Mac Dictation Not Working in Linear? 10 Fixes That Work

Short answer: On a Mac, dictation types into whichever Linear field has a blinking cursor. Most failures come from Linear's keyboard-first design: a selected issue is not a text field, single keys act as shortcuts, and Return or a menu can swallow your words. Click into the title, description or comment box.

You open Linear on your Mac to write up a bug while it is still fresh in your head. You press your dictation shortcut, start talking, and nothing appears. Or the issue you had selected suddenly has a different status. Or half your sentence lands in the command menu, a word vanishes into a mention picker, or the description turns into a heading halfway through a thought. Or you finish a long comment, move to the next issue, and find out later that nobody ever saw it.

Linear is one of the fastest tools there is for people who type, and that is exactly why it can be awkward for people who talk. It is designed to be driven from the keyboard. Single letters and short key combinations change status, assign people, add labels and open menus, and they work whenever you are not typing in a text field. Its editor turns certain characters into formatting, mentions and menus as you type. Titles are single lines, comments are drafts until you send them, and the issue in front of you can change with one key press. Dictation knows none of that. It needs a live text field with a blinking cursor, and it types into whichever field that happens to be.

So most Linear dictation problems are about focus, and about what Linear does with the characters it receives, not about your microphone. This guide works through every cause in order, starting with the most common. The fixes apply whether you use Linear in Safari, Chrome or another browser, or in the Linear desktop app for Mac. If dictation is failing in every app on your Mac and not only in Linear, our complete guide to Mac dictation not working is the better place to start.

How dictation reaches Linear on a Mac

Linear has no microphone button of its own. On a Mac, your words come from one of two places, and both look the same from Linear's point of view: they place text at your cursor as if you had typed it.

Apple dictation

This is the option built into macOS. You start it with the dictation shortcut, usually the microphone key or a double press of the Fn or Globe key, or from Edit → Start Dictation in the menu bar. macOS handles the audio itself, so Linear never has to ask for microphone access, and the browser's microphone setting for the Linear site makes no difference to it. What matters is that a text field has focus when you start.

A third-party dictation app

Menu bar dictation apps, including ours, also type at the cursor. They need their own microphone permission, and usually Accessibility permission, under System Settings → Privacy & Security. They need a live text field to land in too, so everything below about focus, Return and menus applies to them as well. One thing is different: you start them with a hotkey you choose, and in an app as shortcut-heavy as Linear, that choice matters (fix 7).

The 30-second TextEdit test

Before you change any settings, open TextEdit, create a blank document, start dictation and say a sentence.

• If nothing appears in TextEdit either, the problem is dictation on your Mac, not Linear. Go to fixes 9 and 10.
• If it works in TextEdit but nothing lands in Linear, the problem is focus, a shortcut clash or the browser. Start at fix 1, then read fixes 7 and 8.
• If your words arrive but get reformatted, disappear into a menu or turn into a search, go to fixes 3 and 4.
• If text arrives but the title swallows everything, a comment never reaches your team or words land on the wrong issue, go to fixes 2, 5 and 6.

Half a minute here saves you from changing settings that were never the problem.

The 10 fixes, in order

1. Put the cursor in a field, not on an issue

This is the cause behind most "Linear dictation does nothing" reports. An issue list looks full of text, but none of it can be edited from the list. Clicking a row, or moving the highlight with the arrow keys, selects the issue. Opening it shows the issue view, with the title at the top, the description below it and the activity and comments underneath. None of that places a cursor anywhere, so dictation has nowhere to type.

Before you speak, look for a blinking cursor. To change a title, click the title text itself. To write a description, click inside the description area, including the placeholder text on an empty issue. To comment, click into the comment box at the bottom of the issue. To start a new issue, press C, Linear's shortcut for creating one, and the new issue window opens with the title ready for you.

Check focus by looking, not by typing test characters. In Linear, a stray key press with no field focused is not harmless. Many single keys are shortcuts, so a test letter can open a menu for the selected issue, such as its status or assignee, and other keys change properties outright. This matters for dictation too, because some dictation tools deliver text as a stream of simulated key presses. If no field has focus, Linear may read those the same way it reads yours. If something changed that you did not intend, open the issue and look at its activity, which records what changed and when, so you can set it back.

2. Keep issue titles to one line

An issue title is a single line of text. It is meant to be a short summary you can scan in a list, and there is nowhere in it for a second paragraph to go. When you dictate into a title and say "new line", or press Return to finish your thought, the line break has no place in the title. Depending on where you are, Linear may move you out of the title or treat Return as the end of editing. Either way, anything you say after that has no field to land in and is lost.

