Dictation history

Aria saves completed dictations so you can review their text. These controls apply to both Mac and terminal dictation. Ask conversations and system-audio transcripts are separate.

Saving

Saving is on by default. In the Mac app, turn it off under Settings → General → Save dictation history. This stops future saves and leaves existing entries until you delete them or they expire. The CLI has no control for this preference.

Text is kept for up to 30 days, with limits of 1,000 entries and 8 MiB total. Older entries can disappear sooner when those limits are reached.

By default, only failed transcriptions keep their original audio. Retained recordings last up to 24 hours, with a 128 MiB total limit. Cancelled recordings and recordings with no accepted speech are not saved in history.

Review

On a Mac, choose Dictation History… from Aria’s menu. Search for an entry, then select it to read the text. Copy text copies it for use elsewhere.

From a terminal, run:

aria history list

The list shows each entry’s ID, status, recording availability (available, expired, or unavailable), and its full text.

Retry

If an entry still has its recording, choose Retry transcription in the Mac app. From a terminal, use the entry’s ID; for example:

aria history retry 42

Retry replaces the entry’s text without keeping the previous version. It does not type or copy the result into another app. A failed retry leaves the previous text in place.

Keep successful recordings

To make future successful dictations available for retry, enable Settings → Dictation → Show Advanced Options → Also retain audio of successful dictations, or run:

aria history retain-audio true

The same 24-hour and 128 MiB limits apply. Originals can include background speech and voices excluded from the transcript.

To stop keeping future successful recordings:

aria history retain-audio false

Existing recordings continue to expire.

Delete

In the Mac app, select Delete… for one entry or Clear History… for all entries and retained recordings. Clear includes entries outside the current search.

From a terminal:

aria history clear

Answer y or yes to confirm; any other answer cancels. Clearing cannot be undone, and it leaves saving settings unchanged.

Clearing history does not remove clipboard copies, Ask conversations, or system-audio transcript files. Deletion is not secure erasure and cannot remove backups. Read Privacy for the other places text can go.