Short answer: If iPhone dictation is not working in Obsidian, switch the note from reading view to editing view and tap inside the note body until the keyboard opens, then tap the mic. Obsidian has no dictation of its own. If the mic key is missing, turn on Enable Dictation in Settings.
You are out on a walk, an idea arrives, and you open Obsidian on your iPhone to talk it into today's note. You tap the note and nothing happens. No keyboard, no microphone. Or the keyboard comes up, you dictate a whole paragraph, and it lands in the note's title, which Obsidian then refuses to save. Or the words appear, and a minute later half of them are gone.
Obsidian does not have dictation built in. On iPhone, dictation comes from your keyboard: the mic on Apple's keyboard, or on a third-party keyboard that has one. That means dictation works in Obsidian exactly as far as typing does, and the problems come from three places. Obsidian is not showing a keyboard at all, usually because the note is in reading view. Your words are going somewhere other than the note body, such as the title or the properties. Or the vault itself, a folder of Markdown files that has to be downloaded, synced and writable on your phone, is getting in the way.
This guide works through each of those in order. If dictation is failing in every app on your iPhone, not only in Obsidian, start with our complete guide to iPhone dictation not working instead.
Obsidian's Audio recorder is not dictation
One source of confusion first. Obsidian includes a core plugin called Audio recorder. When it is turned on, it records sound and saves it as an audio file in your vault, embedded in the current note. It does not turn speech into text. If you tapped a microphone icon inside Obsidian and got an audio attachment instead of words, that was the Audio recorder doing exactly what it is designed to do.
For text, use the mic on your keyboard. Everything below is about getting that mic to appear and getting its words into the right place.
Why Obsidian is harder on dictation than Notes
In Apple's Notes app, tapping a note almost always puts a cursor in the text, and the keyboard follows. Obsidian has more layers. A note can be open in reading view, which renders your Markdown as a finished page and has no cursor at all. A note in editing view has several separate text areas: the inline title at the top, the properties block below it, and then the body. Around the note are the search box, the quick switcher and the command palette, all of which take text too.
Then there is the vault. Your notes are plain files, often stored in iCloud or synced with Obsidian Sync or another tool, and your settings and community plugins travel with them in a hidden folder inside the vault. So a note can be half-downloaded, a sync can quietly replace what you just said, and a plugin you set up on your Mac can be changing text on your phone.
The 30-second Notes test
Before you change anything, open Apple's Notes app, start a new note and tap the mic on your keyboard.
- If dictation fails in Notes too, the problem is your iPhone's dictation setup or microphone, not Obsidian. Go to fixes 4, 5 and 9.
- If dictation works in Notes, the problem is Obsidian-specific. Start at fix 1 and work down.
The 10 fixes, in order
1. Switch the note from reading view to editing view
This is the most common cause. Reading view shows your note as a formatted page, and tapping it does not open the keyboard, so there is no mic key to tap. Look at the top of the note for the button that switches views. It shows a book or a pencil, depending on which view you are in, and in some versions the option sits in the note's menu instead. Switch to editing view, tap in the text, and the keyboard should appear.
If notes keep opening in reading view, change the default. In Obsidian's settings, open Editor and set Default view for new tabs to Editing view. That one setting fixes most "Obsidian never shows a keyboard" reports.
2. Tap into the note body, not the title or properties
At the top of an open note, Obsidian can show an inline title, which is the file name, and a properties block. Both are text fields, and dictating into them has side effects. Words dictated into the inline title rename the file. File names cannot contain certain characters, such as colons, slashes and question marks, so a dictated sentence that ends with "question mark" can leave you with an error and a title that will not save. Dictation into a property field puts your words into the note's metadata rather than its content.
Tap below the properties, inside the body text, and check the cursor is blinking there before you tap the mic. If you do not use the inline title, you can turn it off under Appearance in Obsidian's settings, which removes one easy place to land by mistake. The same goes for the search box, the quick switcher and the command palette. If your words turned into a search, focus was in one of those.
3. Let the vault finish loading and syncing
If your vault lives in iCloud, your iPhone may not keep every file downloaded. A note you have not opened on the phone recently can take a moment to arrive, and until it does it may open slowly or look empty. A large vault can take a while to load when Obsidian starts. Give it time before you start dictating, especially on a poor connection.
Sync is the other half. If you use Obsidian Sync or another sync service, wait until it has finished pulling changes from your other devices. If you dictate into a note that is out of date, the newer version from your Mac can arrive a moment later. Depending on your sync method, you may end up with merged text, a duplicate conflicted copy, or your dictation replaced entirely. When words vanish a minute after you spoke them, sync is the first thing to suspect. Our guide to Mac dictation not working in Obsidian covers sync conflicts from the desktop side.