Long titles are the other trap. If you open a new issue and simply start talking, the whole bug report goes into the title, because that is where the cursor starts. The result is a title that fills the screen and a description that is empty.

The rule of thumb: say one short phrase into the title, then click into the description and talk through the details there. The description is a full editor where Return starts a new paragraph, so it can hold as much as you need. If a title has already swallowed a paragraph, cut everything after the first phrase and paste it into the description.

3. Watch for markdown, mentions and slash menus

Linear's editor formats as you type. Like most modern editors, it treats some characters at the start of a line as markdown: a hash sign followed by a space can turn the line into a heading, a dash or an asterisk can start a bulleted list, a number followed by a full stop can start a numbered one, and backticks can switch into code formatting. An at sign opens a picker for mentioning a teammate or linking another issue, and a slash can open a menu of things to insert. While a picker or menu is open, your next words are treated as a search, so part of a sentence can vanish into it or be swapped for a name.

Dictation produces these characters when you say their names, and it also produces them from things you might not expect. An email address brings an at sign with it, and a line that begins with a number and a full stop, which is how dictated numbered points often arrive, can become a numbered list. You have not lost anything when this happens. It is formatting, not deletion.

If a menu or picker opens, press Escape once to close it, taking care not to press it again and close the issue or the new issue window, or undo with Cmd+Z, then carry on. If a line has turned into a heading or a list you did not want, undo straight away, which usually removes the formatting and keeps the words. For mentions, it is easiest to dictate the sentence first, then type the @ and pick the person or issue by hand. Our guide to dictating quotes and special characters covers how to say symbols when you actually want them.

4. Close the command menu and search before you speak

Linear's command menu, opened with Cmd+K, is a text field. So is search, and so are the filter boxes that appear when you narrow down a view. If any of them is open when you start dictating, it has focus, and your words become a command search or a query rather than part of an issue. A sentence dictated into the command menu can also match a command, and pressing Return afterwards would run it.

The same goes for the small pickers Linear opens for status, assignee, labels, priority and project. Each has a search box at the top. If one is open when you start talking, your words filter that list instead of going into the issue.

Before you speak, press Escape until the menus and pickers have closed, then click into the field you meant. If you dictated a paragraph into search, select it, cut it, close search and paste it where it belongs.

5. Create the issue and send your comment

This fix is for words that arrived but never reached anyone. Typing into the new issue window writes an issue that does not exist yet. It only appears for your team once you create it, with the button at the bottom of the window or its keyboard shortcut. A comment works the same way: until you send it, it is text in your comment box that nobody else can see.

It is easy to dictate a long comment, then click the next issue in the list and move on. Depending on your version and how you left it, Linear may hold on to the unsent text or it may not, and either way your team has not seen it. The fix is a habit rather than a setting: read what you dictated, send it, and only then move on. Edits to the title or description of an existing issue are different, because Linear normally saves those as you go.

Return is less of a danger here than it is in a title. In the description and comment editors, Return usually starts a new line rather than sending anything, so a spoken line break just breaks the paragraph. That also means nothing leaves your screen until you send it yourself.

6. Check which issue you are in

Linear makes it very quick to move between issues, which also makes it easy to dictate into the wrong one. Keyboard navigation moves through the list, and an open issue can be swapped for the next one with a single key press. Clicking a linked issue, a sub-issue or a notification in your Inbox opens that one instead. If you then click into the comment box without checking, everything you say goes on the new issue.

Sub-issues deserve a second look. A parent issue lists its sub-issues, and each has its own title, description and comments. Open a sub-issue from its parent and the view changes to it, even though the screen can look almost the same. Projects add another layer, with project updates and documents that have editors of their own.

Glance at the issue identifier and title at the top of the view before you dictate. If your words went on the wrong issue, cut them and paste them into the right one. If you already sent a comment there, edit or delete it from its menu and post it again where it belongs.

7. Pick a dictation shortcut Linear does not use

If you start dictation with a hotkey, check that Linear does not claim the same keys. Linear uses a great many shortcuts, from single letters to combinations with Cmd, Option and Shift, and while it is the frontmost app it may react to a key press before, or as well as, your dictation tool. The symptoms are confusing: dictation starts in other apps but not in Linear, or it starts and a Linear menu opens at the same moment.

Apple dictation's default shortcuts, the microphone key and a double press of Fn or Globe, rarely clash. Custom shortcuts are where the trouble starts. If you have set your own, or you use a dictation app with a hotkey you picked, change it to something Linear leaves alone, such as a single modifier key, and test again. Linear lists its keyboard shortcuts inside the app, so you can check a combination before you choose it. Our guide to a Mac dictation shortcut that is not working covers the macOS side of choosing one.

