8 Best Ways to Fix “iPhone Dictation Not Working” on iOS 16 (2023)

Your iPhone has a powerful speech-to-text feature called “Dictation” that transcribes everything you say into the microphone. This feature is incredibly useful when your hands are busy with a task and you need to shoot a quick text. However, users often report problems with this feature, especially after updating to iOS 16. In this article, we bring you the top 8 methods to fix the “iPhone dictation not working problem” on iOS 16.

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Check the microphone

A malfunctioning microphone is the most likely reason why iPhone Dictation stopped working out of the blue. To check your iPhone’s microphone, send a voice note to a friend on any messaging app like WhatsApp and listen to it. If you can’t make out what you said, or if your voice is muffled, it’s probably your microphone that’s at fault. Since speech-to-text relies heavily on receiving voice input through a microphone, it might have stopped working properly due to a broken microphone. Take your iPhone to a service center and have the microphone repaired.

Make sure dictation is enabled

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Here’s how you can check if dictation is enabled on your iPhone. Use this fix if you can’t see the microphone icon on your keyboard at all.

Step 1: Go to Settings and select General.

Step 2: Select ‘Keyboard’.

Step 3: Turn on the switch for “Enable Dictation”. Confirm your choice in the pop-up window.

Restart Siri

Restarting Siri can fix some temporary glitches your iPhone may be facing.

Step 1: Go to Settings and select “Siri & Search”.

Step 2: Turn off all the switch bars and then turn them back on.

Add a dictation language

If you’re dictating in a language that’s not enabled on the Apple Keyboard, it won’t be able to recognize it. Simply enable the language in Apple Keyboard and try again. Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Go to Settings and select General.

Step 2: Select Keyboard.

Step 3: Tap on ‘Keyboard’.

Step 4: Select “Add New Keyboard…”

Step 5: Add the language you want to dictate.

Step 6: Go back to Settings>General>Keyboard and click on “Dictation Languages”.

Step 7: Select the languages ​​that the dictation function should recognize.

Reset network settings

You need an active and stable internet connection for Dictation to work. The microphone icon for Dictation will be grayed out when your iPhone is not connected to the Internet. Sometimes your iPhone may be connected to Wi-Fi or running on cellular data, but the microphone icon may be grayed out. This means that there is something wrong with the network. To fix this, you can try resetting your iPhone’s network settings. Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Go to Settings and select General.

Step 2: Scroll down and select “Transfer or reset iPhone”.

Step 3: Select “Reset” and then “Reset Network Settings”.

Make sure Siri and Dictation are not restricted

Use this fix if you can’t see the microphone icon on your keyboard at all.

Step 1: Go to Settings and select Screen Time.

Step 2: Tap “Content & Privacy Restrictions”.

Step 3: Select “Allowed Apps” and make sure the toggle bar for Siri and Dictation is turned on.

Turn off low power mode

When your iPhone’s battery level drops below a certain threshold, the low power mode will automatically turn on. Some features of your iPhone may stop working in low power mode. If Dictation is one of them, you can try turning off the low power mode. Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Go to Settings and select Battery.

Step 2: Turn off the switch for low power mode.

Update your iOS version

Some functions of your iPhone can often experience unexpected problems due to bugs and other glitches. These issues are quickly fixed in the next update. Simply go to Settings>General>Software Update to update the software version.

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Conclusion

These are the top 8 methods to fix the “iPhone Dictation not working” problem on iOS 16. If the problem persists after trying all these fixes, try doing a factory reset on your iPhone. Make sure you have backed up all your personal data as a factory reset will completely erase your phone’s memory. If you found this article helpful, let us know in the comments!

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