iOS: Missing audio chunks during unstable internet

Last updated: July 30, 2026

Available on: iOS (with related notes for Mac and Windows)

If words or whole sentences are missing from your dictation after your internet dropped, this guide helps you recover the audio and prevent it from happening again. Most issues resolve in under 2 minutes.

Note: Missing text isn't always caused by a network drop. If your connection was stable but text is still missing, update Wispr Flow to the latest version — see the FAQs below.

Quick checks

  • Is Flow up to date? Several audio recovery bugs were fixed in recent versions. On your iPhone, open the App Store, tap your profile picture, and update Wispr Flow if an update is listed.

  • Do you see an orange triangle on the keyboard? That's a transcription warning. Tap it to open a menu explaining the issue and your options (Dismiss, and Retry when available).

  • Did the keyboard show a Wi-Fi-off icon? Flow detected no connection. Reconnect to Wi-Fi or cellular and the normal keyboard returns automatically.

  • Is your connection stable now? Load a webpage. If it loads quickly, continue to the steps below. If it's slow or fails, wait for a better connection. If the dictation is missing from the Home tab entirely, skip to Still stuck?

How to recover missing audio

When your connection becomes unstable during a dictation, part of your audio may not be transcribed on the first attempt. Flow saves your audio on your device for most failure scenarios, so you can retry it from history.

  1. Open your dictation history by tapping the Home tab at the bottom of the screen. Your recent dictations appear in a list, newest at the top.

  2. Tap the affected entry if it shows a failure state (orange retry indicator). Flow retries it right away.

  3. Long-press the entry or swipe left and choose Retry if there's no failure indicator.

  4. Wait a few seconds. The history list refreshes and the full text appears in your entry. If text still doesn't appear, retry again — there's no limit on retries.

Tip: Swipe left on any history item to reach Report, Retry, and Copy (Copy appears only when text is present). A short swipe reveals Report first. Tapping a successful entry copies its transcript to your clipboard.

Note: Failed dictations are kept for the current day only. Flow deletes older transcripts when the app launches, so retry the same day you record. If a dictation fails while you're outside the Flow keyboard, you'll get a notification that takes you back to the saved transcript.

If you see a database error on Mac or Windows

On Mac and Windows, Flow may show one of three database error notifications: Local database corruption, There was an error, or Storage Full. Each notification includes a Restart Flow button and a Contact us button.

Warning: Don't ignore this notification. Continuing to dictate without restarting can result in lost audio that cannot be recovered.

  1. Click Restart Flow in the notification as soon as you see it. Dictations saved before the error stay accessible; the dictation being saved at the moment of the error, and any new ones, may be lost until you restart.

  2. Check your history after Flow reopens. For Storage Full and There was an error, your existing history is kept. For Local database corruption, Flow clears the corrupt local database on the next launch and gives you a clean working database.

Important: Only Local database corruption clears local history, and only on that device. It also removes local database backups and re-syncs your notes and meetings from the cloud on the next launch. Your account settings and cloud-synced content are not affected.

Note: If the error keeps recurring, Flow limits how often the notification appears. The Contact us button opens Flow's Feedback screen inside the app.

How to prevent this

  • Stay on one network: Avoid dictating while moving between networks, such as walking out of Wi-Fi range.

  • Keep dictations short: Shorter dictations are less likely to be affected by brief network interruptions. On iOS, Flow stops a dictation automatically after a few minutes. On Mac and Windows, dictations can run much longer, with a warning shortly before the automatic stop.

  • Avoid audio interruptions: Incoming phone calls can interrupt a recording session. Flow resumes automatically after brief interruptions based on your background recording setting in Settings → Disable Flow Session. This controls how long Flow keeps recording after the app is backgrounded — it is not the active-dictation limit. Options are Immediately, 5 min (default), 15 min, 1 hour, and Never. The setting is stored on your device and is not synced.

  • Use Wi-Fi when possible: A stable Wi-Fi connection improves transcription quality compared with a weak cellular connection.

