Dictation not working on Mountain Lion?

I've read a number of these and have seen numerous solutions but none of them have worked for me until I started to explore on my own. In my case, I can reproduce it 100% of the time when AppTamer is enabled. When I disable AppTamer it works, when it's running, Dictation doesn't work at all.

So, if you're running AppTamer try disabling it and give it a shot. Hopefully this helps someone.

However, I'm unsure which process AppTamer is disabling...

First of all, I want to say thanks to everyone for trying to solve these issues.

In terms of my problem I'm having, my problem seems a tiny bit more serious, not anything to do with my DNS or a specific app blocking the dictation.

My problem is actually with the microphone, the internal microphone doesn't detect any input at all, no levels or anything and so when I go and use the dictation, it then detects no levels and doesn't 'dictate'

I'm very very stuck... At the moment I can't exactly take my MBP into Apple because I'm and editor and 3d animator and use it heavily for my work, so yea.. Stuck!

Thanks to everyone for chipping in with their solutions!

I have tried the DNS trick (both the Google DNS servers as well as the one suggested by Raju K) with no success. The internal microphone is selected correctly and is working fine. I am not running 1Password.

My suspicion is still a connection issue between the MBP and Apple's servers. Enabling Dictation takes a long time (easily half a minute compared to nearly instataneously on my iMac on which dictation works), and generates a connection error message in Console. After pressing Fn twice and recording my spoken words and then either clicking on "Done" or pressing Fn another time, I get the blinking purple dots for another 10 seconds or so before the dreaded trembling dots appears. The microphone icon then disappears, with no results. This is accompanied by 3 more error messages in the Console indicating that there is a connection problem of some sort.

Files in the Library/Prefences folder give further clues, including missing lines in com.apple.assistant.plist and com.apple.assistent.token.plist on the MBP (the iMac has lines with data tokens which help Dictation to work). Trashing these files and allowing the system to regenerate them do not solve the problem. Duplicating these files from the iMac and MBP didn't work presumably since Apple somehow assigns a unique identifier to each machine.

I have spent some time on AppleCare on this and even the senior person who took my call couldn't isolate the problem with Mountain Lion being so new. I have emailed AppleCare a copy of my log files as well as a videoclip showing the problem and am waiting for an answer while their engineering department tries to figure out what's wrong. As a last resort, I was advised that I may want to consider a clean install of the OS to see whether if that works. I might consider doing that on an external disk and see whether if that works. I will report back with my results.

I think I have the same problem as @loyking has, and I did a clean restore already, but dictation still doesn't work, the 'com.apple.assistant.plist' files still have missing lines, and now I have to spend hours restoring my files back to my MBP through time machine. hope apple will finally fix that

While waiting for AppleCare to get back to me, I tried installing a fresh install of ML using an external USB drive and then booting fresh from that volume.

Even on the brand new fresh install, I am still getting the same problem -- error messages in the Console whenever Dictation is activated / after Dictation attempts to process the recorded voice. On my iMac (early 2008) and on my brother's MBP 13 (late 2010), no issues at all, using the same Wifi network.

Changing the DNS has not helped. Trashing the plist file has not either. It's either something to do with ML or should I ask for the hardware to be checked (not that I'm certain if that would help)?

Works one day, does not the next. Talked to so many people and they all report issues. Never trust a new operating system until the first or second updates come out. Reminds me of the microsoft days.

I turned dictation of and on in system preferences. It did nothing. Then I turned it off. Then I rebooted. Then I turned dictation back on. So far, it's working now and quite well.

I had the same problem as others where upon triggering dictation, a single tone would sound, but the microphone would never appear and no dictation would take place.

I also ran 1password. Quitting 1password did not fix the glitch.

What turned out to be the issue is having "Secure Keyboard Entry" enabled on my terminal emulator, iTerm. There are other apps that have this toggle (Apple's included Terminal.app being one). Upon disabling secure keyboard entry, dictation began to funciton properly.

It's an unfortunate compromise as I'd prefer to leave SKE enabled (as it provides no other system app/listener the ability to 'see' what I type into my iTerm windows) and likely something Apple will need to address. In the meantime, I encourage those with the same symptoms as described above to disable SKE and give it a whirl.

If you don't know of any apps on your system that have this functionality, you can launch Terminal and see if it's turned on via the menus. You may find it necessary to turn ON and then OFF, but this was definitely the culprit for me.

Good luck!!

ml314hk: when is the make of your MBP? Call it a hunch, but I am now wondering our problem might be related to a particular batch of MBP that somehow is unable to generate its own set of authentication keys to talk to Apple's servers.

So far, dictation has worked on

1) iMac (early 2008)

2) my brother's MBP 13 (2010)

No luck on my MBP 15 (early 2011) despite being on the same network and after a clean install. Wondering if I should send my MBP in via AppleCare.

The problem is Apple, They will not tell customers about known issues and use us as beta testers. You can work for hours on it and read what you like but never any answer on here direct from Apple. Company got too big and their policy is to never say anything. Just have to wait for next update and hopes they address it.

I think you are in the same camp as many here that have some app running in the background that has "Secure Inpout" enabled. See the post about 1Password.

Once you find out what that app is, try if minimizing it helps.

Ultimately, it seems like this is something both Apple and 3rd party app developer needs to look into.

To add the the mix, but my issue is perhaps unique. dictation does not work in general showng the same pattern of "shaking 3 dots", but I am based in Dubai. When attempting to dictate to Text Edit, I get the following error:

<Error>: Daemon - Sending recognition failed Error Domain=kAFAssistantErrorDomain Code=4 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (kAFAssistantErrorDomain error 4.)" UserInfo=0x7fd482cb58c0 {NSUnderlyingError=0x7fd48503f630 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation timed out"}

Solution

When i VPN into Canada then follow the same steps (dictation into text edit) it works perfectly (and quickly). No other changes are made, only lighting up a VPN connection to allow me access to the internet through a gateway in Toronto. I have repeated this a number of times.

"This is my message using dictation"

To me this appears as a server-end issue that Apple needs to investigate!!

m

Mine is MBP 15 (late 2011)

Recently installed Mountain Lion across all systems, dictation worked perfectly all around.

Then, after adding a new, external sound card, I must have changed my internal mic settings by accident because I was seeing the dictation mic, but it wasn't picking up my voice.

Under "Sound" preferences, I could see the mic was picking up my voice, but it wouldn't in dictation. The fix was under "Dictation and Speech" preferences, where I needed to set the dropdown to internal mic.

After reading most of this thread, I thought it also might have been a conflict/bug with a 3rd party app that I have installed, but that turned out not to be the case.

4 checks:

1. System Preferences > Sound > ensure internal mic is set to built-in and input volume is at least 50%.

Check to see that input volume is being recieved by talking and looking at the meter.

2. System Preferences > Dictation and Speech > make sure dictation is turned on and dropdown set to internal microphone.

3. Go > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup > ensure "Built-in Microphone" has a black microphone icon next to it. If no black mic icon, right-click "Built-in Microphone" and select "Use this device for sound input". Format should be 44100.0 Hz and 2ch-24bit integer.

4. System Preference > Parental Controls > Other > ensure that "disable use of dictation" is not checked under the user that you are logging in as.

YAY, The 1password hint finally helped me:

I don't have 1password installed but something similar which obviously interferes with the dictation input method: LastPass! After quitting the browser dictation works again without rebooting! ++

So far it seems to work even with LastPass running in the browser, if and only if I enter the password manually and not with the YubiKey.