Dictation not working after installing Sonoma 14.7

Sadly this didn't work for me. I have tried many, many unsuccessful suggestions now and still have the same result - I hear a sound, see a brief flash of a symbol and then nothing happens when I start to dictate. Dictation is still working on my iphone but that's not a realistic place for the kind of work I need to do. There's clearly a problem with Sonoma 14.7 which Apple surely needs to fix. This is a serious issue for people with joint problems and many other disabilities.

Thanks nwitmer et al. Dictation has stopped working on my MacBook Air as well just after the Sonoma 14.7 update. I've tried every single suggestion listed here, along with the installation of a 3rd party"cleaner" app - all to no avail. The internal microphone seems to be working OK: visual feedback is evident at "system settings / sound / input / input level". And the Dictation application itself works fine (as before the 14.7 update) with an external microphone. But without the addition of an external mic, Dictation quits immediately after flashing the blue icon briefly on the screen. During troubleshooting, I also noted that changing the dictation language was also problematic.

FWIW: Simultaneous phenomena. Correlation? The "Stickies" and "QuickTime Player" apps are now also malfunctioning; downloads, documents and desktop folders are also "disappearing/denying access", requiring me to unlock the system and make sharing and permission changes. New authorizations for "staff" and "wheel" are then also appearing here.

Hope this post will help others and/or prompt further investigation and resolution.

I have the same issue that emerged right after the 14.7 update. I tried everything mentioned here, plus suggestions from similar posts, including rebooting, resetting VRAM and deleting com.apple.assistant.plist.

May not be related, but all my Reminders disappeared after doing the update, which Apple Support said is not fixable. I've been on OSX since 1984 and have not seen anything like this.

Hi,

I am experiencing the exact same behavior after updating to Sonoma 14.7

Have spent, since then, several hours with 5 different Apple Senior Advisors on the phone, following their instructions to try to fix this. I really appreciate the dedication of Apple employees in offering support, but at a certain point I think they should just admit there is nothing to do left, but escalate this to the development team :)).

I have also opened a ticket in Feedback Assistant, and I'm just waiting for a public release that will fix this.

HOWEVER, the silver lining to this bug is that okclem came up with this brilliant workaround by suggesting using the mic on my headphones. So, with my Apple EarPods, the Dictation is finally back!! Thanks a lot, okclem!

Take care, everyone!

[Edited by Moderator]

Sept 20: Both Dictation and Siri stopped working on my MacBook Air after “updating” to Sonoma 14.7

Sept 27: contacted Apple support. I was assigned to an “Apple Senior Advisor”. After dozens of hours on the phone since and running test after test after test, submitting multiple files, screenshots & videos, the Senior Advisor sent me the following email on October 16; “Engineering sent me an email stating they are working it”. Since I have an elbow injury and 90% of my correspondence was created by using dictation, this problem has caused serious problems for me.

Apple Engineering also “requested videos and log files of me demonstrating the issue and the process became so convoluted and exhausting”

I also will hear a sound, see a brief flash of a symbol and then nothing happens when I start to dictate. Dictation still working on my iPhone.

I have to strongly agree that “Apple is becoming more and more like Windows”. 

My customers have been running into this also. While I will admit that I don't have a clear reason why, we seem to have figured a work around. Try following these steps:

1: Go into System Settings > Keyboard and disable Dictation. Slide the slider to the left.

2: Reboot the Mac

3: After the reboot, go to an app that you want to dictate to. I commonly have users use something simple like TextEdit or Messages.

4: Press the F5 key (if you have a keyboard with the microphone icon on it) or hit the Fn key twice (if you have a Touch Bar) to trigger Dictation. You should see this window:

5: Press OK which should prompt for:

6: Press Enable.

This process appears to be working to get Dictation running again. We've seen this across a wide variety of devices, users, and customers. Again, not 100% sure of the cause but I suspect a Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) setting change happened in 14.7. Can't prove it. Just suspect it.

Hope this works for you.

I took the easy/expensive route and replaced my 2018 MacBook Air with a new M3 Air. It took a while to set it up, and a few hours to remember/reconstruct my Reminders (well, I remembered half of them). All the problems have disappeared, but since Apple told me that iCloud was for syncing, not file backups, I'll need to invest in a new SSD and use Time Machine for backups. The question is whether Time Machine handles Reminders, Notes, etc. Like most of the world nowadays, complexity is beginning to outpace enjoyment.

Wondering if you have got anywhere with help to uninstall?

I had a helpful and sympathetic response from accessibility@apple.com, and I supplied all the hardware and software details they asked for. However they then requested videos and log files of me demonstrating the issue and the process became so convoluted and exhausting that I could no longer continue.

It involved downloading new software, signing up to a ton of new terms and conditions, setting up an icloud email account to handle large attachments (which it then couldn't) and many other demanding and ultimately fruitless procedures which are likely to be difficult, painful and / or fatiguing for someone who already needs a dictation facility. I have quite a technical background but this defeated me.

I appreciate that they need to know exactly what is happening, but I am sadly going to have to leave it with my report that the dictation facility that used to work fine on my hardware and software now no longer does, and that I am not the only person affected.

Thank you @okclem. My internal microphone is definitely working too, and when I try to use dictation I have the same brief glimpse of it before it quits. Would you say your experience means that I could maybe buy some cheap external microphone (and any necessary adaptor), or perhaps see if I can borrow one, and then have a chance of dictation working again? Sounds worth a try to me!

The WORKAROUND of a cheap external headset with microphone plugged into the headphone jack of my MacBook Air works for me as a solution to this Dictation problem. But I would prefer having the built-in mic working properly. Less is more.

"after I updated my MacBook Air to Sequoia" Hmmmm. THIS is EXACTLY what had me concerned from the VERY beginning. Is Apple intentionally dragging their feet, or avoiding a solution altogether, thus forcing customers (like myself) to buy new that are unable to "upgrade" to Sequoia on my current 2018 MacBook Air? A company could sell lots of new laptops by creating dysfunctional older versions

Thank you @okclem. I've now bought a very basic little clip-on external microphone, intended for karaoke, for £4 online! Plugged it into the headphone socket, changed input in the settings from internal to external, and bingo, the dictation feature works again at long last. I agree that a few Mac users sharing a clumsy workaround like this among ourselves isn't really a solution, but I'm relieved to once again have something that at least works.

I am also having this issue. Have tried turning dictation of, restarting and turning on again but dictation will just flash on and off and won’t stay on. Desperately would love a fix for this!