Can't get dictation to work in W10, how can I get this working?

[ex-egaa]

Can't get dictation to work in W10

Hi, I have just installed Win 10, had problems with Outlook so did a Hard Reset, this fixed the problem. I then downloaded an update so now running 10.0.10586.164.

All seems to be working OK except that I can not use Voice to Text dictation. I have Cortana enabled, and there is a microphone on the bar to the right of "Ask me Anything", there is also a Microphone on the keyboard.

I have tried with English UK, English US and English Canada, but I can't get dictation to work.In Cortan, pushing the Microphone will clear the screen and display "Hey What's on Your Mind?", on the keyboard it will show "Try Again" instead of "Listening".

The microphone does work, as I can make calls and record voice using it. Is there anything else that needs setting up?

Thanks

 

[dorelse]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

Hmm...I didn't have anything else to do...it just worked for me.

 

[ADBB]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

The microphone does work, as I can make calls and record voice using it. Is there anything else that needs setting up?

Thanks

Is this something to do with Cortana not working in most regions? What region are you in?

 

[Deepak]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

It has nothing to do with Cortana. Voice dictation is a separate feature. You should use your region's language itself. Don't experiment with other languages. It won't make any difference. This issue is probably a bug. You may try this:- go to Settings > Time and language > keyboard. Remove the installed keyboard. If you have only one keyboard installed then first install another English keyboard then remove the current one. And install it again. Remember your keyboard and speech language should match your Region for the voice dictation to work. This might fix your issue. Else maybe,..... ahem,.... you'll need to hard reset your phone again. If you do, then don't restore your cloud backup.

 

[ex-egaa]

Thanks for the replies.

Deepak, I did as you suggested and it partially worked! I now have working voice access with Cortana, but I have lost the microphone icon on the keyboard! I will probably do a hard reset as I am sure I have confused the poor phone with all my "experimenting".

Thanks for the input, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[pratikgurlani]

I've been facing the same issue.. Seems like the problem is with keyboard's voice dictation feature.. It fails every time and says "try again".. No workaround I've found till now...
I'm using W10 Insider preview build .164 on L720.

 

[ex-egaa]

OK, seems the reason that I only partly fixed the problem was because I only partially followed Deepak's instructions! I had not made my region the same as my keyboard, I had English(US) for the keyboard and English(Canada) for the Region. Once I switched them both to English(Canada) all was well!

Thank you Deepak for providing the answer

Barry

 

[Deepak]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

Happy to help!

 

[pratikgurlani]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

Not for me actually..
I have everything set as suggested by Deepak..
Region: India
Language: English (India)
Keyboard: English (India) [Only 1 English keyboard installed]
Speech: English (India)

Still the issue persists..
Sad that is..
L720 W10m build .164

 

[Deepak]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

Not for me actually..
I have everything set as suggested by Deepak..
Region: India
Language: English (India)
Keyboard: English (India) [Only 1 English keyboard installed]
Speech: English (India)

Still the issue persists..
Sad that is..
L720 W10m build .164

Check if you have this enabled:-
Settings > Time and language > Keyboard > More keyboard settings > Show the dictation button. Maybe you have it unchecked. Check it and the mic button might reappear.

If, after this, it still doesn't show up, then try hard reset. Btw, before hard resetting, try removing the Eng (Ind) keyboard, restart and then again install it. Else, hard reset.

I too have set everything to India and it works flawlessly on my Lumia 830.

 

[vampirevaz]

The Show the dictation button is not highlighted for me. I have the same settings in L1520 and just updated to WP10 official

 

[Rinsun]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

Deepak,I too do not have voice dictation after upgrading to W10 public release.I tried out all your suggestions including hard reset.But nothing is working.I am from India with everything set to India .Cortana shows my interests.She also shows my reminders which I can set from my laptop.On 8.1 Cortana worked fine with English UK speech,other settings India.Feeling inconvenienced as I used Cortana a lot for setting my reminders and alarms .W10 mobile calendar has only events,no reminder or task option.

Edit : I was on English India for speech.(default.) on W10 mobile On Windows 8.1 I had English UK for speech so that I could get Cortana working in India.I downloaded English UK again yesterday and set it to my default speech language and voice dictation started working.Then I reverted back to English India default speech language . Voice dictation is working fine. But Cortana keeps on crashing and I cannot get her to speak or set my reminders or alarms.

 

[ex-egaa]

After "playing" around with Windows 10, I decided to do a hard reset of the phone so I could set it up from a clean baseline.

Again I ran into the problem with no dictation button. All the permutations and combinations I tried before failed. I noticed that the "Show the dictation button" under Settings, time & language, Keyboard, More keyboard settings was grayed out. This would explain why I couldn't use it!

A little more searching pulled up an item from the Microsoft site Windows 10 speech, inking, typing, and privacy: FAQ - Microsoft Windows

This says that:
"You must have "Getting to know" you turned on if you want to use Cortana and dictation. Both services allow you to use speech commands in the cloud as well as on your device. If you turn off Getting to know you that also turns off Cortana and dictation (you?ll still be able to use Narrator and Speech Recognition on your device)."

I went to Settings Privacy, Speech Inking & Typing, Get to know me and turned it on. The dictation button can now be selected and dictation works.

I am not too happy at having to allow microsoft access to information on contacts, recent calendar events etc. to be able to use dictation, just one more chance for Big Brother to watch over us if we choose to use a function on the phone I guess.

 

[Rinsun]

My dictation option was selected and my 'getting to know me 'is also turned on .Cortana shows and reminds me on my mobile with whatever I set from my laptop where she works flawlessly with same language speech...etc settings.Voice dictation is also working but I cannot give voice commands to Cortana nor can I type reminders etc for Cortana in the app on my mobile.Hard reset with clean install did not help.Cortana also crashes randomly.

 

[pratikgurlani]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

The "Show the Dictation" button is checked on. Removing the English (India) keyboard, restarting and adding it again doesn't do a fresh install again. It just re-enables it.
The issue still persists. Not considering the hard reset for now. I'm fed up doing it again and again.

Edit: As Rinsun did, I downloaded the English (UK) and made it default and guess what, the voice recognition started working again. I made English (India) default again and Speech to text is working fine now. TYSM Rinsun.
But same issue I am facing. Cortana crashes more often. Cant add a reminder from phone.

 

[Rinsun]

Re: Can't get dictation to work in W10

Hi pratikgurlani,happy that your speech to text is working.I too was fed up of hard resets but now I have got everything working.This is what I did-
I am on .218 but not on insider(Lumia 535DS) and had same issues inspite of hard reset.I did another hard reset and a clean install a few days back and after all the apps installed I downloaded English UK for speech though I did not set it as my default.Just before installing English UK my Speech to text showed 'try again',but just after downloading and installing it but leaving English India as default 'speech to text' started working though I did not change English India as my default speech language at any stage.Next I set up Cortana and it's working fine.I don't know why this happened but it worked for me.I had Cortana on English UK speech when I was on Windows 8.1 though everything else was set to India because there was no other way according to Microsoft we in India could get it to work.I am happy with my phone now with everything set to India and working flawlessly.I don't know if it will work for you though this time.
I was really dreading another hard reset but decided to try it one last time and paying attention to the speech languages before I did any third party app install and other things.
I sincerely hope you get Cortana working soon like me.