Redcast Dictation History and retry
Find transcripts, recover failed recognition and control what remains on disk.
Run Dictation History from the launcher to search finished dictations. Entries are newest first, with a full preview. They include the final text, source model or engine, app, time and recording length. When a mode rewrote the words, the original transcript can also be copied.
Use an entry
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Paste the selected transcript | Return |
| Copy | ⌘C or ⌘Return |
| Copy raw transcript or request | ⇧⌘C |
| Send to Quick AI | ⌘J |
| Delete Entry | ⌃X |
| Clear History, after confirmation | ⌃⇧X |
Pasting returns to the field behind the palette. Copying is a normal clipboard copy and may therefore appear in Clipboard History. A failed entry has no transcript to send to AI yet.
Retention
Settings → Dictation → History → Keep history offers Off, 1 day, 7 days, 30 days by default, 90 days and Forever. Shortening retention trims older entries. Off removes the history and stops recording new entries.
Include Ask by Voice and voice edits is a separate switch, off by default. Turning it off stops future recording of those answers but does not immediately delete entries already kept.
Retry a failed dictation
A failed transcription appears with its error. If its recording is still available, open ⌘K → Retry or Retry with… and choose the same or another supported model.
A different cloud connection requires confirmation naming where the recording will go. A retry uses that choice only for this attempt; it does not change your normal dictation model.
On success, the transcript replaces the failed entry and its retained audio is deleted. Retry never pastes automatically. Read the result, then press Return or copy it when you are ready.
How long failed audio stays
Only failed dictations retain recordings. The folder keeps at most:
- 20 recordings;
- 7 days, or your shorter history period;
- 100 MB in total.
Keep failed recordings off deletes retained audio and keeps no new recordings. Deleting an entry deletes its audio. Clear History and Keep history Off remove it too. Old failures may remain as text/error entries after their audio expires, so they can no longer be retried.
Successful dictation, Ask by Voice and voice edits do not save audio. Retained failure recordings are excluded from Time Machine and from Redcast backups.
Storage
The transcript history is local to this Mac in dictation-history.jsonl; retained recordings use dictation-failed-audio/ under Redcast's Application Support. Full configuration backup does not carry either. If a transcript matters, copy it into a document or Note before changing retention.