Retry failed transcriptions

Desktop (Mac and Windows)

Audio is saved to your history in parallel with transcription when recording ends. If transcription fails, the audio is typically still stored and available for retry.

What you see when transcription fails:

1. The Flow Bar briefly flashes red (about half a second), then disappears.

2. A notification appears: "Something's not right — Transcript failed to load. You can always recover it from History."

3. The notification includes two buttons:

   1. Retry — attempts to recover and paste the transcript from your saved data.

   2. Open History — opens the Hub home page where you can retry later.

If transcription is taking a while, you may see a "Taking longer than usual… Your audio is saved for retrying" notification. This means Flow is still working on it, and your audio is safe either way. The notification includes a Don't show again button.

When paste fails on desktop: Flow leaves the dictated text on your clipboard. Press Cmd+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows) to paste it manually anywhere. On Mac, after a successful paste, your original clipboard contents (from before dictation) are automatically restored a moment later — so the dictated text only persists on the clipboard when paste failed.

Other error notifications:

• "No internet connection": Check your network and try again.

• "Is your microphone muted?" or "We couldn't hear you": Includes Select microphone and Troubleshoot buttons, and shows the name of the mic that had the issue.

• "Microphone disconnected": Click Insert to recover any partial text transcribed before the mic disconnected.

• "Unable to access mic": Click Restart App and try again.

• "No microphone detected": Flow couldn't find a connected or available microphone. Click Open Sound Settings to open your OS sound device panel (Windows Recording tab / macOS Sound > Input).

• "Selected microphone is unavailable": The microphone you previously selected has been disconnected. Click Choose Microphone to select a different one.

• "Microphone unavailable": Another app may be using your microphone, or your audio driver needs attention. Click Troubleshoot for help.

• "Microphone error": An unexpected problem occurred accessing your microphone. Click Troubleshoot for help.

Retrying from history:

• Failed transcripts: On the Hub home page, failed transcripts show a Retry your [duration] transcription link.

• Menu option: All transcripts have a Retry transcript option in the ⋯ menu.

• Download audio: Download the original audio (.wav) from the same menu. Download audio is greyed out for recordings older than 14 days.

• Retention window: Retry is available for recordings less than 14 days old and at least 5 seconds long.

• Long retries: For recordings over 2 minutes, an estimated wait time appears during retry (approximately 4 seconds of processing per minute of audio).

• Dismissed transcripts: These show a Recover link instead of Retry, and don't require a 5-second minimum duration.

iOS

Audio is written to your device continuously during recording, even while streaming is active. Your audio file is safely stored on disk regardless of network connection, and persists until you manually delete it.

Error messages during onboarding setup dictation: The following messages appear during the onboarding setup dictation steps (not in the regular Flow Keyboard). If a setup dictation attempt fails, a message appears at the top of the screen explaining what went wrong:

• "Oops, we didn't hear you.. Get closer to your mic and try again!": Flow didn't pick up any audio. Move closer to your microphone and tap the mic to try again.

• "Poor connection! Tap the mic to try again": A network issue prevented transcription. Check your connection and tap the mic to retry.

• "Your mic is being used by another app. Close other apps and try again!": Another app has taken over your microphone. Close other apps and tap the mic to try again.

• "Enable microphone access to use Flow": Flow doesn't have permission to use your microphone. Go to your device settings and grant Flow microphone access.

• "Oops, something went wrong.. Tap the mic to try again!": An unexpected error occurred. Tap the mic to try again.

In the regular Flow Keyboard: Outside onboarding, the keyboard surfaces three states after a dictation:

• Silent audio: Shows "Audio was silent" along with a support button.

• Error or cancelled: Shows a retry icon button.

• Successful dictation: Shows the remaining word count.

How to retry: If a transcription fails, you'll see a retry option in one of these places:

• Keyboard toolbar: A retry button appears directly in the Flow Keyboard toolbar after an error or cancelled transcription.

• History: Retry a specific past transcription from your transcription history. The updated transcript appears immediately after the retry completes — no app restart needed.

• More retry paths from history: You can also retry from history via swipe-left, the long-press context menu, or by tapping directly on an empty or failed transcription row. While retrying, a "Retrying..." toast appears, and any existing transcript text is shown with a placeholder or blurred effect until the retry completes.

Android

Audio is recorded as a WAV file to internal storage. When transcription fails, the audio file is saved with a "transcription failed" status and a toast appears: "Failed to transcribe. Saved in the app."

How to retry: The Flow Bubble shows different options depending on what went wrong:

• Transcription failed: A Retry button appears on the bubble. Tap it to re-send the saved audio. You can also tap the Wispr icon on the error bubble to start a fresh dictation session.

• Text insertion failed: Flow automatically tries to insert the text up to 5 times, with increasing delays between attempts (75ms, 150ms, 300ms, 600ms). If insertion still fails, Flow copies your dictated text to your clipboard and the Flow Bubble shows a Paste action button (with a checkmark icon). Tap Paste to re-attempt insertion, or tap the Wispr icon on the error bubble to dismiss the error while keeping your text on the clipboard. You can also long-press in any text field and select Paste to insert your dictation manually.

