Quit and relaunch Wispr Flow

If Flow freezes, stops detecting your microphone or behaves unexpectedly after an update, quit and reopen it. If the whole device is frozen, restart the device instead.

Before you quit

• A normal desktop quit saves what it can: pending Scratch Pad and meeting-note text and in-progress dictation audio, as do Windows shutdown and sign-out. Large pending saves may not finish, and pending summary edits may not teach Flow new dictionary words — the note text is kept.

• With a no-storage policy chosen by you or your organization, audio isn't saved, including at quit, so it cannot be recovered or retried. The stricter policy applies.

• After waking or unlocking Windows, give Flow 5–10 seconds before quitting: it can restore dictation and an unclickable Flow Bar on its own. Mac recovery starts without that added delay.

Mac and Windows

Closing Flow's main window only hides it; Flow keeps running in the menu bar or tray. Closing the floating Notetaker notepad also leaves an active recording running.

Restart Flow — called Restart App on the Unable to access mic notice — quits and reopens Flow without confirmation, showing the main window even if Flow normally starts hidden. During an update, the window stays hidden unless you requested the update restart. If microphone access returns on its own, the notice clears and no restart is needed.

iOS

Close the app only if it's unresponsive. Force-closing ends an active dictation, which won't continue in the keyboard, Live Activity or widgets after you reopen Flow.

1. Open the app switcher: swipe up and pause, or double-click Home on devices that have one.

2. Find Wispr Flow by swiping left or right.

3. Swipe the Wispr Flow card up and off the screen.

4. Reopen Flow from the Home Screen.

Before recording again, check History for interrupted or failed dictations. Tap a failed entry's text to retry, or its circular retry icon when it has no text; tapping usable text on a non-failed entry copies it instead. Swipe or long-press → retry works on any entry, and retry actions are disabled while that entry is retrying. The first time History opens after each app launch, Flow can automatically retry the latest interrupted, empty entry once it's over two minutes old and no recording is active.

Retry can recover retained audio left unfinished by an abrupt stop. If the audio cannot be read or repaired, the entry stays unchanged without an error.

Android

Open Flow first. After setup, reopening while signed in can restore a stopped Flow Bubble, even with accessibility off, but Display over other apps permission is still required. Android may block recovery while Flow stays in the background.

If Flow isn't responding appears, tap Restart Flow. The card can take about 60 seconds to appear, or about 15 seconds after an update; its notification opens Flow's home screen, blocked notifications are replaced by a brief message, and the card remains available in the app. If repair cannot start, Flow opens its accessibility permission screen. Successful reconnection shows Flow Bubble reconnected.

If a full stop is still needed:

1. Open Android Settings → Apps → Wispr Flow.

2. Tap Force stop and confirm.

3. Reopen Flow from your home screen or app drawer.

Force stop can revoke accessibility permission on some installations; if it is off when an already-set-up, signed-in user returns, Flow opens accessibility recovery. Closing the app can also leave the dictation service running in the background, and on some devices it can restart at unlock while you're signed in, setup is complete and accessibility is enabled, though Android may block this. Logging out stops it.

Confirm it worked

Focus a text field and dictate a short phrase. If desktop Flow is still stuck, recheck Activity Monitor or Task Manager for the processes listed above and repeat the force-stop steps before reopening.

On desktop, open History for saved interrupted dictations: audio saved during quit offers Recover, since reopening alone does not resend or paste the interrupted dictation or prompt you to recover it. Flow attempts to recover interrupted meetings on its next launch.

The in-row Recover and Retry links require entries no more than 14 days old, and failed or empty recordings need at least five seconds of audio for Retry; Recover has no five-second minimum. Stop any active dictation before retrying. The entry's … menu can still offer Retry outside those limits, except while dictating or retrying, but it cannot recover missing audio. Stored audio older than 14 days is removed at startup unless it is awaiting upload, and dismissed recordings shorter than 0.5 seconds are not saved to History.

If restarting isn't enough

Still stuck?

If Flow still crashes or freezes, contact support with your platform, device model, the exact error and the steps you tried.