How to Clear Automatic Speech Recognition Data in Time and Language Settings

Navigating to Time & Language Settings

The Time & language page holds the built-in speech controls. It also links to the speech privacy settings. The menu is the same in Windows 11 and Windows 10, but the layout and wording shift a little between builds.

1. Press Win+I to open Settings. The Settings⚙️ window should appear with a list of categories on the left.

2. Select Time & language from the left-hand navigation menu. On Windows 10 it is in the main grid of options instead.

3. Click Speech. The configuration panel should now open, with your microphone settings, text-to-speech options, and a link to the speech privacy controls.

On Windows 11, this page also has Manage voice typing and Voice access options. These control how the features behave. They are not the place where saved speech data is deleted.

If Speech is missing from the list, update Windows first. Very old builds of Windows 10 label this page differently.

Locating and Clearing Speech Data

This section removes the voice clips and speech models Windows has saved over time. The exact labels depend on your Windows build, so read the options on your screen before you click anything.

There is also a direct route to the same controls: Settings › Privacy & security › Speech. On builds that offer it, the Voice clips setting sits under Settings › Privacy & security › Speech › Voice clips. If you cannot find a deletion option on the Time & language page, look there.

1. Scroll down the Speech settings page until you find the section labeled Related settings or Privacy.

2. Look for the option tied to speech data collection or your online speech services profile. Voice access is replacing Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) in Windows 11, and WSR is deprecated. Because of that, some legacy toggles look different or are missing on newer builds.
3. Click the button to stop collecting voice clips, or the one to clear existing speech recognition data stored on your device and Microsoft account. If you see only a link to speech privacy settings, follow it. It leads to the page described in the next section.
4. Confirm your choice if a prompt asks you to verify the deletion of your personal speech dictionary and audio samples. The deletion usually cannot be reversed, so be sure you want it gone.

No restart is needed. If you later want voice typing to learn from your voice again, turn the collection setting back on from the same page.

Managing Privacy Settings for Voice Input

If you do not want Windows to gather and upload new speech samples, turn off online speech recognition as well. Voice typing and similar features that depend on cloud processing may stop working or become less accurate afterwards. Voice features that run entirely on the device are unaffected.

1. Open Settings and go to Privacy & security. The page lists permission groups such as Windows permissions and App permissions.

2. Under Windows permissions, click Speech. This is the same page as Settings › Privacy & security › Speech.

3. Turn off the Online speech recognition toggle. The toggle should now read Off, and cloud-based processing and data collection for speech stops.
4. Go back to Privacy & security and open Diagnostics & feedback if you want to review optional diagnostic data that might include voice, inking, and typing input.

To undo this, return to the same page and switch the toggle back to On.

Troubleshooting Missing Speech Options

If the deletion buttons or toggles are greyed out, an organization policy or a work account is usually responsible. The same applies if a message says some settings are managed by your organization. The steps below check for that. They only read policy settings, so do not change anything on a work PC unless your IT team agrees.

Before you start, note two requirements. Changing any policy needs administrator rights, and Windows will ask you to approve the change. You do not need Command Prompt to open the editor, because it starts from the Run box. If you prefer a command window anyway, type cmd in the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.

1. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. Click Yes if User Account Control asks for permission. The Local Group Policy Editor should open. It is available only on Windows Pro and Enterprise editions. Windows Home does not include it, so skip this step and the next one if Windows reports that it cannot find the file.
3. Navigate to Computer Configuration › Administrative Templates › Control Panel🎛️ › Regional and Language Options. Check whether any speech data collection policy is set to Enabled or Disabled instead of Not Configured. That means it is being enforced. If you own the PC and set the policy yourself, switch it back to Not Configured to undo it.
4. Go to Settings › Accounts › Access work or school and disconnect any secondary work or school account if your personal privacy settings are still blocked. Reopen Settings afterwards to see whether the options are now available.

If the options stay greyed out after this, sign in with a local administrator account and try again. On a PC managed by your employer, the policy may be pushed from a central server. In that case only your IT department can change it.

Additional Steps for Comprehensive Voice Data Removal

Deleting speech data on your PC does not clear what is stored in your Microsoft account. That history has to be removed manually in a web browser through the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard.

1. Open your web browser and go to the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard website.
2. Sign in with the same Microsoft account you use on your Windows installation. If you have more than one account, check which one is signed in under Settings › Accounts › Your info.
3. Locate the voice data section or the activity history page. Microsoft rearranges this site from time to time, so the section may sit under a slightly different heading.
4. Click the button to clear your voice activity data. Once the list is empty, no remote copies of your speech recordings should remain on Microsoft servers.