When you tap Retry, an animated "Retrying..." spinner appears on the bubble. If an authentication error occurs during retry, the app refreshes your credentials automatically and tries again (up to 3 attempts). If the audio file has been cleaned up due to storage rotation, the bubble returns to its ready state.

Retries after a connectivity loss correctly track how the original dictation was started — for example, Push-to-Talk or Press Once — so your usage history stays accurate.

You can also retry from the home screen. Failed transcription cards show a Retry Transcript option in the ⋯ menu. If retry fails from the home screen, you'll see a message explaining why: audio file missing, audio file not found, or a general retry failure.

Retrying after a network drop on desktop

You finish dictating a long paragraph, but your Wi-Fi briefly drops. The Flow Bar flashes red and a notification appears. Click Retry on the notification — Flow re-sends the saved audio and inserts the transcribed text.

Retrying from history on iOS

You dictate a message while walking, and it fails because you entered an area with no signal. Later, when you're back online, open your transcription history, find the failed entry, and tap Retry. The original audio is re-submitted, transcribed, and the result appears immediately in your history.

Recovering text when insertion fails on Android

A transcription succeeds but the text can't be inserted into the target app, even after automatic retries. Flow copies the text to your clipboard and the Flow Bubble shows a Paste action button. Tap Paste to re-attempt insertion, or long-press in any text field and select Paste to insert your dictated text.

On Mac or Windows, dismissing the paste-failed error left old clipboard contents instead of the dictated text

This was caused by a timing issue where previous clipboard contents could be restored over the transcription when Flow fell back to clipboard copy. Flow now detects when the previous clipboard contents were pasted instead of the transcription and writes the transcription back to the clipboard, then shows the failure notification. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

On Android, the error bubble stayed on screen indefinitely after a failed transcription or paste

This was caused by the bubble having no auto-dismiss behavior. The error bubble now auto-dismisses after a short period of inactivity, and you can also tap the Wispr icon to dismiss it immediately. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

On iOS, retrying a transcription didn't update the History view without restarting the app

This was caused by the History view not refreshing after a successful retry. The History view now updates immediately when a retry completes. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

Dictation failed silently during iOS setup with no message explaining what went wrong

This was caused by missing error feedback during the initial setup dictation steps on iOS. Flow now shows a message at the top of the screen describing the specific problem (such as no audio detected, poor connection, or microphone in use) and what to do next. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

Dictation showed "Listening" but then failed with a transcription error, even though the microphone wasn't working

This was caused by a bug where microphone access failures were misreported as transcription errors. Flow now dismisses the dictation session immediately when a microphone can't be accessed, and shows a specific notification explaining the problem with a relevant action button. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

Clicking Retry while dictating stopped the recording or caused data loss

This was caused by a bug where clicking Retry on a history item while actively dictating could interrupt and destroy the in-progress recording. The Retry menu item is now disabled during active dictation, and a "Cannot retry while dictating" toast appears if you attempt it. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

An error notification from a previous session appeared at the start of a new dictation

This was caused by a bug where error notifications from a previous dictation session could persist into a new one. Stale notifications are now cleared automatically between sessions. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version to resolve.

What happens if I lose internet while dictating?

Your audio is still recorded and saved locally. When the dictation ends, Flow attempts the automatic fallback. If that fails too, you'll see a retry option. Wait until you're back online, then retry.

Is my audio stored permanently?

No. On desktop, audio is automatically cleaned up after 14 days — the transcript text remains but the audio is no longer available for retry. On iOS, audio files persist until manually deleted (or removed by Auto-delete transcripts, which runs each time you open the app). On Android, audio files follow a rotation policy — when the storage limit is reached, the oldest file is deleted. Enterprise organizations with Zero Data Retention enabled on desktop don't have audio saved at all.

Can I retry from my transcription history?

Yes, on all platforms. On desktop, the error notification includes an Open History button. On iOS and Android, failed transcriptions are accessible from your history or home screen.

What if the app crashes during a dictation?

On desktop, the app detects the incomplete session on next launch and logs it for diagnostics, but the transcript can't be recovered — start a new dictation. On mobile, if audio was already written to disk before the crash, it may be available for retry from your history.

I see a microphone error instead of a transcription error — can I still retry?

No. Microphone errors mean Flow wasn't able to record any audio, so there's nothing to retry. Resolve the microphone issue first using the action button in the notification (Open Sound Settings, Choose Microphone, or Troubleshoot), then start a new dictation.

On Android, what happens if I don't interact with the error bubble?

The error bubble dismisses itself after a short period of inactivity. If a text field is focused when it dismisses, the bubble returns to its ready state. Otherwise, it hides. You can still retry from the home screen via the ⋯ menu on any failed transcription card.