  • Turn off Low Data Mode: Low Data Mode compresses your audio to reduce data usage. On slow connections, Flow may compress audio even with this off. If your connection is fast and reliable, turning Low Data Mode off sends the highest-quality audio.

Common issues

Bugs fixed in recent updates

These issues caused audio or text loss during connection drops and are fixed in recent versions of Wispr Flow. To resolve any of them, update Wispr Flow to the latest version.

  • Valid dictation silently dropped, especially quiet speech or dictated numbers: A transcription quality check could treat good transcripts as invalid and discard them, sometimes losing up to a full minute of audio with no error shown. Flow now keeps transcripts unless the result shows clear signs of a problem, such as repeated text. Very short accidental taps now resolve cleanly as empty results instead of producing made-up text.

  • Partial transcripts lost when one segment failed mid-dictation: If a single segment of a long dictation failed, all previously transcribed segments were discarded. Flow now keeps and pastes the successfully transcribed portions.

  • Long dictations slow to recover after a connection drop: On iOS, Flow now resumes from just before the last successfully transcribed segment instead of replaying the entire recording, so recovery is much faster.

  • Network errors showed inline text labels instead of a warning icon: The iOS keyboard previously displayed error text alongside a separate retry button. Errors now show as an orange triangle next to the mic button, and tapping it opens a menu explaining the issue.

  • Keyboard showed "Audio was silent" for network failures: When a dictation failed because of a network issue, the iOS keyboard incorrectly showed "Audio was silent." The keyboard now shows a warning icon with a network error message, so you can tell a connectivity problem from a microphone problem.

  • Audio lost when transcription failed: Audio recordings were previously lost when a transcription failed. Audio is now saved to history so you can retry later. Audio is not saved if you cancel the recording yourself, if your organization has enforced-privacy mode enabled, or if the dictation is older than the current day.

  • Transcript disappearing even when deletion failed: A deleted transcript could vanish from history before the deletion completed. Transcripts are now removed from the list only after the deletion succeeds.

  • Dictations silently lost after a storage error on Mac and Windows: If Flow hit a storage error such as a full disk or corrupted database, it could keep running while silently failing to save new dictations. Flow now shows a notification with a Restart Flow button instead.

FAQs

What does the orange triangle on the keyboard mean?

It's a warning icon that appears next to the mic button when a transcription error occurs. Tap it to open a menu describing the problem. For network errors you'll see a Dismiss option; for retryable errors you'll see Dismiss and Retry.

What's the difference between a network error and Flow not hearing anything?

A network error means a connectivity problem interrupted your dictation, and you'll see an orange warning triangle. When Flow doesn't pick up any sound, no message appears and the keyboard simply resets — check that your microphone isn't muted and speak clearly.

My connection was fine but text is still missing — what could cause that?

A separate bug could cause valid dictation, including quiet speech or dictated numbers, to be discarded even on a stable connection. This is fixed in the latest version of Wispr Flow. Update the app and the issue stops recurring.

Is there a limit on how many times I can retry a dictation?

No. You can retry a saved dictation from history as many times as you need, as long as it's still the same day you recorded it.

What happens when I delete a transcript?

You'll see a confirmation alert titled "Delete this transcript?" with a red Delete button before anything is removed. Once you confirm, a brief toast reads "Transcript deleted," and the entry disappears from history only after the deletion succeeds.

If part of my long dictation failed, will I lose everything?

No. Flow keeps the segments that transcribed successfully and pastes them, so you may see a partial transcript rather than nothing. Retry from history to attempt the full dictation again.

What happens if I cancel a recording myself?

Recordings you cancel are not saved, so they can't be retried from history.

Can Flow retry a failed dictation on its own?

Yes. If your most recent dictation saved as an empty record, Flow retries it in the background when you reopen the app, and a fresh transcript may appear at the top of your history.

Still stuck?

Reach out to our support team if:

  • Retrying from history doesn't recover your transcription.

  • A dictation is missing entirely from the Home tab.

  • This keeps happening even on a stable connection.

Include your iOS version, device model, and what you've already tried. Most issues are resolved in one reply.