Listening, but typing nowhere?
Dictation has two halves that fail separately. One permission lets the app hear you, a different one lets it type and the text always lands wherever the keyboard focus already was, which is why so much of it seems to vanish.
Independent guide not affiliated with Meta. Every check here happens in System Settings or the app; nothing needs downloading.
Two permissions, two completely different failures
Microphone is the obvious one. Without it the app hears nothing: the waveform stays flat, no words appear anywhere, and dictation looks comprehensively broken. macOS asks for this the first time you try, so it is usually granted.
Accessibility is the one people miss, because it fails in a way that looks like success. Dictation still hears you perfectly and the transcription still happens but the app has no way to put characters into someone else's window, so the words can only land in Meta AI's own chat box. Speak into Mail with Accessibility off and you will find your sentence sitting in the chat panel instead.
Heard nothing? Microphone. Heard you, typed nothing? Accessibility. That one split tells you which Settings pane to open.
Both are in System Settings → Privacy & Security, both are per-app, and this catches almost everyone macOS reads them when the app launches. Granting either one to a copy that is already running changes nothing until you quit with ⌘Q and reopen. Closing the window is not quitting; Meta AI keeps running without one. The same pairing governs window sharing, and permissions and privacy explains what else each one grants.
The 60-second fix
In order. The third step is the one that makes the first two count, and it is the one almost everyone skips.
Turn on Microphone access
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone, and switch Meta AI on. Nothing else matters until this is true.
Turn on Accessibility too
Same pane list, further down. This is what lets dictated text reach apps other than Meta AI itself. Why the two differ.
Quit with ⌘Q and reopen
macOS reads both permissions at launch. Granting them to a running app does nothing until it restarts, and closing the window does not end the process.
Check which microphone is selected
System Settings → Sound → Input. Speak normally and watch the level meter. No movement means the wrong device. Sorting out the input.
Click where you want the words first
Put the cursor in the document, then start dictating. Text goes to whatever has keyboard focus, not to the window you happen to be looking at.
Close whatever else is using the mic
A video call, a recorder, even a browser tab that asked for the microphone earlier. On Bluetooth headsets this also forces a low-quality audio mode.
Check nothing else claimed the shortcut
Launchers and macOS's own dictation hotkey compete for the same keys. Shortcut conflicts explains how to find out which.
Try the built-in microphone once
Even on a Mac across the room it usually transcribes better than a headset in call mode. If accuracy jumps, you have found the problem. More on accuracy.
Still nothing after all eight? It may not be dictation specifically the general checklist covers app-wide failures, and the dictation guide covers how the feature is meant to behave when it is healthy.
What you are seeing, and what causes it
Ten failures cover nearly everything reported. Two of them are not faults they are the feature doing exactly what it was designed to do.
| What you see | Usual cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Waveform stays flat, nothing transcribed | No microphone access | Grant Microphone in Privacy & Security, then quit and reopen. |
| It hears you, but nothing is typed | No Accessibility | Grant Accessibility as well. Until then the words only reach the chat box. |
| Text appears in the Meta AI panel, not your document | No Accessibility | Same cause, clearer tell. The two-permission split. |
| Nothing appears anywhere you can find | Focus elsewhere | Look in the last field you clicked. Click into the target first, then speak. |
| Level meter moves in Sound, but not in the app | Another app holds the mic | Quit the video call or recorder, then try again. |
| Accuracy collapsed when you put headphones on | Bluetooth call mode | Switch input back to the built-in microphone. Why this happens. |
| It types a few words then stops | Focus changed mid-sentence | Clicking or switching apps while speaking moves the target. Finish, then move. |
| The shortcut does nothing | Key already claimed | A launcher or macOS dictation has it. Change one of the two. |
| Two things respond to one key press | Both dictations enabled | macOS dictation and Meta AI's are separate features. Turn one off. |
| It will not type into a password field | Blocked by macOS | Secure fields reject synthesised keystrokes by design. Nothing to fix. |
Where your dictated text actually went
System-wide dictation types into the frontmost text field, exactly as though you were pressing the keys yourself. There is no picker and no target selection the cursor is the target. Start speaking while the Meta AI panel still has focus and the sentence lands there. Start speaking with a Finder window in front and it lands nowhere, because nothing there accepts text.
The order that always works: click into the field, check the cursor is blinking in it, then start dictating.
This is also why dictation appears to “stop mid-sentence”. Clicking somewhere else while you are still speaking moves the target, so the first half of the sentence is in one place and the second half is in another. It is worth checking the obvious suspects before assuming the words are gone: the chat box, the last document you had open, and the search field you clicked on the way past.
