Dictation doesn't work

Just want to add that I too have the same issue with dictation on my 2011 MBA13. sound input fine, internet connection via airport express fine. restarted multiple times but still no dictation. may follow up with an appointment at the apple store this week...

Great let us know the outcome..

can you be more spesific kisuke3? i have the same problem and really need a help 😟😢

Ok no worries,

first of all make absolutely sure you are connected to the internet as this is internet-reliant(dictation is)

reset the PRAM as your first attempt to fix the issue, if its not resovled. I suggest you go to dictation preferences in apple > system preferences > UNDER the microphone picture itself you should see an arrow. Choose internal Microphone and test again.

Let us know how it goes from there first

Short answer: the problem is a corrupted preference file. Below is the long version answer:

After a couple of hours at the apple store, finally we found the culprit to one of the corrupted preferences. The genius suggested to remove all preference files and start from fresh. I was worried about losing some important settings but went with it anyway. Dictation then worked flawlessly.

BUT a few other problems popped up. Most serious of the problems: I lost all my keychain items. So another trip to the apple store. The keychain issue was quickly solved (they extracted the correct file from my time machine backup). Other issues seemed harder to fix... One of them is now I get a dialogue informing me that a m.bundle file (some plugin for iTunes Apparnetly) cannot run on 64 bit (I'm paraphrasing from memory). Genius spent some time trying to fix this but no success and in the end the recommendation is to reinstall all my previous preferences (including the corrupted one) and just accept the fact that dictation won't work but "since it is caused by a 3rd party software there is nothing they can do". At this point I have spent more than 3 hours at apple store in 2 days and I'm not gonna accept that and told them as much. I'm still there while they are trying something (reinstalling osx in some ways it seems). I haven't had a corrupted preference file issue for years but am really surprised that they are so ill-equipped to deal with something like this. That "caused by 3rd party" excuse is just lame coming from an apple genius.

i am already do that and nothing change kisuke3, still same 😐

It takes a little getting use to it. Fn Fn turns it on, as you dictate nothings appears until you click the done button, then it cancels itself and your dictation suddenly appears.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir5,2

1 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM

System Software:

OS X 10.8 (12A269) - Uptime: 0 days 0:9

Disk Information:

APPLE SSD TS128E disk0 : (121.33 GB)

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 120.47 GB (75.22 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

FireWire Information:

Kernel Extensions:

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.afpstat.plist

[failed] com.apple.mrt.uiagent.plist

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.seagate.SeagateStorageGauge.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

[failed] com.yahoo.YahooContactSyncAgent.plist

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

uTorrent

BitTorrent

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player

Internet Plug-ins:

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

None

Top Processes:

17.9 % PluginProcess

9.4 % WebProcess

6.5 % WindowServer

5.6 % Safari

4.2 % coreaudiod

3.5 % hidd

1.2 % EtreCheck

1.0 % fontd

0.6 % assistantd

0.5 % cookied

what could be my problem ??

hi Ilyas, i have found the solution, check the parental controls on your system preference, then go to others and untick the disable use of dictation

here you go, hope it's help you a lot, cheers 🙂

zhien yung @ edward wrote:

hi Ilyas, i have found the solution, check the parental controls on your system preference, then go to others and untick the disable use of dictation

here you go, hope it's help you a lot, cheers 🙂

You SOLVE my problem zhien yung @ edward thanks a lot ! 😍

I had this same problem not even 24 hours after buying my brand new MacBook Pro. I read this entire thread, tried many of the suggestions, and called support. I even stumped them. Earlier while trying some of the suggestions I diagnosed my network and it was working fine. Later, while on hold with support, I turned my Wi-Fi off and then on again, and reconnected. A couple minutes later, my dictation was working perfectly.

When the support person came back on the line I explained it to him and he said that sometimes if the computer goes into "sleep" mode, the connection between the internet and your dictation will lag to such a point that it can't be used, just as mine was and it sounds as if you had the exact same problem.

It's a simple fix and it worked for me, hope this helps somebody else out too!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4205946

Had the same issue and got pretty frustrated. Did some digging and found this. Follow abdulla119's post. Worked like a charm. The assistant.plist is the corrupt file in this case.

had the same problem and found out that third party software (firefox in my case) caused problems.

hope this helps befor you're reading all posts.

thanks for so many answers.

jde

Worked for me!!! THANK YOU!