iPhone Dictation Not Working in Bear? 10 Fixes That Work

Short answer: If iPhone dictation is not working in Bear, tap inside the note's text until the keyboard appears, then tap the mic key. Bear has no dictation of its own, and the mic lives on the keyboard. Locked notes, the search field and Bear's Markdown shortcuts cause most other failures.

You open Bear on your iPhone to catch a thought before it slips away, and you would rather say it than thumb it in. You look for the mic and there is no keyboard to find it on. Or the keyboard is up, you dictate a sentence, and it lands in the search bar while your note list empties in front of you. Or your first line turns into a giant heading, a list starts out of nowhere, and a tag you never meant to create appears in the sidebar.

Three things about Bear on iPhone explain almost all of it. First, Bear has no dictation of its own. On iPhone the mic lives on the keyboard, and the keyboard only appears when a cursor is in some text, so a note that is on screen is not the same as a note you are editing. Second, Bear formats as you type. A few characters at the start of a line, or a hash sign in front of a word, change what your text becomes, and dictation writes those characters when you say their names. Third, Bear has places that hold on to your words or keep them from you: a search field that keeps focus, notes that lock, and sync that only runs with Bear Pro.

So most Bear dictation problems are about getting a cursor into the right note and keeping your words plain, not about your microphone. This guide works through every cause in order, starting with the most common. If dictation is failing in every app on your phone and not only in Bear, start with our complete guide to iPhone dictation not working instead. The same fixes apply to Bear on iPad.

How dictation reaches Bear on iPhone

Bear has no voice typing feature of its own. On iPhone, dictation comes from the keyboard. You put a cursor in a note, the keyboard slides up, you tap the mic key and speak, and the words arrive at the cursor as if you had typed them. Bear cannot tell the difference, and it treats dictated text exactly as it treats typing, Markdown shortcuts included.

That gives you a simple rule for almost everything in this guide. If there is no keyboard on screen, there is no mic to tap, and the question is why Bear has not opened the note for editing. If the keyboard is up and the mic is missing or does nothing, the question is about the keyboard and the phone. If the words arrive but come out wrong, the question is about what Bear did with them. One more thing to keep apart: the row of formatting buttons that sits just above the keyboard in Bear belongs to Bear. The mic belongs to the keyboard underneath it.

The 30-second Notes test

Before you change anything, open the Notes app, create a new note, tap in the body so that the keyboard appears, then tap the mic key and say a sentence.

• If dictation fails in Notes too, the problem is dictation on your iPhone, not Bear. Go to fixes 8 and 10.
• If it works in Notes but there is no keyboard in Bear, go to fixes 1 and 3.
• If the keyboard is up but has no mic, go to fix 2.
• If your words turn into headings, bullets or tags, go to fix 4.
• If your words became a search, or went into the wrong note, go to fixes 5 and 6.
• If a note you dictated on your iPhone is missing on your Mac, go to fix 7.
• If dictation starts and then stops, or the keyboard drops mid-sentence, go to fix 9.

The 10 fixes, in order

1. Tap inside the note's text

This is the cause behind most "there is no mic in Bear" reports. Opening a note from the list shows it to you, but depending on the note and your settings Bear may show it without putting a cursor in it. The note is on screen and looks ready, but the keyboard is down, and the mic is on the keyboard.

Tap directly in the text, at the spot where you want your words to go. A cursor appears, the keyboard slides up, and now there is a mic. To add to the end of a long note, tap in the empty space below the last line. For a fresh note, the new note button opens one with the cursor already in place.

Two details are worth knowing before you speak. The first line of a Bear note becomes its title, so in a new note, say the title, say "new line", and then dictate the body. And if a word is highlighted when you start, the first thing you say replaces it, exactly as typing would. Tap once more so that only the cursor remains.

2. Get a keyboard with a mic on screen

Once a cursor is in the note, the keyboard is up and the mic should be on it. If it is not, check which keyboard you are looking at. If you have more than one installed, the globe key cycles between them, and a long press on it shows the list. Apple's keyboard shows its mic when dictation is enabled. Many third-party keyboards have no mic of their own, and one that does usually needs Full Access switched on before its mic responds. Our guide to enabling Full Access for an iPhone keyboard explains what that permission does.