8. Rule out browser extensions and try the other version of Linear

Grammar checkers, writing assistants, password managers and translation tools attach themselves to text fields in your browser. Usually that is harmless, but some intercept input or draw overlays that confuse focus, especially in rich text editors like Linear's description and comment boxes. Some extensions also add keyboard shortcuts of their own, which can collide with Linear's.

To test, open the same issue in a private window, where most extensions are off by default, in a different browser, or in the Linear desktop app. If dictation works there, turn your extensions back on one at a time in your usual browser to find the culprit. If it works in the browser but not in the desktop app, make sure the app is up to date and restart it. If it fails in every browser and in the desktop app, the cause is on the Mac side, and fixes 9 and 10 are more likely to help. If Chrome is your browser and dictation misbehaves in other web apps too, our guide to Mac dictation not working in Chrome may be the quicker fix.

9. Clear Secure Input

macOS has a protection called Secure Input that stops apps from reading keystrokes while you type a password. While it is on, dictation cannot deliver text into other apps. Some apps turn it on and forget to turn it off, and macOS gives no obvious sign that it is still active.

Password managers are the usual cause, along with a Terminal window sitting at a password prompt or an app showing a login screen. People who live in Linear often have a terminal open all day, so a password prompt waiting in a background window is easy to forget. Finish or close those prompts, click into a text field in another app, and test dictation there. If it still fails everywhere, log out of your Mac account and back in, which clears it. If the problem started right after you signed in to Linear through a company single sign-on page, try quitting and reopening the browser.

10. Check your microphone and dictation settings

If dictation fails in TextEdit too, work through the Mac side:

• Dictation is on. Open System Settings → Keyboard and make sure Dictation is switched on, with the shortcut you expect.
• The right microphone is selected. Dictation has its own microphone source setting in the same place. Choose the microphone you are speaking into, then open System Settings → Sound → Input and watch the level meter move as you talk.
• Nothing else is holding the microphone. A video call, a screen recorder or a huddle in another app can keep the microphone busy. The microphone indicator in the menu bar and Control Center shows which app is using it.
• Bluetooth headsets are awake. Headphones sometimes connect for listening without making their microphone available. Switch to the Mac's built-in microphone to test.
• The language matches. If text arrives but is consistently wrong, check that the dictation language, including the regional variant, matches the way you speak.

If all of that looks right, restart your Mac. It clears stuck dictation processes and resets audio devices in one step.

Linear quirks that look like broken dictation

• Issue identifiers come out as words. An identifier is a team key and a number, and dictation has no idea it is one. It may spell the letters out, join them into a word or guess at something else entirely. Type identifiers by hand, or use the @ picker to link the issue, which also turns it into a proper reference.
• Code comes out as prose. Function names, file paths and error messages are not spoken language, so dictation turns them into ordinary words with spaces and capitals. Dictate the explanation and paste the code or the error text itself. Our guide to dictating bug reports covers a structure that keeps the two apart.
• Long descriptions get cut off. Apple dictation ends a session on its own after a pause it reads as the end of what you meant to say, and on some setups after a stretch of continuous speech. Our guide to the Mac dictation 30-second limit covers the workarounds.
• A title suddenly holds a whole paragraph. The cursor started in the title of a new issue, and you kept talking (fix 2).
• A new issue vanishes from the view. If the view you were in is filtered, or hides some statuses, a new issue that does not match can drop out of sight once it is created. Search for a word from its title to find it.
• Product names and team shorthand come out wrong. Service names, codenames and internal acronyms are the words general dictation handles worst, and Apple dictation has no way to learn them.
• Punctuation is missing. Apple dictation adds some punctuation on its own, and you can say "comma", "period" or "question mark" to place it exactly.

Quick reference

• Nothing happens with an issue selected or open: no field has a cursor. Fix 1.
• An issue's status or assignee changed: key presses with no field focused. Fix 1.
• The title ate the whole bug report: one line only. Fix 2.
• A line became a heading, or a name appeared mid-sentence: markdown or a picker. Fix 3.
• Your words turned into a search: the command menu, search or a picker had focus. Fix 4.
• Your team never saw your comment: it was never sent. Fix 5.
• Words landed on a different issue: the view switched. Fix 6.
• Dictation starts everywhere except Linear: a shortcut clash. Fix 7.
• Works in the desktop app but not the browser: an extension. Fix 8.
• Stopped working everywhere today: Secure Input. Fix 9.
• Fails in TextEdit too: Mac settings. Fix 10.

