation are screwed up but my Voice Memos and speaker phone work fine. I deleted keyboards, added them back, reset my network, reset all...nothing helps. Siri and voice to text seem to only start listening AFTER I've spoken several words, so they both miss the first part of everything I say. HELP?

Nov 20, 2022 10:44 AM in response to llacher1

Oh llacher1 - I feel your pain. I got multiple notices that my phone was going to automatically update to 16.1 & didn’t. Now after reading your post I’m glad it hasn’t. I’m suffering enough in 16.0. This is an ENORMOUS problem that Apple needs to solve. For those of us loyal Apple customers this is really unacceptable. And we’re powerless just waiting for the Apple tech experts to FIX THIS. Next phone upgrade I’m going to research android phones.

Nov 21, 2022 3:57 PM in response to llacher1

More on this...I tried adding & deleting loads of keyboards and noticed that, in some cases, the grey box with the little sound volume bars shows up at the bottom of the screen, which should indicate that it's listening to my voice. But in English (US), that doesn't happen at all. Even when the box does show, my voice isn't heard. And when I try to record a voice memo from the message app and then play it back, it's all garbled like my phone is in a distant trash can. Oddly, speaker phone and voice memo (outside of message app) still work just fine. Apple needs to permit an UNDO of automatic updates!

iPhone Dictation not working iOS 16

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