Also check that you are not looking at Bear's formatting bar and missing the keyboard row below it. On iPhones without a Home button, Apple's mic sits in the bottom corner of the screen, below the keys, and it is easy to overlook. If Apple's keyboard is showing and still has no mic, dictation is switched off or restricted on your iPhone. Fix 10 covers the settings, and our guide to a microphone button missing from the iPhone keyboard goes through every cause in more detail.

3. Unlock encrypted notes, and get past password prompts

Bear Pro can encrypt individual notes. A locked note stays hidden behind a lock screen until you unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your Bear password, and while it is locked there is no text to tap into, so there is no keyboard and no mic. Unlock the note, then tap into its text. Encrypted notes can lock again, for example after you have been away from Bear for a while, so if a note that was open earlier shows the lock screen again, unlock it before you dictate.

The password box itself has a rule of its own. Whenever a password field has the cursor, iOS replaces any third-party keyboard with Apple's own, and dictation is not offered there. That is a security feature of the phone, not a fault in Bear or in your keyboard. Type the password, and once the note is open, tap into its text and switch back to the keyboard you dictate with.

4. Watch Bear's Markdown shortcuts

Bear formats text as you type, and it does the same with dictated text the moment it lands. A few characters at the start of a line change what the whole line is, and a few anywhere in a line change the words after them:

• A hash sign and a space at the start of a line make a heading. Two hash signs make a smaller one.
• A hyphen or an asterisk and a space start a bulleted list, and a number with a full stop and a space starts a numbered list.
• A greater-than sign and a space turn the line into a quote.
• A hash sign directly followed by a word makes a tag, which then appears in the sidebar.
• Two opening square brackets start a link to another note.

iPhone dictation writes these characters when you say their names. Saying "hashtag" can produce a hash sign, "dash" a hyphen, and a spoken run of "one", "two", "three" at the start of lines can come out as a numbered list. Bear then does exactly what it would do if you had typed them. If you have Bear's option to hide Markdown turned on, the symbols themselves are hidden, so you see a heading or a tag appear without seeing why.

If a line changes when you did not want it to, undo straight away. Swipe left with three fingers, or shake the phone if Shake to Undo is turned on, and the formatting usually goes while your words stay. Otherwise, delete the characters at the start of the line. A tag you created by accident should drop out of the sidebar once no note uses it. The simplest habit is to dictate plain sentences and add headings, lists and tags with Bear's formatting bar afterwards. Our guide to dictating quotes and special characters covers how to say symbols when you actually want them.

5. Close the search field

The search field at the top of the note list is a text field, and it keeps the cursor after you use it. If you searched for a note and then tapped the mic without tapping into a note, your words went into the search. The list filters to match whatever you said, which usually means very few notes or none at all, and it can look as if your notes have disappeared. They have not. Clear the search or tap Cancel, open the note, and tap into its text.

Searching inside a note works the same way. If you opened a find bar to look for a word in the current note, it holds the cursor until you close it, and dictated words become the search term. Close it, then tap back into the note.

6. Make sure you are in the note you think you are

If your note list is sorted by the date notes were modified, which is a common setting, the note you just edited jumps to the top. The list reshuffles as you work, so a tap on "the next note down" can open a different note from the one you meant. Glance at the title before you speak.

Check which section of Bear you are in, too. A note in the Archive or in the Trash is out of the way on purpose. If the note you want to add to has ended up in the Trash, restore it first and then dictate. And remember the title rule from fix 1: if the cursor is on the first line, your words become part of the note's title, not its body.

If you dictated into the wrong note, select the text, cut it, open the right note and paste it in.

7. Check sync if the note is missing on your other devices

If your dictated words are in Bear on your iPhone but not on your Mac or iPad, that is a sync problem, not a dictation problem. Bear syncs through iCloud, and sync is part of Bear Pro. Without Pro, notes you create on your iPhone stay on your iPhone.

With Pro, check that both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account, that iCloud is allowed for Bear in your iPhone's iCloud settings, and that both devices are online. Low Power Mode and Low Data Mode can hold back background activity, so a note may only sync once you open Bear for a moment. If you edited the same note on two devices while one of them was offline, look at the note on both before you delete anything, in case the two versions need merging by hand.

8. Free up the microphone

Dictation needs the microphone to itself. A phone or FaceTime call, a video meeting in another app, or a recording app still running in the background can all keep hold of it, and dictation may refuse to start until they let go. End the call or stop the recording, then try again.

