Common Causes of Transcription Failure
When a transcription request fails, the cause is almost always one of three things: no internet connection, an exceeded quota, or a temporary server issue. Understanding which one you are dealing with determines the fix.
The transcription status indicator on the project screen tells you where the process stalled. A status of Failed means the request was sent but the server could not process it. A status of Pending that never changes usually means the request was never delivered, which points to a network problem.
Step 1: Check Your Internet Connection
Transcription requires an active internet connection because audio is processed on 12scribe's servers. Open Safari or any other app that uses the internet to confirm your device is online.
If you are on Wi-Fi, try switching to cellular data or vice versa. Unstable connections can cause the upload to fail silently -- the audio file is large and even a brief interruption during upload can cause the request to drop.
If you recorded while offline, that is expected behavior. 12scribe queues transcription requests automatically and processes them when you reconnect. See Offline Recording and Queued Transcription for details on how the queue works.
Step 2: Check Your Quota
Open the Profile tab and look at the transcription minutes progress bar. If it shows 100%, your monthly quota is exhausted and new transcription requests are blocked until the quota resets.
On the Free plan, you have 150 minutes per month. On Pro, you have 1500 minutes. If you are close to the limit, consider which recordings are most important to transcribe first.
To resolve a quota issue, you can either wait for the monthly reset (the date is shown on the quota dashboard) or upgrade to Pro for a higher allowance. Queued requests will be processed automatically once quota is available.
Step 3: Retry the Transcription
If your connection is fine and you have quota remaining, the most likely cause is a temporary server issue. 12scribe includes an automatic retry mechanism -- failed requests are retried up to three times with increasing delays between attempts.
If automatic retries have been exhausted, you can manually retry:
- Open the project with the failed transcription
- Tap the session that shows Failed status
- Tap Retry Transcription
- The request is re-sent to the server with a fresh connection
Manual retry works in most cases because the original failure was caused by a momentary server load spike or network timeout that has since resolved.
Step 4: Contact Support
If none of the above steps resolve your issue, the problem may be with the specific audio file or a persistent server error. Before contacting support, check the following:
- Is the audio file unusually long (over 3 hours)? Very long recordings take longer to process and are more likely to time out.
- Is the audio file corrupted? If playback within 12scribe sounds distorted or cuts off, the file itself may be damaged.
- Have other transcription requests succeeded recently? If only one specific recording fails, the issue is likely file-specific.
To contact support, go to Settings and tap Contact Support. Include the project name and the approximate time the transcription failed. This helps the support team locate the server logs for your request.