# Nothing gets typed

You pressed the shortcut, you spoke, and no text appeared. Work through these in order.

Work down this list. It is ordered by how often each cause is the real one.

## 1. Did the overlay appear?

If pressing the shortcut shows nothing at all, the key press is not reaching Blabb.

- Another application may have claimed the same shortcut. Change it in
  [Shortcut & text entry](/docs/configuration/shortcut-and-text-entry/).
- Blabb must be running. Check the system tray.

## 2. Did the pill appear, but its dots stay still while you spoke?

That is a microphone problem, not a dictation problem.

- Windows Settings, **Privacy & security** → **Microphone**. Both *Microphone access* and
  *Let apps access your microphone* must be on, and Blabb must be allowed.
- Check the input device. Windows silently switches to a newly connected headset, so the app
  may be listening to a microphone that is not near your mouth.
- Test in Settings, **Voice input** — the level meter there responds immediately.

> [!WARNING]
> If microphone access was denied at onboarding, grant it in Windows Settings and then press your
> shortcut again — Blabb opens the microphone per dictation, so the next one uses the new
> permission. Restart Blabb only if it still cannot hear you.

## 3. Did the dictation finish, with nothing appearing?

Then the text was almost certainly entered somewhere else. Blabb does not remember which window you
started in — it delivers the text to whatever has keyboard focus at the moment it is ready. Anything
that takes focus while Blabb is working gets your words.

Common causes:

- Clicking into another window while the pill was working.
- A notification toast or a UAC prompt taking focus.
- Dictating into a window that was not accepting keyboard input to begin with. Click into
  the field and check the cursor is blinking before you press the shortcut.

## 4. Does the target application accept synthetic input?

A small number of applications refuse input that did not come from a physical device —
some game anti-cheat layers, and a few security tools. Test in Notepad. If Notepad works and
the other application does not, the application is filtering, not Blabb.

Applications running elevated are a special case: an unelevated app cannot send input to an
elevated one. If the target window was opened as administrator, Blabb cannot type into it.

## 5. Nothing above

Logs are at `%LocalAppData%\Blabb\logs\`, rolling daily. The most recent file covers the
attempt you just made.

Include it when you write to [support@blabb.io](mailto:support@blabb.io), along with the
application you were dictating into and whether the overlay reached **Typing**.