Live Text on a Mac has one switch (System Settings, General, Language & Region) and a short list of apps where Apple documents it. If the switch is on and the text still will not select, the cause is usually the app, the language, or the picture. When Live Text never appears in an app at all, LeafyApp's ⌥A box reads the screen instead.
Check the switch first
Open the Apple menu, then System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then Language & Region. You may need to scroll down. The row you want is called Live Text, and Apple describes it as selecting text in images to copy or take action. If it is off, nothing in macOS will offer to select text in a picture. Apple lists the setting on its Language & Region page.
Turn it off and on again if it is already on. Then reopen the image. Restarting the app, and then the Mac, costs a minute and is the usual first move when a setting is right and the behaviour is wrong.
Check that the app is one Apple documents
Apple's Mac guides describe Live Text in three places: Preview, Photos and Safari. In each you hold the pointer over the text, drag to select it, then Control-click the selection to get Copy Text, Look Up and Translate.
In Preview there is a second switch. Apple says that if you cannot select text, choose Tools, then Text Selection, to turn the Text Selection tool on. The same tool is behind the other common Preview complaint: Apple's PDF troubleshooting page gives two causes for a PDF that will not select, the tool being off or the PDF being password-protected.
If the picture is in some other app, Apple's guides do not promise anything. Do not go hunting for a setting that is not there.
Check that your language is on Apple's list
Apple's feature availability page lists the languages for Live Text. On the macOS feature availability page (checked November 2026), the Live Text list reads: Cantonese (China mainland), Cantonese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English in 13 regional variants (Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States), French (Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Switzerland), German, Italian and Portuguese (Brazil).
That is the whole list on that page. Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Thai do not appear on it. If your text is in one of them and Live Text finds nothing, the language is the first thing to suspect. Apple's list is the thing to check, because it changes with each macOS release.
Check the picture
Live Text reads letters, so it needs letters it can make out. A tiny screenshot, a blurred photo, text at a steep angle, a stylised logo font or grey text on a slightly different grey will all give it nothing to select. Zoom in until the text is large and sharp, then try again. If a picture is large and clear and still will not select, go back to the switch and the language list.
Live Text in video
Apple's Mac guides above cover pictures. No Apple Mac help page that describes Live Text on a playing video could be found. Apple's iPhone guide says to pause the video first, and that is the thing to try on a Mac too. Players differ, and a paused frame in one app may be selectable while a paused frame in another is not. If yours is not, see copying text from video on a Mac.
When Live Text never appears
Some places have no Live Text to switch on. A game draws its own pixels. A video player may not hand them to the system. A locked-down app can block selection of its own text. In these cases there is no fix, because nothing is broken: the feature is not offered there. Protected streaming video often captures as a black frame on macOS, so test it first.
The backup: box the pixels yourself
LeafyApp does not wait for an app to offer anything. Press ⌥A anywhere, drag a box over the text, and macOS text recognition reads that patch of screen. That is why it works over a game menu, a subtitle, a scanned page or a diagram in an app that never shows Live Text.
It is not a better reader of pictures. If Live Text works where you are, and all you want is the text on your clipboard, Live Text is the simpler tool. LeafyApp is for the other job: you box a word or a line and get its meaning in the sentence around it, or press the separate translate shortcut for the whole box. The word is saved with its sentence, source and date. Its languages include Japanese, Korean, Thai, Arabic and Hebrew.
Why is Live Text not selecting text on my Mac? Check System Settings, General, Language & Region, and make sure Live Text is on. In Preview, choose Tools, then Text Selection. Then drag over the text and Control-click the selection to copy it. If it still fails, the language may not be on Apple's list.
Which languages does Live Text support on Mac? As of November 2026, Apple's macOS feature availability page lists Cantonese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English in many regional variants, French, German, Italian and Portuguese (Brazil). Apple's page is the one to trust, because it changes with each macOS release.
Does Live Text work on video on a Mac? No Apple Mac help page describing it could be found. Apple's iPhone guide says to pause the video first, which is the thing to try on a Mac. If it does not appear in your player, LeafyApp's ⌥A box reads the paused or playing frame instead.
Why does macOS Live Text not work in some apps? Apple's Mac guides describe it in Preview, Photos and Safari. In any other app there may be nothing to turn on. LeafyApp reads whatever pixels are on screen, so it can be used in those apps.
When Live Text will not show up, box the text instead.
Free while LeafyApp is in beta. One download, macOS 14 and up.
Apple, macOS, Live Text, Preview, Photos and Safari are trademarks of Apple Inc. LeafyApp is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple, and the names are used here only to describe compatibility and for comparison.