Transcriptions is a feature available on paid plans that automatically transcribes recordings done on Zencastr in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
If you encounter an issue while running a transcription, see below.
In this article:
Transcription Not Completing
Issue
A transcription on the Recording Page appears as ‘processing’ for more than an hour.
Causes
This happens when:
A participant has an unfinalized MP3 file
Troubleshooting
For the transcript to be generated, all participants who were present during the recording need to have a fully uploaded MP3 file. The participant with the unfinalized MP3 should follow the troubleshooting steps to retry the upload. Once the MP3 has been uploaded to the recording page, the transcription will automatically process and then become available for download.
Can’t Run Transcription On A Past Recording
Issue
A recording that was done before October 6, 2021 has a ‘Transcription Error’ and when hitting ‘Retry’ an error message that says ‘Please make sure unfinalized MP3 tracks are uploaded before retrying transcription’ appears.
Causes
This happens when:
A participant has an unfinalized MP3 file
Troubleshooting
For the transcript to be generated, all participants who were present during the recording need to have a fully uploaded MP3 file. The participant with the unfinalized MP3 should follow the troubleshooting steps to retry the upload. Once the MP3 has been uploaded to the recording page, the host can click Transcribe Recording.
Transcription Is In Incorrect Language
Issue
A recording done in one language (e.g., Spanish) has been transcribed in a different language (e.g., English), resulting in an incorrect transcript.
Causes
This happens when:
For Zencastr recordings, the session was created with a language setting different from the one used during the recording.
For uploaded files, the recording is in a language that differs from the show’s language setting.
Troubleshooting
Once a session has been created, the language cannot be changed. If the session language is incorrect, please contact Zencastr Support via chat or email so we can adjust it for you.
Transcription File Is Opening in Excel/Incorrectly Formatted
Issue
The transcription CSV file opens in Microsoft Excel on the user’s computer. Additionally, the file may be incorrectly formatted in Excel.
Causes
The CSV file may open in Excel because:
Many computers are set to open CSV files in Excel by default.
The CSV file may be incorrectly formatted in Excel because:
The transcript is a tab-separated CSV file but depending on regional Excel settings the CSV file may be read as comma-separated or semicolon-separated CSV file by default which will not give the correct formatting.
Troubleshooting
To open the CSV file with a different program:
Open a Finder window.
Locate the CSV file and right-click it.
Choose Open With.
Choose an app.
Open the File Explorer.
Locate the CSV file and right-click it.
Choose Open With.
Choose an app.
To change the default program that CSV files are opened with:
To open the CSV file in Excel with correct formatting:
Open Excel.
Open a blank workbook.
Click File then Import.
Select CSV file in the Import dialog then click Import.
Locate the CSV file and select it then click Get Data.
Select Delimited in the Text Import Wizard dialog then click Next.
Under Delimiters check Tab and then click Next.
Select General, then click Finish.
Select Existing Sheet in the Import dialog then click Ok.
Result: The transcript opens correctly formatted with separate columns for the timestamp, speaker, and transcript content.
Other Issues
If you encounter an issue not covered here or you need additional assistance, please contact Zencastr Support via chat or email