Headphones are the next suspect. If the mic key does nothing, or dictation starts and gives up at once, disconnect your Bluetooth earbuds or headset and test with the iPhone's own microphone. If that works, the problem is the headset connection, not Bear. Our guide to iPhone dictation not working with AirPods walks through the headphone side.

9. Keep the keyboard up while you talk

Dictation runs on the keyboard, so anything that puts the keyboard away ends it, often mid-sentence. In a note app the usual culprits are your own fingers. Dragging down through the note to reread an earlier line can dismiss the keyboard. A tap on a link, a tag or a checkbox in the note does what that item does, which can take you out of the text. Switching to another app to check something ends the session as well. Hold the phone still while you speak, and scroll or tap only once the words have arrived.

The other cause is a pause. Apple's dictation stops when you go quiet for a moment, and gathering your thoughts involves exactly that kind of pause. Whatever you said before the pause stays in the note, and anything after it is lost. Our guide to why iPhone dictation keeps stopping explains what you can do about it.

10. Check dictation on your iPhone

If dictation failed in Notes too, the problem is on the phone. Open Settings, go to General, then Keyboard, and make sure Enable Dictation is on. If the switch is missing or greyed out, check Screen Time: under Content & Privacy Restrictions, open the allowed apps list and make sure Siri & Dictation is allowed. A work or school iPhone may also restrict dictation through its management profile.

Make sure the keyboard language matches the language you are speaking, since dictation follows the active keyboard. Then install any pending iOS update, update Bear from the App Store, and if nothing else has worked, restart your iPhone. A restart clears stuck audio sessions and keyboard processes in one step.

Bear quirks that look like broken dictation

• Every "new line" adds a bullet. Inside a list, Return starts the next item, and so does a spoken "new line". Pressing Return on an empty item usually ends the list, so dictate the list, step out of it, and then carry on with prose. Our guide to dictating bullet points and lists has more.
• Every title ends with a full stop. iPhone dictation adds punctuation automatically, which suits sentences better than titles. You can turn off Auto-Punctuation under Settings, General, then Keyboard, or delete the full stop by hand.
• A tag only kept its first word. Bear ends a simple tag at the first space. A tag with spaces in it needs a closing hash sign as well, which is far easier to type than to say.
• The keyboard is covering the words. With the keyboard and Bear's formatting bar both up, the line you are dictating can sit just out of sight. Scroll a little before you start, not while you speak.
• Words change after they land. Autocorrect and the text replacements in your keyboard settings can rewrite what dictation typed. If the same word keeps changing, check Settings, General, Keyboard, then Text Replacement.
• Names and jargon come out wrong. Client names, project codenames and technical terms are the words dictation mishears most, and in a notes app you will later search for exactly those words. Our guide to why iPhone dictation gets words wrong covers the causes.

Quick triage

• The note is open but there is no keyboard: no cursor in the text. Tap into it. Fix 1.
• Keyboard is up, but no mic: the wrong keyboard, Full Access, or dictation is off. Fix 2.
• A lock screen and no text: an encrypted note. Unlock it. Fix 3.
• Words turned into a heading, a list or a tag: Markdown shortcuts. Fix 4.
• Your notes vanished from the list: your words went into the search field. Fix 5.
• Words landed in the title or another note: fix 6.
• Note missing on your Mac: sync needs Bear Pro and iCloud. Fix 7.
• Mic starts, then stops at once: microphone busy, or Bluetooth. Fix 8.
• Dictation ends mid-sentence: the keyboard went away, or you paused. Fix 9.
• Fails in Notes too: iPhone dictation settings. Fix 10.

Bear on iPhone versus Bear on a Mac

On a Mac you start dictation with a keyboard shortcut and not a mic key, so there is no on-screen keyboard to go missing. There, the usual trap is clicking a note in the list, which leaves the list in charge of the keyboard. On iPhone everything runs through the on-screen keyboard, so the first question is always whether a keyboard appeared at all, and password prompts switch you to Apple's keyboard. The rest carries across: Markdown shortcuts, the search field, encrypted notes and Pro-only sync behave the same way on both. Our guide to Mac dictation not working in Bear covers the desktop side.

If you keep notes in more than one app, the same kinds of problems turn up elsewhere with their own twists. We have guides to iPhone dictation not working in Obsidian, which also formats Markdown as you go, to Notion, and to Apple's Notes app.

