My dictation feature is not working on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017). I can see on the microphone that it hears what I am saying but no words are transcibed. I've tried it in Pages, Messages, Safari, etc. Same result, you can see the microphone is hearing what I am saying but no transcription. I've also gone to setting and turned diction on and off to no avail.
Looking for suggestions.
Thanks!
iMac
Try this:
Go to ~/Library/Preferences
Locate com.apple.assistant.plist and move it to the Trash
System Settings > Keyboard in the sidebar. Go to Dictation on the right, then turn it off.
Reboot
Re-enable Dictation
It is still working for me after a couple of days with the solution (maybe I shouldn't call it a solution) I used which is to click on Siri on the upper right hand corner of the screen. Tell Siri to start dictation. She will say dictation is already turned on. I then restart the computer. This has worked for about two days so far.
Despite every fix I've tried, the problem reoccurs in a few hours/days. Here's another possible solution I found on hawkdive.com. Let's see how this works after a few days.
1. Access Users & Groups from the System Preferences menu.
2. Make a new, administrator account.
3. Log in as the new administrator when the Mac has restarted.
4. Switch the primary account’s rights from Administrator to Standard by unchecking Give the user permission to set up and manage the system.
5. Turn off the safety settings on the primary account.
6. Restore administrative privileges to the primary account.
7. Start the Mac up again as an administrator and login with that account.
8. Activate dictation and remove the temporary administrator account.
UNINSTALL, MICROSOFT OFFICE SUITE. FIXED MY ISSUE. DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO REBOOT!! Hopefully, it works for you, but it seems kind of random. I'm sure it's one of those products that a majority of people have installed.
Disabling Siri completely seems to fix the dictation issue.
Hi,
I have the same problem on my intel iMac. I tried the suggestion of booting into Safe Mode (holding down Shift during startup) and was able to get Dictation to work in Safe Mode and after restarting. But it failed to work only a few minutes later. I also turned off a number of Start Up Items to see if that made any difference, but it didn't.
I've reported this issue to Apple via Product Feedback and hope there will be a fix soon. Fingers crossed.
Hi JD202, Actually that was somebody else's solution but it seemed to work for a few people. One of my fixes was to run Onyx or other system utility. This seemed to provide the best/longest fix for me. Sounds like you have a few other glitches and running this utility might not be a bad idea anyway.
It might be helpful to tell everybody how to find the Feedback Assistant App in their system folder. Here's the procedure. Once located it would be wise to put the app in your Dock.
On your Mac, use one of the following methods to open Feedback Assistant 
:
, choose Go > Go to Folder, type /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications, press Return, then double-click Feedback Assistant.Feedback Assistant is located in the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications folder.
All you need to do is type applefeedback:// into Safari's URL bar. Works on Mac or iDevices.
I would paste a reference the the dev page source, but that usually results in a post being removed. You can google it: "apple feedback assistant URL scheme"
Hi Archrider,
All my fixes have been temporary as well. I suggest that everybody experiencing this issue report it to Apple via this link. The more reports they receive, the more likely they will address it in the next update. Feedback - macOS - Apple
NeoRoth, I think you are absolutely right about the conflict. I have found that by simply by disabling Siri, I can eliminate the problem for a time. But as soon as I attempt to use Siri again, dictation stops working. I'll send another report to Apple. Perhaps they can fix this in a future update.
Thought I'd try your Siri-releated fix but I can't even activate Siri. Clicking Siri in the menu bar doesn't do anything. LOL. Oh, Ventura... you're the worst macOS since ??? Fortunately Dictation is still working since changing the activation key.
Feedback left.
I'm beginning to suspect that the problem has something to do with Sound Input and microphone settings. I notice that when I use my USB headset, I rarely have a problem, but when I try to use the onboard microphone on my iMac, the problems are very apparent. Perhaps the update affected the onboard microphone settings rather than the Dictation function itself. I'll send another feedback message to Apple about this suspicion.
I've tried every suggested fix on this forum, and none proved to be permanent, at least in my case. I have reported this to Apple several times and hoped that the update to 13.2 would include a fix, but it didn't. I would once again suggest that everybody who is experiencing this issue go to apple.com/feedback and under the macOS apps section, click the macOS link and leave a comment about this bug. The squeaky wheel, and all that.
URL schemes have nothing to do with being a developer. Using the feedback assistant (applefeedback:// ) is the Apple-approved and intended method, and is much easier than mucking about in system or user Libraries. But I suppose to each their own.
Charles, you’re absolutely right just complaining here on this form does no good you need to use the Feedback Assistant.
Dictation not working (13.0 Ventura (22A380))
