Flow fails to detect text fields or inserts incorrectly on non-QWERTY keyboard layouts

If dictation produces no text, inserts in the wrong place, or shows “Update admin settings to paste!”, use the recovery steps for your platform. Mac pasting follows your active keyboard layout; Windows pasting is layout-independent.

Recover text on Mac or Windows

Flow only inserts into a focused field. When insertion fails, a popup can show your transcript with “Select a textbox first, then dictate” and a Copy button that places the transcript on your clipboard. Your clipboard is unchanged when no popup appears, so an empty clipboard does not prove transcription failed.

1. Click the intended editable text field, and keep it selected — changing focus during dictation can send text to the wrong place.

2. Paste with Cmd+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows) if the recovery popup appeared.

3. Use Paste Last Text if needed: Cmd+Ctrl+V (Mac) or Shift+Alt+Z (Windows), unless customized. Without a shortcut, choose Paste last transcript from Flow's menu-bar or system-tray menu; it is unavailable when no transcript is stored.

4. Release every shortcut key to trigger the paste, and retry the shortcut if it was interrupted.

5. Check the field after each paste and stop when your words appear. For plain text instead, use Copy Last Text: Cmd+Ctrl+C (Mac) or Shift+Alt+X (Windows), then paste into the field.

Paste Last Text retries and formats cancelled, failed, or unformatted dictations before pasting; otherwise it pastes the stored text. Retry is blocked while dictating and requires available audio no older than 14 days. Missing or unusable audio, or an unsuccessful retry, can leave nothing to paste.

Recover text on Android

When insertion fails, Flow copies the transcript, offers Paste in the Flow Bubble, and saves the transcription in history. Copied transcripts are marked sensitive so Android's clipboard should not preview them.

1. Select the intended text field. The bubble stays visible only with a focused field.

2. Tap the bubble's Paste button to attempt insertion again.

3. Paste manually if text is still missing: long-press the field and tap Paste.

Stop after any attempt that inserts your words. If the bubble's retry fails, Flow says “Failed to paste text. It is still on your clipboard.” The paste error clears after eight inactive seconds, during another attempt, or when you tap the Wispr icon; none of these clears the clipboard. While the error shows, the bubble's body cannot start dictation, but Paste and the Wispr icon stay tappable. “Nothing to copy” means no recent transcript exists.

Field restrictions and privacy

• Sensitive fields: Flow refuses insertion into password, credit-card, numeric, and phone-number fields and copies the transcript instead; the bubble is normally hidden there, though system notification reply boxes can still show it.

• Text privacy: Flow does not read existing text, hints, or field descriptions from sensitive fields, URL fields, or recognized banking apps.

• Address bars: URL and address bars remain insertable, but Chrome's address bar can reject insertion and trigger clipboard recovery.

• Banking apps: recognized banking and payment apps silently hide the Flow Bubble; unrecognized apps lack this app-wide protection, but sensitive-field restrictions still apply.

• Chat and AI apps: in certain chat, social, and AI apps, including WhatsApp and Telegram, Flow treats insertion as successful when the app cannot return the field's text. Elsewhere, an unconfirmed insertion can trigger clipboard recovery even when text landed.

• Additional recovery: depending on your device, insertion can fall back to the clipboard for non-editable fields, unfinished insertion, or over 100,000 existing characters — not dictation length. Exactly 100,000 does not exceed this cap; an unreadable length also triggers fallback. This recovery writes only into a field confirmed empty and leaves existing text untouched.

• Lost focus and split screen: where this recovery applies, Flow can find the starting field after rotation only while its app stays in the foreground and exactly one editable field matches; unidentified apps, or fields belonging to neither the starting nor the current foreground app, trigger clipboard fallback.

If it is not an insertion failure

On Mac, Windows, and Android, if no audio was captured, Flow shows a no-audio or short-press notice and never attempts a paste. Hold the shortcut while speaking, and use Retry, Select microphone, or Troubleshoot when a notice offers them.

On Android, “Failed to transcribe. Saved in the app.” and “Taking longer than usual. Your audio is saved in the app.” both mean the recording is recoverable from history. Transcription retry requires the saved audio file; tapping the Wispr icon on a failed-transcription error starts a new dictation instead of dismissing it.

On desktop, a failure notice's Retry retries and pastes into the current field. A retry in History updates that row without pasting into the field.

Still stuck?

Contact support if manual recovery fails or the administrator notice remains after relaunching Flow.

1. Open Help (?) → Talk to support in the signed-in desktop app. The dialog opens on Report an issue with Issue selected under Request Type.

2. Describe your platform, device, keyboard layout, target app, notification, and steps tried in the single description box.

3. Attach an optional screenshot: one image file, up to 10 MB.

4. Submit with Send message, Cmd+Enter (Mac), or Ctrl+Enter (Windows). Signed-in submissions include app logs; if sending fails, Flow copies your message to the clipboard so you can try again.