A dictation workflow that suits Bear on a phone

• Dictate first, format later. Get the thought down in plain sentences, then add headings, lists and tags with the formatting bar. Speaking is fast and formatting by voice is slow, so keep the two jobs apart.
• Title, new line, body. In a new note, say a short title, say "new line", then talk. Your note list stays readable.
• Type the tags. A tag is one or two words, and typing it avoids every surprise in fix 4.
• One thought per note. Short notes are easier to dictate in one go, easier to find later, and less likely to be interrupted by a pause.
• Read it back once. A quick pass catches the misheard name before you search for it next month and cannot find it.

It is worth getting right, because speaking is much faster than typing. Most adults type around 40 words per minute on a full keyboard, and even professional typists usually sit around 80 to 100, while normal speech runs at 130 to 150 words per minute. On a phone keyboard the gap is wider still. A note app shows the difference most clearly, since the point of a note is to capture a thought before it fades. For the basics of setting up, see our guide on how to dictate notes in Bear.

A keyboard with a mic for every note

Apple's dictation is free and built in, but it stops when you pause, it depends on settings that are easy to switch off by accident, and fixing a misheard word on a small screen means selecting and retyping by hand.

Voice Keyboard Pro is a custom iPhone keyboard with a built-in mic button for dictation in any iOS app, Bear included. Tap into a note, tap the mic and speak, and your words are added at the cursor. Because it is a keyboard and not a feature of one app, it works the same way in Bear, Notes, Mail and everywhere else you type. Like any keyboard, it only appears once there is a cursor in some text, so fixes 1, 3 and 5 still apply.

A few features help with notes in particular:

• Voice Edit lets you speak a change to fix text, so you can correct a misheard name without selecting and retyping it on a small screen.
• Two-way translation while dictating, across 24 languages, lets you speak in one language and write in another, which helps if you keep notes in a language other than the one you think in.
• Swipe typing is there for the moments when speaking out loud is not practical, such as a quiet train or a meeting that is still going.

Setup means adding the keyboard in Settings and allowing Full Access so that it can reach the transcription service. On privacy, our servers store only operational pings. No audio and no transcript content is stored, which matters for a notes app that holds private thoughts. There is a free tier with daily limits, and Pro is $4.99 a month or $34.99 a year. On a Mac, the same product lives in your menu bar: hold a hotkey, speak, release, and the text appears at your cursor in Bear or anywhere else.

Frequently asked questions

Does Bear have voice typing on iPhone?

Not as a feature of its own. You dictate with the mic on your iPhone keyboard, which types into whichever note has the cursor, exactly as if you had typed the words.

Why is there no keyboard when I open a note in Bear?

Opening a note shows it, but the keyboard only appears when there is a cursor in the text. Tap directly in the note where you want your words to go, and the keyboard and its mic slide up.

Why did my dictated words turn into a heading or a tag?

Dictation wrote a hash sign, a hyphen or a number at the start of a line, and Bear formatted the line as Markdown, exactly as if you had typed it. Undo straight away, or delete the symbol. Dictate plain sentences and add formatting afterwards.

Why did my notes disappear when I started dictating?

Your words went into the search field at the top of the note list, which filtered the list down to almost nothing. Clear the search or tap Cancel and your notes come back.

Can I dictate into an encrypted Bear note?

Yes, once it is unlocked. While it is locked there is no text to tap into. You cannot dictate the password itself, because iOS switches to Apple's keyboard without dictation for password fields.

Why isn't the note I dictated on my iPhone showing up on my Mac?

Bear syncs through iCloud, and sync is part of Bear Pro. With Pro, check that both devices use the same Apple Account, that iCloud is allowed for Bear, and that Bear has been open on both for a moment.

Does this work the same way on iPad?

Yes. Bear on iPad works the same way, so every fix here applies. There is more room on screen, and with a hardware keyboard attached the on-screen keyboard may stay hidden, but the mic still lives on the keyboard.

What to do next

Run the 30-second Notes test, then work through the fixes that match what you saw. For most people it is one of the first five: no cursor in the note, the wrong keyboard, a locked note, a Markdown shortcut, or the search field holding on to the words. If notes are missing on your other devices, it is sync, not dictation. And if you want dictation that works the same way in every app on your phone, try Voice Keyboard Pro's free tier on your next note.