Nsight Health Automations Internal

Wispr Doctor

House calls for your Mac.

A tiny tool that diagnoses why Wispr Flow stops working on your Mac and offers to fix it. It explains every step in plain English and never changes anything without your OK.

Clinic stats last 7 days
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House calls
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Fixes applied
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Permission resets
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Top symptom: —

How it works

Three steps, ~30 seconds. Each step is shown below.

1

Check your Mac

Silent inspection across four areas. Reports findings, then asks before doing anything.

  • Hardware macOS version, RAM, free disk
  • Processes Memory leaks, frozen helpers
  • Permissions Mic, Accessibility, Input Monitoring, Screen Recording
  • Network api.wisprflow.ai reachable
→
2

Walk through each issue

One card per issue, plain English, default Yes.

What I noticed
A Wispr helper is using 3,220 MB of RAM (memory leak).
What I'd do
Close Wispr Flow and reopen it.
What that means for you
All Wispr windows close. Active dictation is lost. Wispr reopens automatically.
Fix this? [Y/n]
→
3

Optional watcher

Tiny background process that checks once a minute.

⏱ Check Wispr every 60 s
↓
🔍 Spots an issue?
↓
💬 Native macOS dialog asks
↓
✓ You click Refresh or Not now

What it actually looks like

  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ✚   Nsight  ·  Wispr Flow  ·  Doctor   ✚
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Hi, I'm Wispr Doctor, from Nsight Automations.

  ✚  STEP 1/3  ▸  Triage

       
     ✓  macOS 26.4 (Apple Silicon, 36 GB RAM, 1488 GB free)
     ✓  Wispr Flow 1.5.257 installed
     ▲  A Wispr helper is using 3,220 MB of RAM (memory leak)
     ▲  Wispr's Accessibility permission is currently denied
     ✓  Wispr API is reachable

  ✚  STEP 2/3  ▸  Apply fixes

     []  0%  Closing Wispr Flow processes...

Patient chart: symptoms, causes, fixes

Skim this before running the doctor. If your symptom matches a row, you can paste the recommended command directly.

🩺 Honest tl;dr: if Wispr is misbehaving in any way, just call the doctor. The wizard is the same for every row in this chart.

Symptom
Likely cause
Fix
Hotkey doesn't trigger anything
Wispr's Accessibility permission got invalidated, usually after a macOS or Wispr update.
Run the doctor; it will offer to reset permissions and walk you through the macOS Allow prompts.
Wispr won't transcribe what you say
Mic permission stale, or a helper process is hung holding the microphone.
Run the doctor. If it still fails, run with --full to wipe the Electron caches.
Wispr crashes or feels frozen
Renderer or GPU helper crashed, leaving the app process up but unresponsive.
Run the doctor. The "Stuck Wispr processes" fix closes and reopens the app cleanly.
Wispr typed garbage / wrong text
Input Monitoring permission entry went stale; macOS reports allowed but the system server is rejecting events.
Run the doctor; pick "Reset permissions". Re-grant Input Monitoring on next launch.
Just upgraded macOS, Wispr is broken
macOS major version bumps invalidate most TCC entries.
Run the doctor. It auto-detects this case and recommends the permission reset.
Helper using gigabytes of RAM
Long-running Electron memory leak. Mostly harmless, but slows the Mac.
Run the doctor; it offers to close + reopen Wispr.
Mic prompt keeps reappearing every launch
TCC database drift, often from killing the app while a permission write was in flight.
Run the doctor with --full.
Wispr won't open at all
App support folder corrupted; rare.
Run the doctor with --paddles (the medical equivalent of pulling the plug and zapping the heart). You'll need to sign back into Wispr.

Run it now

Copy the command below, paste it into Terminal, press Return. Total time: about 30 seconds.

