# Empty, wrong, or slow transcription. Dimmy Help.

> Empty, wrong, or slow transcription. Step-by-step help for Dimmy, the native voice dictation app for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Source: https://dimmy.app/help/transcription-issues/

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Troubleshooting

# Empty, wrong, or slow transcription

Three different problems, three checks: silence in the audio, wrong language detected, model or provider mismatch.

## If the transcription is empty

* Did the waveform move while you were talking? If not, the audio was silent. Check microphone settings.
* Did you talk for less than 0.5 seconds? Dimmy's anti-hallucination guard skips clips that short.
* Is the system mic muted? Some laptops have a hardware mute switch on F4 or similar.

## If the transcription is in the wrong language

* Open Settings → General → Language. If it's set to Auto-detect, switch to your specific language. Auto-detect needs at least 30 seconds of clear audio to get short utterances right.
* If you mix languages in one clip, the most-spoken language wins. Speak more of the target language to bias detection.
* If you mostly dictate Italian, set Language = Italian. Same for English. Auto is best when you really alternate.

## If the transcription is inaccurate

* Upgrade the Whisper model. base-q8\_0 is the default; large-v3-turbo-q8\_0 catches finer nuance. See [Choose a Whisper model](https://dimmy.app/help/whisper-models/).
* Switch to a cloud provider for one-off accurate transcription. See [Cloud providers compared](https://dimmy.app/help/cloud-providers/).
* Reduce background noise. Air conditioners, fans, and street noise hurt accuracy more than mic quality.
* Speak closer to the microphone. 15 to 30 cm is the sweet spot for most laptop mics.

## If the transcription is slow

* On-device: pick a smaller model, or switch to a cloud provider (Groq is sub-second on most clips).
* Check GPU acceleration is on (Settings → Models → Show acceleration). If your GPU is listed but not active, restart Dimmy.
* On a battery-saving Windows laptop, plug it in. Some integrated GPUs throttle aggressively on battery.

Transcription Stats showing slow runs and fast runs by provider

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## In this category

[ TroubleshootingMic or hotkey not workingCheck OS permissions first. Then check hotkey conflicts. The pill tells you which one of the two is failing.](https://dimmy.app/help/mic-and-hotkey/) [ TroubleshootingInstall warnings: macOS Gatekeeper, Windows SmartScreen, Linux AppImageThe OS may warn the first time you run Dimmy. These warnings are expected for indie apps. Here's how to bypass them safely.](https://dimmy.app/help/install-issues/)

Last updated: 2026-05-22

On this page

1. [01 If the transcription is empty](#if-the-transcription-is-empty)
2. [02 If the transcription is in the wrong language](#if-the-transcription-is-in-the-wrong-language)
3. [03 If the transcription is inaccurate](#if-the-transcription-is-inaccurate)
4. [04 If the transcription is slow](#if-the-transcription-is-slow)