Quit and relaunch Wispr Flow

Mac

Fully quit Flow and all its helper processes, then relaunch.

1. Open Activity Monitor.

   1. Press Command + Space to open Spotlight.

   2. Type Activity Monitor and press Return.

2. Quit all Wispr processes.

   1. Type Wispr in the search bar at the top right.

   2. Select each process with Wispr in the name.

   3. Click the X (stop) button in the toolbar, then click Force Quit.

3. Relaunch Wispr Flow from Finder → Applications.

Dictate a short phrase. If text appears, Flow restarted successfully. If not, open Activity Monitor again and verify all Wispr processes have ended — in rare cases, helper processes persist after an unclean shutdown.

Windows

Fully quit Flow and all its helper processes, then relaunch.

1. Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

2. End all Wispr processes.

   1. Go to the Processes tab.

   2. Search for Wispr Flow and any related Wispr processes.

   3. Right-click each entry and select End task.

3. Relaunch Wispr Flow from the Start menu.

Dictate a short phrase. If text appears, Flow restarted successfully. If not, check Task Manager again to verify all Wispr processes have ended — helper processes may persist after an unclean shutdown.

iOS

Force close Wispr Flow from the app switcher, then reopen it.

1. Open the app switcher by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and pausing in the middle. On devices with a Home button, double-press the Home button.

2. Find the Wispr Flow card.

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

4. Reopen Wispr Flow from your home screen.

Dictate a short phrase. If text appears, Flow restarted successfully.

Android

Force stop Wispr Flow from system settings, then reopen it.

1. Open Settings → Apps (or Apps and notifications).

2. Find and tap Wispr Flow.

3. Tap Force stop, then confirm.

4. Reopen Wispr Flow from your home screen or app drawer.

Dictate a short phrase. If text appears, Flow restarted successfully.

Mouse clicks stop working in other apps when a mouse button is used as a Flow shortcut on Windows

Assigning a mouse button (middle click, mouse4, or mouse5) as a Wispr Flow shortcut on Windows could cause clicks to feel stuck in other apps — browsers, File Explorer, terminals, and others — while still working inside Flow. This has been fixed, and mouse capture in other apps is no longer left stuck. If a mouse button ever feels stuck after using an older version, update Flow — no reboot is required.

Multiple Wispr Flow icons appear in the macOS dock, or Flow opens a second copy of itself

Frequent auto-updates could cause multiple copies of Flow to run at the same time, each showing its own dock icon. Flow now enforces a single running instance on macOS — if you open Flow while it's already running, it focuses the existing window instead of starting a duplicate. Flow also exits reliably within a few seconds when quitting, so old copies no longer linger after an update. To resolve:

1. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version.

2. Relaunch the app after updating.

Dictation appears lost or the app freezes when quitting Flow on Windows

When quitting Flow on Windows, the app could appear frozen on shutdown. Flow now exits reliably within a few seconds when you quit it, and dictation in progress at the time of a manual quit is reliably saved to history (manual quits only — see below). To resolve:

1. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version.

2. Relaunch the app after updating.

Flow silently stops recording, requiring a full restart to recover (Mac and Windows)

In some situations — such as restarting onboarding or certain mid-session audio reloads — Flow could stop recording without any visible error. Dictation appeared to start normally but no audio was captured, and the only recovery was a full quit and relaunch. Flow now automatically recovers on the next push-to-talk press, so dictation resumes without a restart. You may notice a brief delay on that first press while Flow restores itself.

If automatic recovery fails, dictation is cancelled cleanly with a microphone failure indication rather than hanging silently.

To resolve:

1. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version.

2. Relaunch the app after updating.

Flow fails to launch or crashes on startup on Windows

A startup crash on Windows has been fixed. To resolve:

1. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version.

2. Relaunch the app after updating.

Flow helper fails to start on Windows

If Flow's helper process fails to start on Windows, Flow retries automatically before showing a persistent "Flow is having trouble starting" notification. "Flow is having trouble loading" is a shorter intermediate notification that may appear during retries; it auto-dismisses after a few seconds and includes Restart Flow and Contact us buttons. A third brief status message, "Just a moment - Flow is getting ready...", may appear during helper initialization.

Other bugs fixed in recent updates

The following issues have been fixed in recent versions of Wispr Flow. Update and relaunch to resolve any of them:

• In-progress dictation audio lost when manually quitting or restarting Flow on Mac or Windows: When you manually quit or restart Flow (not for crashes or force-kill), recorded audio is automatically saved during a brief cleanup window. When you relaunch Flow, the dictation appears in your history. Processing or Dismissed items show a Recover link (any length, less than 14 days old); Empty or Error items show a Retry link if the recording is at least 5 seconds long and less than 14 days old. Users on the NeverStore enterprise policy do not have audio saved.

