Transcription failures

Why a clip can't be transcribed, and what to do about each cause

When a clip can't be transcribed, the inspector shows a warning with a reason. Here are the reasons and what each one means.

No audio

The clip is video-only, or the audio track is silent. ReelChest skips silent clips during bulk runs (no point flagging every B-roll plate) but flags it if you ask for a single clip directly.

Fix: nothing to fix; this is correct behavior. If the clip should have audio, check it in QuickLook and confirm the audio actually recorded.

Audio too short

The clip's audio is below the minimum threshold to produce a transcript. Very short clips (a couple of seconds) don't give the model enough to work with.

Fix: also nothing to fix. Short stings, transitions, and slate clips don't need transcripts.

Audio unreadable

The format isn't decodable inside ReelChest's sandbox. Usually this means an exotic codec the system can't open without help.

Fix: right-click the clip and pick "Convert for editing…" if the badge says it's convertible (blue badge). If the badge is amber, convert in another transcoder first, then drop the result back into your source folder. See the Codec conversion article for the full path.

Model not finished downloading

The chosen transcript model is still pulling bytes. Settings → Transcripts shows download progress.

Fix: wait for the download to finish, then re-queue. ReelChest doesn't delete the failure marker automatically, so use the Clear failed button after the download completes.

Microphone permission missing

macOS hasn't granted speech recognition access to ReelChest. This is a one-time permission request that sometimes gets dismissed by accident.

Fix: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Speech Recognition. Enable ReelChest. Re-queue the failed clips.

When a clip fails

When a clip fails, ReelChest remembers and skips it on the next walk so it doesn't keep retrying. The inspector shows the failure with a Regenerate button: click it on a clip to re-queue that one.

If you want to start fresh across the whole library, Settings → Transcripts has a "Clear all transcripts…" button. That wipes both successful and failed transcripts, and the next walk re-queues everything that's eligible.

A real-talk note: the most common cause is "the file format is weird." If the clip transcribes fine in another app, it's almost always codec, not audio quality. Convert first, transcribe second.