Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

4 points

UK English enhanced dictation very poor accuracy

I have upgraded my 2013 MacBook Air from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, and am having problems with Enhanced Dictation in UK English. While 'normal' dictation works very well, with very good transcription accuracy, the Enhanced version is extremely poor - to the point of being virtually useless. French works very well - but UK English does not.

It is almost as if the download from Apple is corrupt in some way (I have deleted and re-downloaded serveral times in case it was a problem specific to my download).

Things I have tried so far:

Deleting the downloaded packages and reinstalling them
Testing internal and external microphone

If I uncheck Enhanced dictation, the accuracy is excellent. If I check it, the quality plummets.

Has anyone else seen this?

Any solutions?

Thanks!

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 4:36 AM

Best reply

ceric Author

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 10:33 AM

To answer my own question, I think I have found the solution.

The following sequence of actions seems to have fixed Enhanced dictation for me:

1. Disable dictation totally

2. Restart the Mac

3. Delete the downloaded Enhanced dication files (see other posts on how to do this)

4. Delete the following folder: ~Library/Caches/com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore/Users/en_GB

5. Restart the Mac

6. Re-enable dictation and Enhanced dication (this will cause the Mac to re-download the files)

Voilà!

I am guessing that something in my user profile had got corrupted.

View in context

39 replies

Dec 9, 2013 6:28 AM in response to ceric

I have the same problemwith the french. Deleting the plist seems to solve the problem... for the moment.

Jan 3, 2014 3:31 PM in response to ceric

Same issue in french. Ok with the normal dictation. Very bad with the ehanced dictation. I have no iwork at all...

So I am waiting for a solution from Apple as soon as possible...

Jan 4, 2014 2:33 AM in response to lolavirginie

Interesting to hear from the two French users. We might guess that all other languages apart from US English are similarly affected. The 10.9.1 update has not fixed the issue.

ceric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 4, 2014 3:00 AM in response to Charles Butcher

Apple Support escalated this issue to engineering, and I supplied them with the data they subsequently requested. Support have told me that "engineering have basically acknowledged the problem" and they hope that we will see a solution in a future update.

Fingers crossed!

Jan 4, 2014 3:50 AM in response to ceric

Thanks, ceric!

Jan 7, 2014 5:47 AM in response to ceric

Hi Ceric and Charles.

I've just read your thread with much interest as I have the same problem. I updated to OS X 10.9.1 two days ago along with all other apps. Enhanced dictation in UK English produces gibberish. I'm not a tech savvy person and daren't do any of the manipulations you've suggested so just waiting for news from you as to what Apple is doing about it.

Thanks to both of you for sharing your comments.

Jan 7, 2014 9:47 AM in response to nontechie2

Hi nontechie2

More to the point, the only reason to delete the cache folder is to demonstrate how nice Enhanced dictation is. Performance gets worse again so quickly that it isn't really a cure for anything.

So I assume you are able to use the "standard" (non-Enhanced) dictation? For me, it works pretty well and I use it a lot. Shout if you need any help with this.

Jan 8, 2014 8:05 AM in response to Charles Butcher

Yes, Charles, the online version works very well. I've also downloaded the French enhanced dictation software and that works really well especially considering my English accent. I am very impressed how good the spelling is on verb endings, for example. This is surprising considering famille Bader and lolavirginie's messages earlier in this thread. It looks to me like the problem is specific to UK English.

It's a fantastic tool which fills me with wonder - if only the enhanced version could work. It's great not to have to stop all the time and wait for the text to appear as in the online version.

Let's hope the whizzkids at Apple will sort it out soon.

BTW - thanks for your offer of help. I may just take you up on it at some point ;-)

ceric Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 8, 2014 8:10 AM in response to nontechie2

nontechie2, also happy to help if I can.

Regarding those whizzkids... they appear to acknowledge the problem, so now we can just hope that they issue a fix sometime...

Jan 19, 2014 5:28 AM in response to ceric

Same problem here. The online version of dictation is remarkably accurate so I was looking forward to using the enhanced option, but it is totally unusable, just producing gibberish.

ceric Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 25, 2014 2:44 PM in response to ceric

Well, I have just upgraded to 10.9.2 and initial testing suggests that this problem has been fixed.

In fact, I am entering this reply using the enhanced dictation function.

I did have to delete the previous caches as described above in order to make it work, But the performance has not degraded after several hours of testing.

It would be good if others in this thread who have experienced the problem could post their own experiences to confirm (or not) that this has indeed been resolved.

Let's hope that it is indeed the case!

Feb 26, 2014 12:17 AM in response to ceric

Hi Ceric and thanks for keeping us posted.

Following your message I upgraded Mavericks then deleted the previous caches for GB English and ... hey presto! It works perfectly.

I had been using the US English Version which worked quite well despite my British pronunciation. However, now that the GB version is working properly I don't have to make half as many corrections. What a fantastic tool.

Thanks again and happy dictation!

Feb 26, 2014 2:23 AM in response to ceric

Fingers crossed. I upgraded to 10.9.2 last night, but for the last couple of days I'd been using UK English dictation under 10.9.1 with fair success. Performance did eventually fall dramatically, but I was able to work for a couple of days at a time without problems. I could swear it behaves differently in different applications! So let's take our time.

ceric Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 26, 2014 2:38 AM in response to Charles Butcher

Charles,

I am definitely keeping a watching brief on this one. If it continues to perform consistently over a number of days or even weeks, I'll consider it solved.

Let's see what other responses get posted here...

Nertova

Level 1

0 points

Mar 1, 2014 4:38 AM in response to ceric

Hi,

I am having the same problem in Spanish. It worked very well for 2 days. But it just go crazy.

I have tried all the sugestions but nothing works. And I am not able to find in my mac the folder with the Cache in Spanish.

It was useful to read that I am not the only one.

Thanks

UK English enhanced dictation very poor accuracy