Bug report on ChatGPT, Dictate button

[NaDech_Yu]

Dictation Loss & Negative Timer Bug – Voice Input Failing Across macOS, iOS, and Web

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Issue Summary:

Dictation in ChatGPT (across iOS, macOS, and web) is unstable and prone to completely deleting recorded speech without recovery. On iOS, this issue often comes with a negative timer glitch (e.g., “–5000s”) before failing with the message:

“Your dictation must be longer than 1 second.”

This issue causes complete data loss for any spoken input and occurs across all platforms where voice input is enabled.

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Platforms Affected:
• iOS app (latest, iOS 17+)
• macOS Safari + Chrome (macOS Ventura & Sonoma)
• Web app (Chrome, Safari, Firefox)

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Steps to Reproduce (iOS version):
1. Tap the microphone button inside ChatGPT app
2. Begin speaking
3. Glitch occurs:
• Timer starts at a negative value (e.g., –5000 seconds)
• Input fails to process or send
• Message appears: “Your dictation must be longer than 1 second.”
• Entire speech is lost without any save or retry option

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Steps to Reproduce (Web/macOS version):
1. Use built-in microphone with voice input
2. Dictate a longer sentence (30+ seconds)
3. Dictation fails:
• No visual error, but input disappears
• Mic icon either stays “stuck” or resets
• No way to re-access or save the recorded speech

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Expected Behavior:
• Dictation should save a temporary audio file (e.g., MP3) during recording
• If transcription fails, user should be able to retry, reupload, or save the audio manually
• There should be no speech deletion without confirmation or recovery

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Impact:
• Loss of original spoken content
• Loss of time, effort, and emotional labor
• Breakdown of trust in platform reliability
• For long-form thinkers and creators, this disrupts workflow and erases irreplaceable thought

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Suggested Solution:

Implement a temporary voice recording buffer:
• Automatically save speech as an MP3 or voice memo file
• Give users the option to:
• Retry transcription
• Save/share the file
• Manually delete it if unnecessary
• Ensure no recorded input is deleted without user consent

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Priority Level: HIGH

This is not a cosmetic issue — it causes permanent data loss. For users who dictate emotionally sensitive, philosophical, creative, or spiritual content, the inability to recover voice input is a critical barrier to trust and usability.

[GHI]

+1

I have lost all my dictations about 5 times in the last 6 hours of my use. Absolute random on when you may be loosing and completely deleting recorded speech without recovery.
The chat bar becomes completely unusable and required to press on the X button since the tick button does not work.

[NaDech_Yu]

Feel that, bro.
And hey — for those using Apple devices — their voice-to-text is already a pure piece of garbage.
So if you thought it was some miracle that OpenAI’s version would be better…
Think again.
It’s just as unreliable — same bug-shenanigans here. (iPhone SE and MacBook user — both fail.)

[pcaruso82]

I’m just replying to increase visibility. I use dictation often in order to transcribe some notes for work and it’s turned into a real crapshoot. Sometimes I’ll open microsoft word and use their dictation feature simultaneously and if ChatGPT fails, at least I have that as a backup to copy and paste. I had it fail on me twice in a row today for the first time. I can’t remember it doing it initially after closing it and relaunching so maybe that is a work-around for now…

[marius.7383]

I very much second the issues described here. I use the speech to text feature daily and it has become entirely unusable for me.

[julian0]

I’m experiencing the same issue. The previous implementation in the Android app worked well - you could retry messages, and even longer messages would go through without problems. Over time, however, the maximum message length that worked kept getting shorter, and now the functionality is barely usable. Instead of improving, it has deteriorated.

For me, this is an essential feature - I rely on it for learning through paraphrasing and writing quick drafts. If this isn’t resolved soon, I may consider switching to another AI provider that handles this better.

[adrianAI]

Raising this issue also. It’s very difficult to express how frustrating this is when I’ve been dictating in anticipation of OpenAI transcribing for 5 minutes only to lose everything I just said. This has been an issue for years but has seemingly gotten worse over the past couple of weeks. Please address this OpenAI team

[H_K]

Adding to raise awareness. Dictation freezes most time I use in an old chat.

I use this functionality a lot! Am lost without it as the amount of time it takes to type is huge.

[pcaruso82]

I use it to help with my progress notes and if anything, the feature has gotten less reliable since the last update. It really is a 50/50 chance at this point whether it will go through. I used to subscribe to an AI dictation service that was geared for my work but canceled it once I learned that ChatGPT is capable of the same thing and so much more. Now I’m regretting it.

[Foxalabs]

Hi everyone, thanks for taking the time to flag this, but this is the developer forum and is the wrong place to report issues with ChatGPT. Please use help.openai.com and select the support icon in the bottom right of the screen and report it there.

[NaDech_Yu]

Thanks, understood.
But part of the problem is that help.openai.com is private — no visibility, no community discussion, no traction.
Real user issues deserve open conversation too, not just private tickets.
Otherwise, nothing ever improves publicly.
Plus, I already reported it through help.openai.com, the black hole a while ago.

[ermiasdiresasmare]

This is ruining the experience of the user. The amounts of times I have spoken for 15 minutes pouring my heart out and this error happened is not okay, seriously. And this bug has existed for such a long time, why is no one in the company fixing this.

THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE!!!