• Microphone takes progressively longer to activate when canceling and retrying dictation quickly on desktop: Recording now starts without delay, and the microphone indicator light turns off promptly after canceling.

• Blank microphone list, or "microphone privacy disabled" error on Windows after a recent update: Your available microphones are now detected reliably on Windows.

• Dictated text goes to the wrong app when switching apps on Android: Fixed in a recent update.

• Flow needs to be manually relaunched after Android switches apps in the background: Flow now recovers correctly without a manual relaunch.

• Dictation streaks get stuck and show incorrect stats: Daily and weekly streaks now reset correctly. Your longest streak record is never affected by a reset.

• Dictation gets stuck on "Processing" on Windows when antivirus or file-indexing software is running, or when the disk is full: Sessions now complete normally in these conditions.

• Stray punctuation when saying only "press enter": Flow now sends the Enter key without inserting extra characters.

• Performance slowdowns during dictation on Apple Silicon Macs: Background tasks now pause while you dictate and resume once you finish.

• Sync failures after waking from sleep: Flow now resumes smoothly after waking.

• Dictation bubble does not appear when opening the keyboard on Android: The bubble now appears as soon as the keyboard begins to open.

• Dictation bubble stuck in a ready state after dismissing the keyboard on Android: The bubble now correctly resets when the keyboard is dismissed.

• App updates mid-dictation, causing lost audio or transcription: Flow now waits until your dictation session finishes before installing any pending update.

• Audio silently stops mid-dictation while Flow still shows "Listening": This has been fixed, and your next dictation works normally.

• Dictation bubble displays incorrectly when switching activation modes: The dictation UI now fully resets between sessions.

• Flow crashes in certain apps (TikTok, WeChat, Xiaohongshu): Flow no longer crashes in apps with complex layouts.

• Microphone indicator stays active after dictation ends: The microphone is now properly stopped whenever a dictation is cancelled.

• Flow helper repeatedly crashes on Windows: A configuration-reading issue has been resolved.

• "Transcript processing" notification does not dismiss: It now shows your configured shortcut instead of a hardcoded key.

• No way to recover text when a long session ends automatically: A Recover text button now appears on the notification.

• "Transcript cancelled" notification lingers on screen: It now dismisses more quickly and includes an Undo button to recover a cancelled transcript.

• Status notifications stay visible after clicking an action button: Notifications now reliably dismiss after you click an action button.

• Keyboard shortcuts and dictation triggers delayed or dropped: Shortcuts now respond reliably.

• Dictation briefly unavailable after waking from sleep on Mac: Dictation is now available again promptly after your Mac wakes.

• Dictation briefly unavailable after waking from sleep on Windows: Dictation is now available again promptly after your PC wakes.

• Clipboard does not reliably restore after dictation on Mac: The clipboard now reliably restores after every dictation session.

• Hotkey activation stalls on Mac: Hotkeys now activate immediately.

• Dictation disconnects or the helper restarts unexpectedly on Windows: This has been fixed, and dictation stays connected reliably.

• Cancelling a dictation during startup prevents new sessions from starting: Fixed.

• Dictation stops mid-session after waking from sleep: Fixed.

• Dictation bubble stuck showing "Listening" and activation key unresponsive: Starting and stopping dictation very quickly, particularly with Bluetooth audio devices, no longer causes Flow to freeze.

To resolve any of these issues:

1. Update Wispr Flow to the latest version.

2. Relaunch the app after updating.

If you are already on the latest version and Flow is stuck on "Listening," follow the force-quit steps above to recover.

Flow shows an error notification after repeated crashes. What do I do?

When Flow runs into repeated trouble, it retries automatically to recover. If it can't recover on its own, it shows a notification with Restart Flow and Contact us buttons. Click Restart Flow to recover immediately.

A shorter "Flow is having trouble loading" notification dismisses on its own and indicates a temporary loading issue. A brief "Just a moment — Flow is getting ready..." message means Flow is initializing and will be ready shortly.

If you see this notification right after waking your laptop from sleep, let Flow recover on its own — the notification may clear without any action.

Flow shows a database or storage error notification. What do I do?