Why Linear is harder to dictate into than a document

In a word processor, the whole page is one text field. Click anywhere and talk, and Return starts a new paragraph. Linear works the other way round. It is built so that people who know the shortcuts never have to reach for the mouse, and so most of the screen is controls rather than text. Keys mean commands until you open a field, a handful of characters mean formatting once you do, and each field has its own idea of what Return does and when your words are saved.

That design is what makes Linear so quick, and it is also why dictation fails there in ways it never fails in an email. The good news is that the rules are consistent. Once you know where the cursor needs to be and which characters Linear treats specially, the problems become predictable, and so do the fixes. If your team also tracks work in Jira, our guide to Mac dictation not working in Jira covers the same kind of focus and saving problems there.

A dictation workflow that suits Linear

• Title first, in one phrase. Press C, say a short summary, then click into the description.
• Talk the description through. What you did, what happened and what you expected, in the order you would explain it to a teammate. Return breaks the paragraphs, and nothing is sent until you create the issue.
• Paste the technical parts. Speak the context and paste logs, code and identifiers, so each part comes out exactly right.
• Set properties with shortcuts afterwards. Status, assignee, priority and labels are faster with Linear's own keys than with your voice. Do them once you have finished talking and the cursor is out of the text.
• Send before you move. Read the comment back and send it before you open the next issue.

It is worth the effort because speaking is much faster than typing. Most adults type around 40 words per minute, and even professional typists usually sit around 80 to 100, while normal speech runs at 130 to 150 words per minute. Linear already takes most of the clicking out of issue tracking. Dictation takes out much of the typing, and that is the part that decides whether an issue gets a proper description or a one-line title that nobody understands a month later. For the setup side, our guide to dictating issues and comments in Linear walks through getting started.

A dictation tool built for work like this

Apple dictation is free and built in, and for many people one of the fixes above is all they need. If you write issues and comments all day, though, its limits start to show: sessions that end halfway through a description, and product names it has no way to learn.

Voice Keyboard Pro is a Mac app that lives in your menu bar. Hold a hotkey, speak, release, and the text appears at your cursor, system-wide. In Linear that means a title, a description, a comment, a project update or a document, in the browser or the desktop app. It still needs a live text field, so fixes 1 to 6 still apply, and because you choose its hotkey, pick one Linear does not use (fix 7). After that, the experience is different:

• It listens for as long as you hold the key. A pause to think does not end the session, so you can talk through a full reproduction in one go.
• Smart Vocabulary is a personal dictionary with replacement rules. Add your service names, codenames and team shorthand once, and they come out spelled correctly every time.
• Meeting Mode records meetings with speaker detection and produces AI notes, and calendar meeting detection helps you catch the meetings you want to capture. The decisions from a planning call or a triage session are a short step from issues in Linear.

On privacy, our servers store only operational pings. No audio and no transcript content is stored, which matters when your issues describe unreleased work. There is a free tier with daily limits, and Pro is $4.99 a month or $34.99 a year. If you also triage on your phone, the iPhone app is a custom keyboard with a built-in mic button that works in any iOS app, the Linear app included.

Frequently asked questions

Why does nothing happen when I dictate in Linear?

No text field has focus. Selecting or opening an issue does not put a cursor anywhere. Click into the title, the description or the comment box until a blinking cursor appears, then dictate.

Why did an issue change when I tried to dictate?

Something reached Linear as key presses while no field had focus, and Linear treats many single keys as shortcuts. Open the issue's activity to see what changed, set it back, then click into a text field before you speak.

Why does my description keep turning into headings or lists?

Linear's editor reads markdown as you type. A hash sign, a dash or a number with a full stop at the start of a line can reformat it. Undo straight away to keep the words without the formatting.

Does Linear need microphone permission for dictation?

Not for Apple dictation, which macOS handles on its own, and the browser's microphone setting for Linear does not affect it. Third-party dictation apps need their own microphone permission in System Settings, not a permission from Linear.

Does the same fix work for Linear on iPhone?

The focus rules are similar, but on iPhone you dictate with the mic on your keyboard rather than a Mac shortcut, and there are no single-key shortcuts to trip over. Tap into the title, description or comment box, and the keyboard and its mic should follow.

What to do next

Run the 30-second TextEdit test, then work through the fixes that match what you saw. For most people it is fix 1: an issue was selected or open, but no field had a cursor. If words turned into formatting or a search, it is fix 3 or fix 4, and if your team never saw what you said, it is fix 5. If dictation works everywhere except Linear, check your shortcut in fix 7, and if it stopped working everywhere at once, try fix 9 before anything else. And if you want dictation that keeps listening through a full bug report and learns your team's vocabulary, try Voice Keyboard Pro's free tier on your next issue.