Questions and troubleshooting
Dictation
Nothing is typed after I release the shortcut
Check the overlay and the latest entry in the history; they say what happened.
- The text is on the clipboard: Voltip could not paste, and the entry says why. Paste with Ctrl V, or ⌘ V on a Mac. On a Mac, check that Voltip has the Accessibility permission. On Linux with Wayland, install a paste tool; see Platform notes.
- "No speech detected": the recording was silent or shorter than about a third of a second. Press Test microphone on the home page and check the strength bar, and the input device under Settings → Microphone.
- An error: the recognition service could not be reached, or a key or model is missing. The home page shows which service is in use and what it needs.
The shortcut does nothing
Another app may hold the same key combination; Settings → Shortcuts shows whether it is registered. On a pure Wayland session, apps cannot register global shortcuts: bind a system shortcut to voltip-desktop --toggle.
Can I use Voltip without an internet connection?
Yes, with a local model. Download it once; recognition then works offline. AI polish needs a service, unless you run Ollama on your computer.
Does Voltip listen all the time?
No. The microphone opens when you press the shortcut and closes when the recording ends. The microphone test on the home page runs for at most 15 seconds.
The text comes out in Traditional characters
Some models write Traditional characters. Under Speech models → Recognition → Chinese script, choose Simplified, which is the default.
Esc does not cancel
Esc works while a dictation is recording or being processed. On a pure Wayland session, use a shortcut bound to voltip-desktop --cancel instead.
Local models
The first dictation on the graphics card is slow
The first run on a graphics card prepares the model for it, which took between 13 seconds and two minutes on the cards we measured. Later runs are fast.
The model download is slow
Voltip switches to another download source when one is slow, and resumes interrupted downloads. You can also download from the command line: voltip-desktop --download-model qwen3-asr-0.6b.
Qwen3-ASR does not load on an older computer
It needs a processor with AVX2. Use SenseVoice Small, Paraformer or a cloud service instead.
Installing and updating
Windows says "Windows protected your PC"
The packages are not code-signed yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
macOS blocks Voltip or asks for permissions again
The first start of an app that is not notarized needs one confirmation; see Install. Updating from version 0.0.6 or earlier asks for the keychain and the permissions once more; later updates keep them.
Where are my files, and how do I remove Voltip?
See Updates, uninstall and your data.
The phone
When can I use the phone app?
The Android app is built and tested but not released yet. It will be on the releases page once it is.
Something else
Use Feedback at the bottom of the sidebar, or open an issue on GitHub. The feedback dialog lists everything it sends before you send it.