Flow shows one of three notifications when it encounters a storage problem that prevents dictations from being saved: "Local database corruption," "There was an error," or "Storage Full." All three include Restart Flow and Contact us buttons. Click Restart Flow in the notification to recover. Flow cleans up the problem automatically during the restart, and any dictations safely recorded before the error remain in your history.

Will I lose my dictation if I quit or restart Flow on Mac or Windows while recording?

No. If you manually quit or restart Flow while a dictation is in progress, the recorded audio is automatically saved. When you relaunch Flow, the dictation appears in your history. Processing or Dismissed items show a Recover link (any length, less than 14 days old); Empty or Error items show a Retry link if the recording is at least 5 seconds long and less than 14 days old. Users on the NeverStore enterprise policy do not have audio saved.

"Flow is having trouble loading" notification appears on Windows. What do I do?

Antivirus software or security restrictions can prevent Flow's helper process from starting, triggering the "Flow is having trouble loading" notification. Flow automatically retries in the background — in most cases, no action is needed. If the error keeps appearing:

1. Quit Wispr Flow completely using Task Manager (see the steps above).

2. Check whether your antivirus software is blocking Wispr Flow, and temporarily disable it or add Flow as an exception.

3. Relaunch Wispr Flow.

A "Restart Flow" button appears during onboarding microphone setup. What does it mean?

During onboarding, if Flow can't access your microphone, it shows a dedicated error panel on the "Test your microphone" page. The panel explains the specific problem and offers relevant actions. Flow retries automatically, and after a short wait a fallback toast appears: "Having trouble detecting microphone? Try restarting Flow."

A Restart Flow button appears in two cases:

• Microphone is in use by another app: Flow detects that an app like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Discord, or FaceTime is holding the microphone. Here, "Open Sound Settings" is the primary action and Restart Flow is a secondary option. Close the conflicting app — Flow retries automatically and the panel clears on its own once the mic is free. If it doesn't, click Restart Flow.

• Unknown microphone error: For unknown or other unexpected errors, Restart Flow is the primary action. Click Restart Flow to recover.

Other microphone error panel variants you may see during onboarding:

• No microphone detected: Primary action is "Refresh devices".

• Microphone access required: The only action is "Open Settings" to grant OS-level microphone privacy access.

• Selected microphone unavailable: Primary action is "Choose a different microphone".

All mic error panels are non-dismissable (they can't be closed by clicking the overlay or pressing Escape) and retry automatically — the panel clears itself once the mic is working. The footer always reads: "We're checking your mic — we'll move on automatically when it's working."

Flow is still freezing after relaunch. What should I try next?

Restart your device, then relaunch Wispr Flow. If the issue persists, uninstall and reinstall Wispr Flow.

My microphone is not detected after relaunch. How do I fix it?

Confirm microphone permissions are granted for Wispr Flow in your system settings, and make sure no other app is exclusively using the microphone.

On Mac and Windows, if you encounter a microphone error during onboarding, Flow shows a specific error panel with steps tailored to the problem — such as opening Sound Settings or choosing a different input device. Flow also retries automatically in the background, so the panel often clears on its own once the issue is resolved.

On iOS, if microphone access was denied, go to Settings → Wispr Flow and enable Microphone, or tap Go to Settings when prompted in the app.

Transcriptions keep failing or timing out. What's wrong?

Check your internet connection and try another network if possible. After a full quit and relaunch, try a shorter test dictation to see if it completes.

On Android, if processing takes too long, the dictation transitions to a failed-to-transcribe state. Check your connection and try again.

The "press enter" voice command isn't working. Why?

The first time you say "press enter", Flow shows an informational prompt with Enable and Disable buttons instead of pressing Enter. Click Enable, then dictate "press enter" again for it to take effect. The trigger phrase must appear at the end of your sentence (it's not recognized mid-sentence) and is case-insensitive.

The app won't open properly after an update. How do I fix it?

Use the steps above to force close all Wispr processes, then reopen the app. If it still does not open, uninstall and reinstall Wispr Flow using the latest installer or app store version.

Flow stopped recording and shows a "Storage is full" message. What do I do?

Free up storage space on your device, then relaunch Flow.

On iOS, my dictation stopped without any error. What happened?

If your device is running low on memory, an active dictation may be cancelled without warning. Close other apps to free up memory and try again.

My dictation stopped after a long session. What happened?

Dictation has a maximum session duration — 20 minutes on desktop, 5 minutes on iOS. Android does not enforce a per-session time limit. On iOS, if your session hits the 5-minute cap while you're not in a text field, you'll get a notification so you can find the transcript in your history.