Is Apple having problems with Dictation?

I have the same issue this morning. Both my iMac & MacBook which were both using dictation fine, will not work. It appears to reach out to the servers, processes, but returns nothing. I have reset my network, but still no luck.

There have been a couple of posts about this in the last couple of days .... Issues with dictation not working. It could be Apple's servers not responding .... However it is working for me here in Pittsbugh, PA.

Same problem here with several iPhones and several Macs (iMac, MacBooks, etc). Im in Pittsburgh as well, southside and north side.

I have been using Dictation regularly since my iPad3 arrived last March 16th. Up until a few days ago the Dictation worked almost perfectly. Occasionally I would have to start and stop the dictation (using the microphone key) a time or two to get it working. In the past that was always enough to get it sorted out and working.

However on Sept. 5th it stopped working altogether. I tried toggling the microphone key, it didn't work. I then tried a series of actions, turning off dictation and then turning it on powering the iPad3 off and on, doing a hard-reboot. In a short while it started to work again. Given the situation I'm now in I wish I could give the exact sequence of events but sorry to say I can not. Just I tried a string of things and in a short time it was working.

I didn't use Dictation on the 6th. On the 7th it stopped working again and I have not been able to get it working again. I have tried (more then once) the various steps from before but nothing seems to help.

When I key the microphone I get in the top right the busy icon that frequently means network activity. That icon doesn't go away.

I'm very confident the microphone works since my Dragon app works perfectly. The Dragon app has been on my system for months.

It would be nice to know if the problem is with the iPad3 or is there some problem with the communication with Apple servers. Is my Dictation ever going to work again?

Wasnt working...Did the same thing as above. Works Great. I dont use it much so I cant say when it stopped working, but Backup,restore,add backup. Works great

Also having problems today (has worked otherwise) in Madison, WI

Having problems here with Siri returning anything today. Yesterday was sporatic. Today is 0% everytime I've tried no matter how long I've waited. I'm assuming Siri is using the same servers as what you are referring to as dictation.

I'm glad the “reset all settings” worked for you. I spoke with Apple support, they had no info help concerning the dictation. I asked what "reset all settings" on the iPad would do. The person assured me that I would lose no content but that I would have to reset the Wi-Fi and the notifications. After hitting the "reset all settings" tab, events happened in a manner that I was not expecting. The iPad screen came up asking for language and country and then the Wi-Fi settings. The screen asked if I wanted to create a new iPad, restore from iCloud, or restore from iTunes. I was not expecting this. Is this the way it is supposed to work? Is this what you did? Could you possibly give a brief step-by-step of what reset all settings involved for you.

Since I have so much information on my iPad3 and since I use it all the time we decided to try this on my husband’s iPad2. We are certainly happy we did this given what happened but in the long run his iPad2 survived more or less in tack we think. Since it was an iPad2 it doesn’t answer any questions about dictation.

I performed following the procedure for deleting the com.apple.assistant.plist file.

That did not work.

All my devices were out if they were connected to my network.

I even logged in as a guest, and it was still not working.

.. went and had a few beers in town with friends.

came back, and all devices are back to normal.

I'm assumening that while I was having some beer, the issues with communicating with the servers was resolved!

Awesome!

Yes I have exactly the same problems. I believe this problem is due to Apple's dictation servers being ******* useless. I love how Apple promote dictation as a huge new feature on the New Ipad, but then once you buy the thing you find out that dictation is actually just a BETA product, and that the servers don't even respond 50% of the time...

I never expected dictation to be 100% accurate, but I at least expect the servers to respond instead of just blinking at me whenever I try to enter speech.

And of course I upgraded from an Ipad 2 to the new Ipad almost esclusively because I wanted the dictation feature... Live and learn and be screwed by Apples' "it just works" ********!

THANK YOU! This worked for me. I had an iPhone 4S that worked beautifully with dictation - I'm talking 98% accuracy. I upgraded to a 5 and it came out gibberish - if at all. That was how Siri was on my 4S. I never tired of saying "Siri doesn't understand me" and then adding, "I mean that literally". I could live without Siri but not without dication. I was so mad at myself for upgrading because I was dictating all my texts and many of my emails; it worked that well. To lose that was an impossible concept so I had visions of having to swap out phones insearch of one like my 4S.... but the reset of the settings worked for my iPhone. I wonder if the problems arise after upgrading and/or doing a restore. I will have to test it on my iPad although I just did a complete reset on that because it was having trouble recognizing that it was on a data plan as I don't dictate on that.

Apples a great disappointment, they lost the simplicity and effectiveness that drove them to the top... They're just a bunch of money hungry corporate guys in my opinion... Dont seem like they care dictation doesnt work, Siri is really semi-useful, cant even compare to Google voice assistant... Great chance for Google to come forward on the market!