Dictation stops working and gets stuck on "initializing"

Question

The speech-to-text dictation in Windows 10 (launched by holding Windows logo key and pressing H)

stops listening after about 10 seconds. After a few minutes, it gets stuck on "initializing" forever. This also happens if the user uses the keyboard for editing the dictated text. The only way to get the dictation working again is to kill "Microsoft Text Input Application" in the task manager (end task) and then restart dictation again.

• To easily reproduce this problem: use dictation, let it stop and start listening several times. Then it will get stuck on "initializing".

I have reported this problem on the Windows Feedback Hub, but Microsoft has still not fixed this problem. It happens on different computers, even after a new Windows 10 install. I've seen plenty of reports from other people experiencing the same problem.

There is no faulty hardware, no corrupted system files (sfc /scannow reports no integrity violations), no disk errors, no faulty memory modules - and so on.

PLEASE FIX THIS BUG MICROSOFT.

It would be nice to use dictation for more than a few minutes at a time.

(Note I could only categorise this topic under "Ease of access", because there is no other category for this problem.)

Answer 1

I feel your frustration too. Like you say, it works for like 2 minutes then freezes.

Answer 2

Another way to get to task manager is to press Alt Ctrl Delete aka 3 finger salute

Restarting the task worked for me, but not for long, about 30 seconds Microsoft - Fix this

Answer 3

This problem seems to come and go!?! It's kind of hit or miss, it's not how software is supposed to work!

Answer 4

"I know this sounds silly, Dave, but before/after you made your system repairs did you uninstall and reinstall the Speech Recognition Program; my guess is that you did."

No, I just used the sfc /scannow from the Command Prompt (right click on the Command Prompt, run as Administrator). I did not re-install Speech Recognition.

Thanks for sending Microsoft the link to this forum.

I believe the problem itself pertains to dictation (invoked by Windows key and H) - not Windows Speech Recognition; they are two separate entities.

Answer 5

I've already done the repair of system files (sfc /scannow from a Command Prompt opened as Administrator). Makes no difference.

Windows Speech Recognition is different from the speech to text dictation (Windows logo key and H) that freezes after about 30 seconds.