Q: Dictation on macbook not working

MacBook year model? OS X version? App & version you are dictating TO? Did this work and STOP working? or first time tried? - ÇÇÇ

Is it turned on in System Preferences?

as an aside, you will also want to enable the enhanced dictation - that involves a sizable download. If it is not enabled, whatever you say will be sent to Apple.

Dictating to:

• App = Pages
• Version = 5.2.2

see, you did know after all. Pages is an exemplar used by Apple, so that should not be any issue.

Since the early days of Text-to-Speech & Speakable Items, I always found it more trouble than it was worth as a novelty to me - so I have no direct experience, but can imagine that following the Directions would be paramount in achieving any level of success

Mac Basics: Dictation lets you speak text instead of typing - Apple Support

OS X Mavericks: Use Dictation to create messages and documents

The microphone used and levels are likely mission critical. I have some extensive experience in sound recording & live production, both analog & digital, and mic levels & quality are the most important part in the chain of events.

A test would be to record you voice in QuickTime or some other App and play it back for proof that you have that much covered.

Let us know if this helps in any way - or not.

ÇÇÇ

I had the same problem....

Assuming you have confirmed your microphone is working...I followed instructions in an earlier post that recommended clearing the cache by changing a setting then rebooting, then re-selecting the setting.  I also tried a previous posters recommendation to add a language.  For this problem, I went to Settings>Dictation and Speech and scrolled down to add Canadian English.  I then went back to main Dictation screen and turned Dictation Off.  I rebooted the computer and when it came back up, I re-selected Dictation and Enhanced and it works just fine now!

Thanks to previous poster for the advice...

smwells

Very good explanation and very good results. To help those (and me) understand in full, can we clarify a couple of things,?

You said:

smwells wrote:

 

I had the same problem....

1. Assuming you have confirmed your microphone is working...
2. I followed instructions in an earlier post that recommended
1. clearing the cache by changing a setting then
2. rebooting, then
3. re-selecting the setting. 
3. I also tried a previous posters recommendation to add a language.  For this problem, I went to
1. Settings>Dictation and Speech and scrolled down to
2. add Canadian English. 
4. I then went back to main Dictation screen and turned Dictation Off. 
5. I rebooted the computer and when it came back up, I re-selected Dictation and Enhanced and

 

it works just fine now!

 

*Thanks to previous poster for the advice... *

1. Mic working = check
2. What earlier post? Not here, methinks - unless it is somewhere in the links I posted
   1. What cache? How?
   2. check
   3. What setting? Where?
      
      Did you test after all these steps were complete?
      
3. Which previous post(er)?
   
   AGAIN - Did you test after all this step?
   
4. (I would have turned it back on again and tested)
5. Check

The deal is, you did three things without testing incrementally, so we cannot be sure which did the trick or if all are required?

* Again, if you tell tell what threads, we can read for ourselves.

buenos tardes

ÇÇÇ

Previous thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5505755

I did test at each step: after adding Canadian language (still not working), after turning off Enhanced dictation (still not working), and after turning Dictation Off then back On before rebooting (still not working).  The reason I did not post as it being a single fix (selecting Dictation Off then reboot then Set dictation back to On) is that I had performed all these previous steps and could not be sure of their association or not.  It is at the user's discretion if they would just like to skip to the final step and see if that does the trick...

Thanks for helping out- this forum has been invaluable in getting me out of a number of jams previously....

Gottit.

What we can deduce about what worked for YOU:

• Nothing you did before #4 above did anything to fix it

• Combo of 4 & 5 = JOY

From your referenced thread:

BenTrovato     Dec 9, 2013 4:21 PM 
  Re: Dictation not working on mavericks  in response to Stephaniexo   

  

What worked for me was turning off dictation, then restarting the system.  Then once I went back in to turn on dictation, everything seemed to work properly again.  Turning dictaConfirmntion off and on without restarting didn't fix the problem, but restarting between off and on solved the issue.  Hope this helps you.

Confirmed by the immediate following replies to Ben... the first:

dabnis     Dec 9, 2013 5:31 PM 
  Re: Dictation not working on mavericks  in response to BenTrovato   

  

Thanks, worked like a charm!

There are other suggestions and confirmations of working fixes in that thread

It may be that it depends on Mac & OS combos(?)

Talking to your computer... what'll they think of next?

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