4. Switch to a keyboard that has a mic
If the keyboard appears but has no microphone key, check which keyboard is showing. Many third-party keyboards have no mic of their own, and Apple's mic only appears on Apple's keyboard. Tap and hold the globe key at the bottom of the keyboard and choose Apple's keyboard, or a third-party keyboard with a mic built in. A third-party keyboard usually needs Full Access to use its mic, so if it has one that does not respond, check that permission in the keyboard's settings. If your chosen keyboard keeps disappearing and Apple's comes back instead, our guide to an iPhone keyboard that keeps switching back covers why.
5. Bring back a missing mic key
If Apple's keyboard is showing and still has no mic, dictation is turned off or restricted. Open Settings, go to General, then Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation. 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 phone may have dictation restricted by its management profile.
While you are in the keyboard settings, check the dictation languages. If you speak one language but dictation is set to another, it can appear to listen and then produce nothing useful.
6. Rule out community plugins and synced settings
Because your settings and plugins live inside the vault, whatever you set up on your Mac can come along to your phone. Plugins that are desktop-only stay switched off on mobile, but many run on both. Plugins that format text as you type, expand abbreviations, lint Markdown or auto-pair brackets can all rewrite dictated text as it arrives, or move the cursor while dictation is still working.
Check Editor settings on your phone too. If Vim key bindings are turned on, the editor treats letters as commands rather than text until you switch modes, which makes dictation look scrambled or ignored. To test for a plugin problem, turn community plugins off in Obsidian's settings (the switch is called Restricted mode in some versions), then dictate into a note. If it works, turn plugins back on one at a time until you find the one that interferes.
7. Stop Markdown turning your words into formatting
Obsidian's editor reacts to characters as you type them, and dictation types them for you. A line that starts with a hash becomes a heading. A line that starts with a hyphen becomes a bullet, and pressing Return inside a list continues it, so a dictated "new line" in the middle of a list adds another bullet. Two opening square brackets open the link picker, and a hash in the middle of text opens the tag picker. While one of those pickers is showing, the next Return can choose a suggestion instead of starting a new line, which is how a dictated sentence ends up as a link to a note you never meant to mention.
If you want dictation to behave like plain text, avoid dictating symbols at the start of lines, close any picker that pops up before continuing, and add links and tags by hand afterward. Our guide to dictating in Obsidian on iPhone has a fuller approach to speaking Markdown.
8. Stop dictation cutting off, and let it finish before you tap
Apple dictation stops listening after a pause. In a notes app you pause to think all the time, so a thought can end mid-sentence. Our guide to iPhone dictation cutting off when you pause explains what you can and cannot change.
The Obsidian-specific version is tapping too soon. Apple dictation often revises words for a moment after you stop speaking. Obsidian shows a toolbar of formatting buttons just above the keyboard, and tapping one of them, or tapping elsewhere in the note, while dictation is still settling can cut off the last words or leave them doubled. Obsidian's editor is built with web technology rather than Apple's standard text controls, and live revisions from dictation are exactly the kind of thing that can occasionally confuse the cursor. Stop dictation, wait until the text stops changing, then carry on.
9. Check that nothing else is holding the microphone
Dictation cannot hear you if another app has the microphone. A phone or video call, a voice memo, a screen recording with sound, or Obsidian's own Audio recorder while it is recording will all block it. Finish those first. If you use AirPods or another Bluetooth headset, try dictating with them disconnected to see whether the headset is the cause.
10. Update, then restart in the right order
Update Obsidian from the App Store and update iOS, since fixes to text editing and dictation arrive in both. Then close Obsidian completely by swiping it away in the app switcher, restart your iPhone, and open the vault again. Obsidian saves as you go, so a restart does not cost you finished notes, and it clears a dictation process that has hung in the background, which no settings change will fix.
Obsidian quirks that look like broken dictation
Some problems are not failures at all, just the way Obsidian handles text:
- A note has a strange new name. You dictated into the inline title. Rename the note and move the text into the body.
- Your words went into yesterday's daily note. If Obsidian stayed open overnight, the tab may still show yesterday's note. Open today's daily note before dictating.
- Brackets, asterisks or hashes seem to vanish. In Live Preview, Obsidian hides Markdown symbols once the formatting is applied. The characters are still in the file. Switch to Source mode in the Editor settings if you want to see them.
- Everything became a bullet. You started dictating inside a list, so each new line continued it. Press Return twice or remove the bullet to get back to plain text.
- Some words appear twice. You tapped or started typing while dictation was still revising. Stop, wait a moment, then continue.