Two places will refuse text no matter what you do. Password and other secure fields reject synthesised keystrokes at the system level that is macOS protecting you, and no permission changes it. Some apps that draw their own text areas rather than using the standard ones can behave unpredictably too, which is a limitation of the approach rather than a bug in this app. The dictation guide covers which everyday apps work smoothly.
The Mac is listening to something else
Permissions get all the attention, but a surprising share of “dictation is broken” is simply the wrong input device, or another app holding the one you wanted.
Start at Sound, not the app
System Settings → Sound → Input is the honest test. If that meter is still while you talk, the problem is macOS-level and nothing in Meta AI can compensate.
Headsets are a downgrade, not an upgrade
Using Bluetooth earbuds as a microphone drops the whole connection to a narrow call profile. It sounds worse to the transcriber than the Mac's own mic across the room.
One app at a time, in practice
A video call, a screen recorder or a browser tab that grabbed the mic earlier can keep it. Quitting that app not just muting it hands the input back.
When it types, but types the wrong words
Poor accuracy is a different problem from dictation not working, and it responds to different fixes. The transcriber is only as good as the audio reaching it, and the two things that degrade that audio most are the ones people reach for first: a Bluetooth headset, and a noisy room.
The headset point is worth repeating because it is counter-intuitive. When macOS uses Bluetooth earbuds as an input, it switches the connection to a call profile with a fraction of the bandwidth you can hear the change in your own music. The Mac's built-in microphone array, even a metre or two away, usually gives the transcriber something cleaner to work with.
If accuracy suddenly collapsed and nothing else changed, check whether something put your headphones into call mode.
Beyond that, the ordinary things help: speak at a normal pace rather than slowly and deliberately, say punctuation out loud where you want it, and give proper nouns their own beat. Names, technical terms and anything the model has no context for are where errors concentrate, and no setting changes that it is worth dictating the prose and typing the acronyms. If a language you speak is producing consistently poor results, check availability, since language support and country rollout do not always match.
One more thing worth ruling out: macOS has its own dictation, with its own shortcut and its own transcription engine. If both are enabled you may be using the other one without realising, and comparing results between two systems you did not know were different. They are separate features with separate settings, and there is no harm in turning one off while you work out which is which.
Dictation questions
Why does dictation hear nothing at all?
Either Meta AI does not have the Microphone permission, or macOS is listening to a different input device than you expect. Check Privacy & Security → Microphone first, then Sound → Input, and watch the level meter move while you speak. Diagnosing the input.
It hears me but nothing gets typed. Why?
That is Accessibility. Microphone lets the app hear you; Accessibility is what lets it type into other applications. Without it the transcription still happens, but the words can only land in Meta AI's own chat box which is exactly where people find them. The split explained.
Where did my dictated text actually go?
Wherever the keyboard focus was. Dictation types into the frontmost text field, so if you started speaking before clicking into the document, it went to whatever had focus at that moment often the chat box or a search field you passed on the way. More on this.
Why did dictation stop working after I granted the permission?
It never started, rather than stopped. macOS reads these permissions when an app launches, so granting one to a running copy changes nothing until you quit with ⌘Q and reopen. Closing the window does not quit the app.
Why is accuracy so much worse on my AirPods?
When a Bluetooth headset is used as a microphone, macOS switches it to a low-bandwidth call profile and audio quality drops sharply. The Mac's built-in microphone almost always transcribes better, even from a distance. Why, in more detail.
Nothing happens when I press the dictation shortcut.
Another app has claimed the same combination. Launchers such as Raycast and Alfred, and macOS's own dictation shortcut, are the usual culprits. Change one of the two and the key starts working the shortcuts guide walks through finding the offender.
Is Meta AI dictation the same as the dictation built into macOS?
No. They are separate features with separate settings, separate shortcuts and different transcription behind them. Both can be enabled at once, which is itself a common source of confusion when two things respond to one key press.
Why will it not type into my password field?
Secure text fields reject synthesised keystrokes at the system level. That is macOS protecting you rather than the app failing, and there is no permission or setting that changes it. Type passwords by hand.
It types a few words and then stops.
Almost always the focus moved. Clicking into another window or app mid-sentence redirects the rest of the text there, so the sentence ends up split across two places. Finish the thought, then move.
Does dictation work in the browser version?
Not the system-wide kind. Typing into other Mac apps needs permissions a web page cannot request, so this is one of the genuine reasons to have the app installed desktop versus web sets out the rest of the difference.
Heard nothing, or typed nothing?
Those are two different problems with two different fixes. Work out which one you have and the rest takes about a minute.
Independent guide not affiliated with Meta. Everything on this page happens in System Settings and the app itself; if you do need to reinstall, the installer comes only from Meta's official site.