$ bash <(curl -fsSL https://dg70m3c6kuabw.cloudfront.net/wispr-doctor.sh)

  1. Open the Terminal app

    Press ⌘ Space (Command + Space) to open Spotlight search. Type Terminal and press Return. A black or white window opens with a blinking cursor, that's Terminal. If you've never used it, that's fine; you only need to do one thing in it.

  2. Click 📋 Copy command above

    It puts the command on your clipboard. You don't need to type anything yourself.

  3. Click into the Terminal window, paste, press Return

    ⌘ V to paste, then Return. The wizard takes over from there.

  4. Press 1 then Return to triage

    The wizard introduces itself and asks: [1] Triage this Mac / [2] Quit. Press 1 (or just Return).

  5. Watch the progress bars finish

    This is the most important step. The wizard runs braille spinners and progress bars for about 15 seconds while it examines your Mac. Don't quit early. If your terminal looks frozen mid-bar, that's the deliberate animation pacing, not a hang. The bars are the doctor actually working.

  6. Walk through the issues (if any)

    Each issue is presented as a card with three sections: What I noticed, What I'd do about it, and What that means for you. Press Return (default Yes) to fix it, or type n + Return to skip. The wizard moves to the next issue automatically.

  7. Optional: install the background watcher

    At the end the wizard offers a small background watcher that checks Wispr once a minute and pops a dialog asking before fixing anything. Decline if unsure; you can opt in later by re-running the wizard.

What gets logged: Wispr Doctor never auto-fixes anything silently — every action is shown in plain English and asks first. After a run, the wizard sends your verdict, your Mac's serial + computer name + macOS username, and which fixes were applied or skipped to Nsight IT, so they can spot fleet-wide patterns and reach out proactively. These are company-owned Macs, so this happens by default.
Advanced: see the script before running it / change behavior

View the source first. Download to a file, page through it with less (press q to exit when done reading), then run it:

$ curl -fsSL https://dg70m3c6kuabw.cloudfront.net/wispr-doctor.sh -o /tmp/wispr-doctor.sh
$ less /tmp/wispr-doctor.sh   # press q when done reading
$ bash /tmp/wispr-doctor.sh

Modes for power users / Jamf / scripting:

$ bash <(curl -fsSL .../wispr-doctor.sh) --audit  # read-only, never changes anything
$ bash <(curl -fsSL .../wispr-doctor.sh) --yes    # apply safe fixes without prompting
$ bash <(curl -fsSL .../wispr-doctor.sh) --full   # also wipe Electron caches (preserves login)
$ bash <(curl -fsSL .../wispr-doctor.sh) --paddles   # full reset; will sign you out of Wispr

Common questions

What does it actually do?

It checks for stuck Electron helper processes (a common cause of "Wispr won't transcribe"), stale macOS permission entries (usually after a macOS or Wispr update), Electron cache corruption (after a crash), and network reachability to Wispr's API. With your OK, it can close and reopen Wispr, reset its permission entries, and clear cache files. It never deletes your Wispr login or settings unless you explicitly choose --paddles.

I've never used Terminal. Is it safe?

Yes. The command above downloads a script from this page (over HTTPS, from your Nsight automations server) and runs it. The script is plain bash, and it only touches Wispr-related files. Nothing else on your Mac is affected.

Will it slow my Mac down?

No. The doctor runs once, prints its findings, and exits. The optional background watcher (offered at the end) runs once a minute, uses tiny CPU at LowPriorityIO, and is silent unless it spots a problem.

How do I turn the background watcher off?

Re-run the doctor; if the watcher is installed, it'll offer to remove it. Or run this directly:

$ bash <(curl -fsSL https://dg70m3c6kuabw.cloudfront.net/wispr-doctor.sh) --uninstall-watchdog
What if my Mac actually is too old?

Wispr Doctor checks your macOS version and how much memory your Mac has. In the rare case that your Mac genuinely can't run Wispr (very old macOS, or very little RAM), the wizard will say so in plain English and tell you exactly what to do next. Email jphilip@nsightcare.com with the message you saw and we'll take it from there.