Help

Troubleshooting

Fixes for the problems people actually hit — no pill, no text, wrong words, slow refine.

Work down the section that matches what you are seeing. Each starts with the most common cause.

Nothing happens when I press the key

Is Voxy running? Look for its icon — the menu bar on macOS, the system tray on Windows. If it is not there, open Voxy.
macOS: is Accessibility granted? Open Help & Permissions in Voxy. This is the most common cause by a distance. Windows needs no equivalent.
macOS: did you restart after granting it? macOS sometimes needs Voxy quit and reopened before Accessibility takes effect.
Are you pressing the right key? Check Settings → General → Dictation hotkey. The default is Right ⌘ on macOS and Right Ctrl on Windows — in both cases the key on the right of the keyboard. The left one does nothing.
macOS, using fn? It clashes with the system dictation and emoji shortcut. Turn that off under System Settings → Keyboard, or pick a different key.
Windows: is antivirus blocking the keyboard hook? Voxy watches for your key with a low-level hook, which some antivirus tools stop on principle. Allow Voxy in your antivirus and try again.

The pill appears but no text arrives

Check where your cursor is. Click into the text field before you speak, and do not switch apps while the pill is showing.
Try Typing mode. Some apps block programmatic paste. Open Settings → General → Text insertion and pick Typing (compatible).
Check Accessibility again. Recording works without it. Typing into other apps does not.

Voxy hears silence

Check the microphone. Open Settings → General. If the device is marked (virtual), that is almost certainly your problem — pick a physical microphone.
Check Microphone permission. On macOS: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone. On Windows: Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone.
Check the input level. On macOS: System Settings → Sound → Input. On Windows: Settings → System → Sound → Input. Speak and watch the meter move.

Nothing appears in one app, but everything else works

On Windows, check whether that app is running as Administrator. Windows does not let an ordinary program type into an elevated window, and that applies to every app, not just Voxy.

On macOS, some apps block programmatic paste. Switch Settings → General → Text insertion to Typing (compatible).

The words are wrong

Add the word to your Vocabulary. For names and jargon, add a Term. For a word Voxy keeps mangling the same way, add a Replacement. See Vocabulary.
Use Correct Last Dictation from Voxy's menu bar or tray icon right after a mistake. It saves the fix for you.
Try the Most accurate engine if you have an accent or a noisy room. See Speech Engine.
Speak in full sentences. Voxy uses surrounding words to decide spelling and punctuation.

The first dictation after a break is slow

That is the AI model being reloaded, and it takes about 20 seconds.

Open Settings → AI Refine and set Keep Voxy ready to Automatic (the default) or Always. See AI Refine.

Refine is not running at all

Is it enabled? Settings → AI Refine → Enable refine pass.
Is Ollama installed and running? The same page shows its state and can install it.
Is the model pulled? If the code model was never downloaded, Voxy falls back to the prose one rather than failing.

Home also shows the live state of both pipeline stages — it is the quickest place to see which half is unhappy.

Text arrives with the wrong tone

Check which style that app is set to on the Styles page. Apps are added there automatically the first time you dictate into them.

Code comes out as prose

Your editor may not be one of the sixteen recognised apps. Set it to the code style on the Styles page. See Code mode.

"Admin token rejected" or licence problems

See License. If activation fails with a device limit, press Deactivate This Device on a machine you no longer use.

Still stuck

Email info@voxyapp.org with what you were doing and what happened. Your macOS version and Voxy version — both on Settings → General → About — help a lot.