Quick triage table
| What you see | Most likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Tapping the note does nothing | Reading view | 1 |
| Dictation renamed the note | Cursor was in the inline title | 2 |
| Words turned into a search | Focus in search or quick switcher | 2 |
| Note looks empty or loads slowly | Vault still downloading | 3 |
| Words vanish a minute later | Sync overwrote the note | 3 |
| Keyboard appears without a mic | Wrong keyboard or dictation off | 4, 5 |
| Text arrives scrambled or rewritten | Plugin or Vim key bindings | 6 |
| Dictation becomes a link, tag or heading | Markdown or a picker took over | 7 |
| Last words missing or doubled | Tapped before dictation settled | 8 |
| Fails in Notes too | iPhone dictation or mic problem | 5, 9 |
Dictation works in Obsidian on my Mac, so why not on iPhone?
On a Mac, dictation is a system feature you trigger from the keyboard, and Obsidian's editor is always one click away from a cursor. On iPhone, the mic lives on the on-screen keyboard, and the keyboard only appears when Obsidian asks for it. Reading view, the inline title and a half-downloaded vault are all ways for the phone to show you a note without asking for a keyboard. Plugins can also behave differently on mobile. If you use the same vault on a Mac, our Mac Obsidian guide covers the desktop causes, and our guide to iPhone dictation not working in Notion covers the other popular notes app with similar layers.
A dictation workflow that suits Obsidian on a phone
A phone is a good place to capture ideas and a poor place to organize them. A few habits make dictation much more effective:
- Use one note as a voice inbox. A daily note or a single capture note, set to open in editing view, means one tap and you are ready to speak.
- Dictate plain sentences. Leave headings, links and tags until later. Talking in plain text avoids the Markdown and picker traps entirely.
- Organize on a bigger screen. Turn your phone captures into linked, structured notes when you are back at a computer.
- Let sync finish on both ends. Open the vault and wait a moment before dictating, and let the phone sync before you switch devices.
Speaking is also simply faster. Most adults type around 40 words per minute on a full keyboard, and thumb typing on a phone is usually slower, while speech runs at 130 to 150 words per minute. For getting a half-formed idea down before it fades, that difference matters.
A keyboard built around dictation
Most of the problems above come from how Obsidian handles views and focus, and from Apple dictation's habits: stopping when you pause, revising words after you finish, and leaving you to fix mistakes by placing a tiny cursor in a dense Markdown note.
Voice Keyboard Pro is a custom iPhone keyboard with a built-in mic button for dictation in any iOS app, Obsidian included. Get the cursor into the note body, tap the mic, speak, and your words are added at the cursor. Because it is a keyboard rather than a feature of one app, it behaves the same in Obsidian, Notes, Mail and everywhere else you type. Like any keyboard, it only appears when Obsidian asks for one, so fix 1 applies to it too.
Three features suit note-taking in particular:
- Voice Edit lets you speak a change to fix text. If a dictated note has a word wrong, say the correction instead of trying to position a cursor between Markdown symbols.
- Two-way translation while dictating covers 24 languages, useful if you think in one language but keep your vault in another.
- Swipe typing is built in, for the tags, links and short labels that are easier to type than to say.
Two honest caveats. Setup means adding the keyboard in Settings and allowing Full Access so it can reach the transcription service. Our guide to enabling Full Access for an iPhone keyboard explains what that permission does. And it cannot fix a note that is in reading view, still downloading or being overwritten by sync. Those are Obsidian-side issues, and fixes 1 and 3 still apply.
On privacy, our servers store only operational pings. No audio and no transcript content is stored. 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 app lives in your menu bar: hold a hotkey, speak, release, and the text appears at your cursor.
Frequently asked questions
Does Obsidian have built-in dictation on iPhone?
No. Dictation in Obsidian comes from your keyboard's mic. Obsidian's Audio recorder core plugin records sound into an audio file in your vault, but it does not convert speech to text.
Why is there no keyboard when I tap a note in Obsidian?
The note is probably in reading view, which has no cursor. Switch to editing view with the button at the top of the note, and set Default view for new tabs to Editing view in Obsidian's Editor settings so it stays that way.
Why did dictation rename my note?
The cursor was in the inline title at the top of the note, which is the file name. Rename the note, then tap inside the body text before dictating. You can hide the inline title under Appearance in Obsidian's settings.
Why do my dictated words disappear after a few minutes?
Usually a sync conflict. If the note on your phone was out of date, the newer version from another device can replace what you dictated. Let sync finish before you start, and check for a conflicted copy of the note.
Why does dictation turn my words into links or headings?
Obsidian formats Markdown as you type. A hash at the start of a line makes a heading, and brackets or a hash inside text open the link or tag picker, where the next Return can pick a suggestion. Dictate plain sentences and add formatting by hand.
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 fix 1: the note was in reading view, so the keyboard never appeared. If words land in the wrong place, fix 2 covers it, and if they vanish later, fix 3. 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 voice note.
The words land at your cursor in whatever app you are already in — Mail, Slack, Word, a browser form. No dictation window, nothing to copy across.
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