Dictation not working on Mountain Lion?

I had a very similar problem and solved it. I could get the dictation popup to appear by pressing fn twice, getting the three processing dots afterwards with a negatory shake and no text output. After trying everything else, this was easily solved by selecting "Internal Microphone" from a tiny, nearly hidden dropdown menu in the Dictation Preferences menu. This is below the dictation microphone symbol. When the correct input is selected, you should see the purple fill in the icon respond to sound input.

Following is extra detailed info that may be further helpful diagnostic for everyone who is having similar problems. I had to figure this out on my own, people who have it working don't know the various ways that it can break and how to diagnose what is wrong. The icon gave me a hint that this is a simple input connection problem -- nothing to do with users, login items, or internet connection (which still could be a problem for a small number of people).

To all who are having similar problems with dictation not working, you should be able to diagnose this problem easily:

- Large picture symptom is that you can call up dictation but not get any text output, despite internet being connected and dictation being turned on.

- After releasing fn, pressing enter, clicking done, or otherwise signalling that you've completed dictation, you see the three progress dots that indicate server processing. They flash and after a moment the entire dictation popup shakes. No text is produced.

- Dictation mini-popup (after pressing fn twice) shows the dictation microphone icon, but the purple fill of the icon does not visually respond to sound input. This is a sign that dictation is not listening to you.

Solution: You need to get that icon to respond to audio before dictation will work. This is not a static icon but one that should fluctuate depending on sound levels going to the correct input source.

Input source is set in Dictation Prefs, not in sound input prefs. You could be forgiven if you missed it, it's very subtly placed under the dictation icon.

"Automatic" seems to automatically choose the wrong one for me, a sound editor application. However, mileage may vary, obviously there are a lot out there that it works fine for. Those who plan to use multiple mics at different times may be pained if they can't use an automatic setting. Anyways, "Internal Mic" worked for me, do whatever you can to get that icon to "come alive" and show some sound levels.

- Similarly to the dictation popup icon, the Dictation preferences microphone icon is a live icon that should show volume level feedback when the correct input source is selected. You can select the source in a hidden dropdown under the icon.

I had selected 'Internal microphone' before, still.. nothing. Like your picture, I get the quarter filled bar that doesnt move.

I have a USB mic because I have a mac mini. The mic setting was set to "auto" and showed that it was receiving voice input but voice dictation did not work. I switched the mic setting to directly select the USB mic and now dictation works great. not sure if this is your situation.

The strange thing for me is that dictation works on my iMac but not my MacBook!

I am located in Singapore and installed ML on two machines

1) MacBook Pro 15 inch (Early 2011)

2) iMac 24 inch (Early 2008)

Both are set to British English for language with US keyboard layout.

I have been trying to get Dictation working.

On the iMac, I initially had problems getting it to work until I set the language for Dictation to English (US). No problems switching language after that. I could even dictate in Japanese and it would work flawlessly.

On the MacBook, a double press of the Fn key brings up the mic. The system appears to register my voice but fails to translate (the 3 purple dots blinks and then shakes without a result).

I have tried changing language settings, location/country settings, and even keyboard settings to no avail. Both machines are set to use the internal mics and I have already turned the volume of the mics up.

Messing about with the Console, I found that on the MacBook Pro, there seems to be some connection issue. A copy of the log is as follows:

29/07/2012 01:01:10.534 assistantd[507] #### AVVoiceController: prepareRecordWithSettings: (IGNORING SETTINGS) ####

29/07/2012 01:01:10.535 assistantd[507] #### AVVoiceController: startRecording ####

29/07/2012 01:01:10.566 assistantd[507] Alert Listener: RUNNING = 1

29/07/2012 01:01:10.570 assistantd[507] #### beganRecording: (success = 1 status = 0) ####

29/07/2012 01:01:10.857 assistantd[507] Alert Listener: RUNNING = 0

29/07/2012 01:01:10.858 assistantd[507] alertFinished: AVVoice_RecordStarting done and record starting or active, so load AVVoice_RecordStopped

29/07/2012 01:01:12.283 assistantd[507] #### startpointDetected: ####

29/07/2012 01:01:12.793 assistantd[507] #### AVVoiceController: stopRecording ####

