Troubleshooting

Most problems with Dictate come down to a permission that is off or a device that is not the one you expect. This guide takes the symptoms one by one and names what to check.

No text appears after a dictation

Open History from the menu first. When the text is there Dictate heard you and the insertion failed. When History holds no new row the model heard nothing or the dictation was too short or silent. Read the microphone section below in that case.

On macOS the insertion needs the Accessibility permission. Without it Dictate cannot post the paste keystroke. Dictate then puts the text on the clipboard and shows a message with an Open Settings button and keeps the text in History. Open System Settings and Privacy and Security and Accessibility and switch Dictate on.

Some apps refuse a paste from another process. Terminals and remote desktop windows and some password fields do this. Open Settings and the General group and switch the insertion mode to Type key by key. Dictate then types the text one character at a time and no clipboard is involved.

The hotkeys do nothing

On macOS the hotkey listener needs the Accessibility permission on the current system and the Input Monitoring permission on macOS 14 and 15. Open Settings and look at the Hotkeys group. A sentence under the two rows names the permission that is off and an Open Settings button opens the right pane. Switch Dictate on there. The listener starts at launch so a grant made while Dictate runs needs a restart. The Settings window shows a Restart button when it detects the new grant. The menu entry Start listening works meanwhile.

On Windows the hotkeys work while any app has focus and need no permission. When they stop working another app may hold a global hook that swallows the key. Quit that app or change the Dictate key in Settings.

While the trial has ended or the license has stopped the hotkeys do nothing by design. The first press shows the dialog once and every later press is silent. The License and trial guide explains it.

The microphone is silent

On macOS Dictate needs the Microphone permission. The system prompt shows on the first capture. When you clicked Do not allow open System Settings and Privacy and Security and Microphone and switch Dictate on. Dictate shows a message with an Open Settings button when it finds the permission off.

Check the device. Open Settings and the General group. The microphone list shows every input device the system knows and System default at the top. Pick the one you speak into. A headset that is muted or a monitor microphone across the room both produce silence. When the chosen device is unplugged Dictate falls back to the system default for that dictation.

Hold the key for at least a third of a second and speak at a normal volume. A tap records nothing and a silent hold inserts nothing by design.

The download stopped

The connection to huggingface.co dropped or a firewall blocks it. Check that your browser reaches huggingface.co. Then open Settings and the Speech group and click Download again. Dictate removed the partial files so the download starts from the beginning. It does not retry on its own.

Dictate could not run the speech model

The model files on disk are damaged or incomplete. Open Settings and the Speech group and click Remove next to the model and then Download. A fresh copy fixes it.

The key is refused

The sentence that this key does not cover Dictate means the key comes from a purchase that is not the x4ops subscription. The x4ops subscription covers every x4ops app. Write to support@x4ops.com with your receipt when a key from the x4ops subscription does not open Dictate.

The sentence that every seat is taken means the key is active on 3 computers already. Click Remove license on one of them. The sentence that the key is unknown means a typing error or a refunded key. Paste it again from the email. The sentence that Dictate could not reach the server means the computer is offline or a firewall blocks license.x4ops.com.

Dictate does not start

On macOS the first open shows a message that macOS cannot verify the app. Right click Dictate in Applications and choose Open or use Open Anyway under Privacy and Security. On Windows SmartScreen shows Windows protected your PC. Click More info and then Run anyway. When Dictate shows the message that it cannot start on this computer write to support with the log.

Send a report to support

Write to support@x4ops.com with the version from the About line in Settings and your platform and what you did and what happened. Attach the log file dictate.log from the Dictate folder. On macOS that is the folder named com.x4ops.dictate under Application Support in your Library folder. On Windows it is %LOCALAPPDATA%\x4ops\Dictate. The log holds no transcript text.