Voice troubleshooting

Hold the mic, speak, release — Field transcribes and runs the action. When that doesn't work, the toast tells you which of four things went wrong. Each has a different fix.

Quickest diagnostic: open Settings → Voice and use the test panel. It records a short clip, plays it back, and shows you what Whisper transcribed. If the playback sounds wrong (silent, garbled, time-stretched) the issue is your mic or your operating system, not Field — work the steps below. If it sounds fine but the transcription is consistently wrong, that's a Whisper accuracy ceiling and a different conversation.

“No audio detected”

Field captured the recording but it was silent — your microphone isn't reaching the browser.

• macOS permission. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone. Make sure your browser is enabled. The browser-level permission isn't enough; macOS gates it separately.
• Right input selected. System Settings → Sound → Input. Your built-in mic, headset, or external mic should show a moving level meter when you speak. If the meter is flat, the device isn't hearing you.
• Browser site permission. In Chrome, click the lock icon in the address bar → Microphone → Allow. If a different mic was previously granted, switch it.

“Recording was too short”

You released the mic before getting a full second of speech. Hold longer — about a second per phrase is the floor. The button shows a red recording state while held; release after you've finished speaking, not mid-word.

“Audio looks corrupted”

Field captured something but it's high-frequency noise rather than speech. This isn't a Field bug — macOS Core Audio is in a stuck state, often caused by virtual audio drivers (Microsoft Teams, Virtual Desktop, Krisp, BlackHole, Loopback) that didn't release the input cleanly.

Quick test to confirm: open QuickTime → New Audio Recording → record yourself for 5 seconds → play it back. If playback is silent, garbled, or the wrong duration, your Mac's audio is the issue, not Field.

Fix in order of friction:

1. Quit Chrome entirely (⌘Q from the menu, not just close the window) and reopen. Chrome's audio service runs in a separate process; stuck states often clear on a full restart.
2. Restart Core Audio. In Terminal: sudo killall coreaudiod. macOS auto-relaunches it. Test QuickTime — if recording duration matches playback, you're back.
3. Check Audio MIDI Setup. Applications → Utilities → Audio MIDI Setup. Click your input device. Format should be 48,000 Hz (or 44,100). If it's set to something unusual, change it.
4. Disconnect Bluetooth audio. AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones can leave macOS's audio routing in a stuck state with their negotiated sample rate. Disconnect everything in the Bluetooth menu and retry.
5. Reboot. Several Core Audio resets and a setup that looks correct but doesn't behave correctly = stuck driver state. A clean reboot reliably clears it. This is the most common fix when the lighter steps don't work.

After the reboot, test QuickTime first. Once that's clean, voice in Field will work without any other changes.

“Couldn't make out any speech”

Audio looked healthy but Whisper didn't find recognizable speech in it. Usually means you spoke too quietly or were too far from the mic. Try speaking up, or moving closer.

If accuracy on domain terms (plugin names, client names) is the issue, that's a different problem — voice uses a vocabulary prompt biased toward your operator's clients and common WordPress terms, but Whisper can still misinterpret unusual or new vocabulary.

If nothing above works

Most voice failures are macOS-side. If QuickTime works correctly but Field doesn't, that's a Field bug — let us know with the toast text you saw and your browser/version. If QuickTime is also broken, the problem is upstream of Field and a reboot is almost always the fastest fix.