Fix text not pasting after dictation

Flow heard you, but the words never landed in the text field — or landed in the wrong place. Recover that transcript first, then check the field, app, and permissions before dictating again.

Recover the text first

Click or tap inside an editable text field and look for the cursor before pasting. The desktop shortcuts below are defaults; if you changed one, use your configured shortcut.

After copying, return to your app and paste: Cmd+V on Mac, Ctrl+V on Windows, or the field's Paste command on iPhone. If the words appear, recovery is complete.

On desktop, Paste last transcript is also in the Mac menu-bar icon, the Windows tray icon's right-click menu, and the Flow Bar context menu; on Mac, Dictation → Copy last transcript copies without pasting.

Check the target field

1. Dictate a short phrase, keeping the intended field focused until processing and insertion finish.

2. Test in Notes on Mac or iPhone, Notepad on Windows, or a notes app on Android.

If the test app works, quit and reopen the target app, then test its text field again. If every app fails, follow your platform's steps below. After each change, repeat the short-phrase test; stop when text appears.

Mac and Windows

Copy the transcript before each attempt so you keep the result. Change an intercepted shortcut in Settings → General → Shortcuts, from the tray menu, or from Help ▸ Shortcuts on Mac.

If the recovery notification appears

When dictation produced text but could not paste, Flow copies the text automatically, so a normal paste needs no separate copy step.

When no text was produced, the notice reads Click a textbox and use [shortcut] to paste, using your configured shortcut. It does not put text on your clipboard, so use Copy last transcript before a normal Cmd+V or Ctrl+V.

Recover from desktop History

1. Open History in Flow.

2. Click a successful row to copy it, or hover over it and select Copy. History copies rich text and plain-text markdown, preserving formatting in rich-text editors.

3. Paste the copied transcript in your app.

For failed or empty rows, use Retry; for dismissed or unfinished rows, use Recover when offered. These actions require recordings under 14 days old, and failed or empty recordings must also be at least 5 seconds long. Finish any active dictation first: Flow reports Cannot retry while dictating, or Cannot retry transcription as audio is no longer available (older than 14 days) when the audio has expired. After retry succeeds, copy and paste the row.

A new desktop dictation cannot start while the previous one is starting or stopping. If a newer dictation interrupts one still transcribing, the earlier recording may remain in History without finished text; use its recovery action when available. Long recordings need processing before insertion, and processing can fail or leave final audio unprocessed; long or multi-line text can arrive in pieces, and a failure can leave only part inserted.

When your previous clipboard comes back

In most apps on your own computer, Flow puts your previous clipboard contents back about half a second after dictating, so Ctrl+V or Cmd+V right afterwards pastes what you had copied — not the dictation. Anything you copy in that moment is kept.

On Windows, Flow holds the dictation on the clipboard for about three seconds when you dictate into Outlook (classic or new), Word, or WhatsApp, because those apps need longer to read it. During those three seconds, pressing Ctrl+V in any app pastes the dictation again, and a paste-failure warning in those apps also waits the full three seconds before appearing. In a remote desktop viewer, Flow waits about five seconds before restoring, so pastes over a slow connection still land.

iPhone

1. Select Flow Keyboard with the globe key: tap to advance, or long-press for the keyboard picker. For a missing keyboard, see iPhone keyboard setup.

2. Enable Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Flow → Allow Full Access. Changes take effect without relaunching.

3. Grant microphone access using the keyboard's Go to Settings prompt; both permissions are required.

4. Keep Flow Keyboard visible until text arrives; otherwise it will not insert.

5. Test in Notes. If an app or corporate policy blocks third-party keyboards, dictate in a supported app and copy and paste the result.

Network loss can stop transcription. For Please check your network connection and try again., reconnect and choose Retry. Switching apps, hiding the keyboard, or a session ending before delivery can leave nothing inserted.

Unpasted transcripts remain recoverable in History, and starting a new dictation before an earlier one finishes saves the earlier text there instead of inserting it. Long-press or swipe a row for Copy, which appears whenever text exists; tapping or choosing Retry on a failed row reprocesses saved audio, after which you copy and paste the result.

If a phone call, Siri, or the duration cap ends dictation while the keyboard is inactive, Flow sends a saved-transcript notification; tapping it opens History and copies available text, and that row also offers a copy button. Failed dictations are saved for retry with the same notification — not a guarantee of text ready to copy.

If text lands in the wrong place, undo it: shake the phone, press Cmd+Z on an external keyboard, or choose Edit → Undo. Flow's own undo removes the inserted transcript but disappears when you type, move the cursor away, or change fields.

Android

The bubble normally needs a focused editable field and the on-screen keyboard; some configurations allow it with the field alone.

1. Focus a text field and show the keyboard if the bubble is missing.

2. Select End snooze now on Flow's home screen if snoozed.

3. Follow any overlay or Accessibility repair prompt; see Android setup. Repair prompts appear only with a field focused, stay hidden during dictation, and clear when Accessibility reconnects.

4. Place the cursor at the end of an existing draft. Flow refuses an insertion that would replace existing text, leaving the field untouched and copying the transcript for manual pasting.

• Failed to paste: the transcript is already on the clipboard. Paste works offline; tapping the Wispr icon dismisses the error without clearing the text.

• Failed to transcribe: reconnect, then tap Retry to resend saved audio. Without that recording, Retry only returns to the bubble, and tapping the Wispr icon starts a fresh dictation instead.

• Taking longer than usual: wait for processing to finish; this is not a paste failure.

In an error state, tap and long-press dictation gestures are blocked; use the action button or Wispr icon.

If insertion fails, times out, or cannot be confirmed, Flow offers clipboard recovery after its automatic attempts. A Text copied to clipboard notification opens Flow when tapped, and a copy button appears beside the normal bubble — not the error bubble — for 5 seconds.

1. Use the copy button, then long-press the field and choose Paste.

2. Check that your words appeared; a “nothing to copy” message means no last transcript is available.

Chat apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram can use this fallback, including after sending a message. Some insertions in these apps cannot be checked, so no clipboard notification may appear even when text is missing.

Remote desktops

Clipboard restrictions in remote or managed apps may require a different approach. Run Flow on your local computer and enable permitted clipboard sharing in the remote client. Flow allows extra time for pastes in viewers such as VNC, RDP, Citrix, Horizon, AnyDesk, and TeamViewer. On a Mac host, a stray character may mean copying the transcript and using the guest's native paste shortcut instead.

Still stuck?

Contact support if text fails in every test app or Paste last transcript also fails. Include:

• Your platform, device, and target apps tested.

• Whether History contains the words, and the exact error message.

• Which manual paste, permission, and restart checks you tried and their results.