Dad's MacBook Air (2019/Sonoma 14.7.1) is giving him fits. He's essentially dependent on dictation, having lost a lot of dexterity in one hand. Since maybe a week or two back, when he double-presses fn to trigger dictation, he gets the start tone immediately followed by the end tone. I've tried switching off Bluetooth without success. Any ideas?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
paddle2thesea Said:
“Dictation starts and immediately stops: […]when he double-presses fn to trigger dictation, he gets the start tone immediately followed by the end tone.[…]”
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Troubleshooting Unexpected Sounds:
A. Boot your Mac in Safe Mode:
See if booting in Safe Mode fixes this. Then, restart and login normally App caches would be reset. See here: Start Up your Mac in Safe Mode - Apple Support
Single-Out this User:
For troubleshooting purposes, create a new administrator user, seeing if you get this error. If not, then is is an issue consolidated to this current user. If so, then it is an issue with the entire macOC.
Log out of this user
paddle2thesea Said:
“Dictation starts and immediately stops: […]when he double-presses fn to trigger dictation, he gets the start tone immediately followed by the end tone.[…]”
———-
Troubleshooting Unexpected Sounds:
A. Boot your Mac in Safe Mode:
See if booting in Safe Mode fixes this. Then, restart and login normally App caches would be reset. See here: Start Up your Mac in Safe Mode - Apple Support
Single-Out this User:
For troubleshooting purposes, create a new administrator user, seeing if you get this error. If not, then is is an issue consolidated to this current user. If so, then it is an issue with the entire macOC.
Log out of this user
paddle2thesea Said:
"Thanks for the suggestion, but no dice. Anyway, it really isn’t about an unexpected sound, it’s about the dictate function: double click fn, and you get the start tone followed immediately by the end tone, no space in between them. It’s like getting the “talk to the hand” thing from his Mac. Could it be a hardware (mic or keyboard) problem?"
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Create your Own Shortcut:
I think double-clicking the control key is what you are referring to. I get the same of what you describe when I double-click it. There's probably nothing to dictate. So, see about creating your own shortcut.
“No, dad configured his Mac to use fn as the shortcut, and that’s still how it’s configured in Settings. He’s used his MacBook and dictation this way for years, until it stopped working a few weeks ago. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘nothing to dictate.’”
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Thank you for the followup reply.
Contact Apple Support:
If it’s just playing nothing between the chimes, then there is nothing to dictate(or maybe that’s an error). So, give Apple Support a call, and find out what this may be happening. Screenshare with the Apple rep so they can see this firsthand, from your perspective. Run them through what you are seeing and where.
Apple Support Contact Us Info:
Thanks for the suggestion, but no dice. Anyway, it really isn’t about an unexpected sound, it’s about the dictate function: double click fn, and you get the start tone followed immediately by the end tone, no space in between them. It’s like getting the “talk to the hand” thing from his Mac. Could it be a hardware (mic or keyboard) problem?
No, dad configured his Mac to use fn as the shortcut, and that’s still how it’s configured in Settings. He’s used his MacBook and dictation this way for years, until it stopped working a few weeks ago. I’m not sure what you mean by “nothing to dictate.”
Why does Dictation stop immediately on my MacBook Air?
