Transcription not accessible on Voice Memos

I can't get to the Transcription feature on my iPhone Voice Memos

I'm running IOS 18.0.1 and OS Sequoia 15.0.1

M1 Chip in my MacBook Air. iPhone 11 Pro Max

Language and Country set to English, USA

I click the three dots but the menu does not show Transcription.

Nor does Edit Recording help

No icon appears at bottom left to start transcription either on previous recordings or current one

I've read several posts, but haven't seen similar issue.

I'm probably missing something simple, but can't see what.

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Oct 21, 2024 12:32 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 21, 2024 1:09 PM

Don't tap on the three dots. Tap on the recording you want to get the transcription for. The Tap on the waveform icon (the group of vertical lines) at the bottom left.






View a Voice Memos transcription on iPhone – Apple Support


27 replies

Mar 28, 2025 11:40 AM in response to Peter Russell1

ok Peter, I will do my best. For me it was about transcribing videos I record on my iphone (like snippets from podcasts), but it was pretty much the same process. I was also not able to transcribe any audios from the voice memo app. So here is what I did:

  1. Next to the recording, press on the the 3 buttons
  2. click share (box with arrow button)
  3. share and save to Notes
  4. Open notes and find the recording
  5. Click inside the box (says play on the right) & it will automatically transcribe
  6. Click on the 3 dots & add transcript to note
  7. Open Notes again either on your phone or on Mac
  8. From there you can copy it or do whatever


So I hope this works for you. Let me know! :)

Michele



Jan 8, 2025 10:30 PM in response to Peter Russell1

I was having this same issue and I believe it was only affecting the recordings from before my most recent iOS update. I was able to click the waveform box and comment icon for the most recent recordings only. For the older ones, I went to the recording and clicked the three dots on the right and selected “duplicate.” When I opened the newly produced copy, I was able to generate a transcript. Not sure why this worked but so far so good!

Mar 28, 2025 10:01 PM in response to Peter Russell1

don't give up.


When you save the recording in notes on your phone, close everything and then reopen the notes app (on your phone). Click on the note:

and here you need to tap once inside the grey box. At this point it should open and you should see it transcribe.

You then need to take the next step and "add Transcript to Note". Only then do you see the transcript in your notes and you can copy etc...

Jan 30, 2025 1:15 PM in response to Peter Russell1

I'm on 18.3. I found the transcription button (it looks like a pair of quotes, similar to those for viewing song lyrics in the Music app). However, I get the following error message about needing an internet connection for transcription support. Problem is, I'm at home on wifi (yes, I tested that it's working), so whatever "support" it needs to download should be able to do so. I can't find anywhere else in the app's settings to fix this.

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Transcription not accessible on Voice Memos

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