29/07/2012 01:01:12.800 assistantd[507] #### AVVoiceController: Recording finished (success = 1 status = 0) ####

29/07/2012 01:01:12.800 assistantd[507] #### AVVoiceController: playAlertSoundForType: 2 ####

29/07/2012 01:01:12.819 assistantd[507] Alert Listener: RUNNING = 1

29/07/2012 01:01:12.819 assistantd[507] alertStarted: either not playing start alert, or record state not kRecordStarting

29/07/2012 01:01:13.237 assistantd[507] Alert Listener: RUNNING = 0

29/07/2012 01:01:13.238 assistantd[507] alertFinished: AVVoice_RecordStoppedXXX done

29/07/2012 01:01:13.238 assistantd[507] alertFinished: not cancelling record or record state is inactive: resetting alert queue

29/07/2012 01:01:20.588 assistantd[507] <Error>: Session - Connection error: <ADAceConnection: 0x7f837bc44e90> Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=60 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation timed out"

29/07/2012 01:01:20.596 assistantd[507] <Error>: Daemon - Session Error Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=60 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation timed out"

29/07/2012 01:01:20.603 assistantd[507] <Error>: Daemon - Sending recognition failed Error Domain=kAFAssistantErrorDomain Code=4 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (kAFAssistantErrorDomain error 4.)" UserInfo=0x7f837bc47160 {NSUnderlyingError=0x7f837cb94ac0 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation timed out"}

These messages do not appear on my iMac at all as the dictation works beautifully.

Does anyone know how I can get the dictation working on my MBP?

Thanks!

Im having issues with Dictation too. If i restart my imac, it works fine. If i come to my mac later in the day, and double click the fn key, i get the sound prompt but no microphone icon pops up and no text appears. Why does the dictation stop working? how to fix?

Press the padlock in lower left and enter your password

Further probing into Console messages...

I suspect that my Macbook Pro is not connecting to the right server for Dictation. Turning on Dictation and clicking on "Enable Dictation" on the subsequent dialog results in a long pause (compared to a very short one on my iMac on which Dictation works) followed by an error message noted in Console:

29/7/12 4:50:58.204 PM assistantd[296] <Error>: Daemon - Session Error Error Domain=kAFAssistantErrorDomain Code=1 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (kAFAssistantErrorDomain error 1.)"

I have tried repairing disk permissions, changing language and regional settings to no avail.

Wondering when these bugs might be fixed

This is the exact same problem I'm having on my macbook.

If I switch dictation off, restart, then switch it on again and restart once more it will work.

But if I come back to it after leaving the mac for a while it stops working, it's as if it can't connect to the server. I'm starting to suspect there is some kind of connection problem with ML after the macbook sleeps or is left idle, as Mail also loses connection after leaving it alone, just like dictation stops working. Only way I can get that working again is to completely quit out of mail and restart it.

Go vegan wrote:

Im having issues with Dictation too. If i restart my imac, it works fine. If i come to my mac later in the day, and double click the fn key, i get the sound prompt but no microphone icon pops up and no text appears. Why does the dictation stop working? how to fix?

As I speak, nothing appears until AFTER I click "DONE". Then, the entire text appears. Could make for some very embarrassing responses!

Matt: I too was having an issue with this "DONE" delay, but you can edit the message before sending it. You should proofread the message anyway, but I must admit sometimes I don't.

I spoke with Apple today and found out something very interesting.

Dictation will work only when you are connected to the Internet. If your broadband is shut off it will

Not work.

OS X Mountain Lion - Technical Specifications

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP654?viewlocale=en_US

If you want to use it offline you will need to purchase the dragon type application.

You know, I almost said that earlier "you are connected to the Internet arent you?", but thought it was obvious... Is that really the cause of some of these reports?

The culprit for me is 1Password (3.8.20).

After quitting 1Password, Dictation suddenly started working for the first time.

When restarting 1Password, and Dictation would sometimes continue to work for a short while, sometimes stop immediately.

Quitting 1PW will make Dictation work ASAP 100% of the time.