Dictation not working in iPad OS 18.4 despite being enabled

This issue has only gotten worse since I first posted here.

My iPad now loses the ability to use dictation several times a day.

It happens once in a while on my iPhone as well with the last several iOS 18 updates, but not nearly as much as it happens on the iPad (iPadOS 18.4.1). It is currently almost useless on my M4 iPad Pro which is very frustrating as I almost exclusively use dictation for all of my writing.

I have checked/tried everything here outside of resetting to factory and restoring, and from what others here have said that isn't going to fix it either.

> Connected with Apple support and they said they had become aware of the

issue and I just needed to wait until they could fix it.

This was stated 3 weeks ago. It's nice that someone on a phone told you that, and I'm old enough to know that Apple will almost certainly address it at some point, but it's such a show stopper when it happens to you that it's hard to be patient...

Thank you for sharing your experience with the community, greekguy2!

May be worth looking in to use Voice Control for Dictation while waiting for a fix?

Use Voice Control on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ykg3jZ9_k

Thank you kindly for taking the time to share your experience with the community!

Sending feedback on which devices and OS versions are affected may help contribute to a fix: Product Feedback - Apple

One basic thing you can try is, go into the Siri settings and make sure everything is turned on.

Sounds like automatic ear detection may be turned off?

Change the settings of your AirPods and AirPods Pro - Apple Support

Turn Automatic Ear Detection on or off

By default, AirPods sense when they're in your ear and receive the audio from your device. AirPods also pause and resume playback when you remove one of your AirPods, or stop playback—and won't resume—when you remove both. When you have Automatic Ear Detection on and you're not wearing your AirPods, audio plays through your device's speakers.

When you turn off Automatic Ear Detection, these features are off and all audio plays to your AirPods whether or not you're wearing them.

iPad Pro 13 inch, no earbuds of any kind attached. Power off/on seems to be the only solution, but it is an incredibly intrusive solution. for what it’s worth, when dictation stops working, after the power on reset, I am asked to enable Wi-Fi calling, which had been enabled before the dictation failure; this has happened two out of two times.

This needs to be fixed immediately

Same here. Using newest iPad Pro and keyboard. Only a shutdown/restart temporally fixes it. Frustrating.

RE: "Apple, fix this please/"

We are all Apple users, like yourself, in this community, and Apple is unlikely to see your post here. The more feedback Apple receives on an issue, the more likely we'll see an update addressing that issue: (All feedback is carefully read, and logged.)

Website for hardware and software feedback:: Product Feedback - Apple

Hosed for me across the whole range of mic-enabled apps. ChatGPT, Siri, Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime, and Discord. The Orange bubble pops up but no sound comes through. Shutdown / Restart does not fix it nor does a factory rest. Siri and the rest work when my AirPods are connected once disconnected the built-in microphone does not work.

I use the mic quite a bit to talk to my computer - how in 2025 are you breaking basic device functionality with a dot upgrade? Come on.

This happened to me as well after 18.4 update and still in 18.4.1. Shutting down iPhone and restarting fixes it for a short time. I use keyboards dictation all the time, so this is really annoying.

Somehow there seem to be comments here suggesting it is something to do with earpods - but this issue is when using the built in microphone or any microphone so nothing to do with earpods.

I think there is probably more than one bug being discussed here.

There are two bugs that I experience consistently on my iPad in Apple's Notes and Mail apps, and in the Ulysses app that I have used for a couple of years for writing. These bugs also show up in the same apps on my Mac.

The first is that after a while, the dictation will simply stop working for more than one sentence or phrase at a time. If you get to a point where you have to pause, it will not continue after that without the app being restarted.

The second one is what I call a showstopper. Dictating text and then touching the undo icon at the top left corner of the keyboard will crash the apps instantly. I can do this at will easily. I’m certain that it is a system problem. It’s been around for a couple of years in versions 17 and 18 of iPadOS.

There is a third bug which I’ve seen other people describe here as well but I’ve only experienced once. Basically, dictation simply doesn’t work in some situation that I haven’t been able to pin down. Most of the time, including for this post which I’m also dictating, dictation works well enough for me to use extensively in all the writing I do. I’m aware of the bugs and I know how to work around them until they get fixed.

The complexity of dictation software is beyond me. I don’t think I can even imagine how complex it is. The fact that it works as well as it does still amazes me. I remember what dictation was like 30 years ago in the 1990s and compared to that, this is wonderful. So I’m willing to put up with the bugs and work around them but I’d love it if they could be fixed.

just to point out, this whole post was dictated in around five minutes with no interruptions or problems on my iPad Air running the most current version of iPadOS 18.4.

"I may have fixed this bug by turning Apple Intelligence (a misnomer, it seems) off."

Sadly not. It is still happening even with AI turned off!

I THINK this is fixed now. I have not experienced the issue in 18.5

Re: "iPad Pro m4 microphone keeps disconnecting after the 18.4 update.

I restarted my iPad but after awhile mic still stop working."

Ummm ..

is this connected to the dictation-situation we are discussing in this thread?

If so: can only suggest you send feedback to Apple using link provided above.

If not: Suggesting you use the "Ask the community" link to create a new thread on the mic disconnection-situation, so you receive replies from the community.

Apple support have many articles online that may be helpful:

Eg: Change settings for AirPods Pro 1 and 2 - Apple Support

says:

"Your AirPods Pro automatically stop playing audio when you take them off, and resume playback when you put them back on. You can change this setting.

1. Wear your AirPods, and make sure they’re connected to your device.
2. Do one of the following:

• • iPhone or iPad: Go to Settings , tap the name of your AirPods near the top of the screen, then turn Automatic Ear Detection on or off.
• Mac: Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click the name of your AirPods in the sidebar, then turn “Automatic ear detection” on or off."