Troubleshooting

During Recording

Screen Goes to Sleep

Live Mode activates the browser's Screen Wake Lock API to keep your display on. If your screen still dims:

  • The tab must be in the foreground -- wake lock only works when InterviewCue is the active window
  • Battery Saver or Low Power Mode on phones can override wake lock; disable it before recording
  • On iOS, Safari may not honor wake lock if Auto-Lock is set aggressively -- go to Settings → Display & Brightness and set Auto-Lock to Never for the duration of the interview, then restore it afterward

Hotkeys Not Working

Keys 1--5, L, and N only fire when the InterviewCue window has keyboard focus.

  • Click anywhere inside the window to restore focus, then try again
  • Other software that captures keystrokes -- screen recorders, macro tools, gaming overlays -- can intercept hotkeys; close or pause them
  • On a tablet without a physical keyboard, the hotkeys won't work; use the on-screen capture buttons instead
  • Firefox works fine; Chrome, Edge, and Safari are also fully supported

Events Not Saving

InterviewCue saves events to the server as you capture them. If events aren't appearing in the timeline:

  • Confirm you have an internet connection -- saving requires network access
  • Avoid capturing events less than a second apart
  • Open the post-production page and do a hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R or Ctrl+Shift+R); events that appear missing often show up after a reload

If you were in Practice Mode, those events are intentionally not saved. Practice Mode doesn't write any data to your interview.

Sync Delays in Collaborative Mode

Browsers throttle background tabs, which pauses live sync. If a participant's view isn't updating, make sure their InterviewCue tab is in the foreground -- switching away from it is the most common cause. Brief internet interruptions self-correct within seconds of reconnection. If a participant's view is stuck after returning to the foreground, a page refresh and rejoin will catch them up immediately.

Audio and Post-Production

Audio File Won't Upload

InterviewCue accepts most common audio and video formats and converts them to MP3. If your upload fails or stalls:

  • Very large uncompressed files upload slowly; a 128kbps MP3 is ideal -- smaller, faster to upload and process, no quality difference for scrubbing purposes
  • Don't close the tab while uploading; wait for the progress indicator to complete
  • If the upload stalls on a cellular connection, switching to Wi-Fi usually resolves it

Audio Won't Play in the Scrubber

  • Confirm there's actually a file attached to this interview -- check the Manage Assets dialog for a filename. If it's empty, the audio needs to be uploaded.
  • The scrubber uses different audio for each timeline view: original audio for the raw timeline, final audio for the finalized timeline. If you're on the finalized view but only uploaded the original recording, there's nothing for it to play.
  • Give the page a moment to load the audio file after upload before pressing play.

Timestamps Don't Match the Edited Audio

This is expected behavior, not a bug. Your original timestamps were captured against the raw recording. After trimming, cutting sections, and adding music, the positions shift. This is exactly what transcript alignment is designed to correct -- upload your original and final audio through the Manage Assets dialog and InterviewCue realigns everything automatically. See Post-Production Timeline for the full workflow.

For individual timestamps that need a small nudge, click any timestamp directly in the timeline, type the corrected time in MM:SS format, and press Enter.

Exports

Export Doesn't Download

  • Check your browser's download folder -- some configurations prompt silently or route downloads there without notification
  • Ad blockers occasionally interfere with file downloads; disable temporarily and try again
  • If a specific format consistently fails, try a different format to determine whether it's a browser issue or something specific to that export

Interviews and Data

Can't Find an Interview

Use the search box at the top of the interview list -- it searches across interview names, guest names, show titles, host names, questions, and links. If nothing appears, verify you're logged into the correct account. Interviews are private to the account that created them.

Events Missing From the Timeline

Do a hard refresh on the post-production page (Cmd+Shift+R or Ctrl+Shift+R) -- a display issue occasionally makes events appear absent when they're actually there. If events genuinely don't exist, check whether the session was in Practice Mode; Practice Mode events are never saved by design.

Getting Help

If you've worked through the relevant section and the problem persists, contact support with your browser name and version, your device and operating system, and a description of what was happening when the issue occurred. Including a browser console screenshot speeds things up considerably: press F12 (or Cmd+Option+I on Mac), click the Console tab, and capture any red error messages.

What's Next?

FAQ - Common questions that aren't troubleshooting scenarios
Live Interview Mode - Full guide to the recording interface
Post-Production Timeline - Audio, timestamps, alignment, and export