# Retry a failed transcription

> What the Failed status means, how to use Retry transcription, and why very short or silent recordings can't produce a transcript.

Updated: 2026-08-16 · Canonical: https://usecanto.com/help/transcription/retry-transcription/

When a recording shows **Failed**, the audio is safely stored but transcription didn't complete. Open the recording and use **Retry transcription** — the audio is submitted again without re-recording or re-uploading anything.

## When does Failed appear?

**Failed** means the transcription step itself errored — a temporary service problem, or audio the transcriber couldn't process. It is not a quota state: running out of free minutes shows **Locked** or **Not transcribed** instead, and retrying won't change those — see [Why is my recording locked or not transcribed?](https://usecanto.com/help/transcription/locked-recordings/)

You'll see "Transcription failed" on the recording, with a **Retry transcription** button where the transcript would be.

## How do I retry?

1. Open the failed recording — it shows the **Failed** status in your library.
2. Choose **Retry transcription**.
3. The recording goes back through the normal pipeline (**Queued** → **Transcribing** → **Preparing AI** → **Ready**). See [How does transcription work in Canto?](https://usecanto.com/help/transcription/how-transcription-works/)

Your uploaded audio is reused as-is, so a retry costs nothing extra in effort and usually takes a few minutes. Most one-off failures are transient and succeed on the first retry.

## What if the recording was too short or too quiet?

If transcription completes but finds nothing to transcribe, the recording opens with "The recording was too short or too quiet to produce a transcript." instead of a transcript. This isn't an error to retry — the audio genuinely contained no usable speech. Common causes:

- The recording is only a second or two long (an accidental tap on record).
- The microphone was muffled, far from the speakers, or capturing only room noise.
- The audio is music or ambience rather than speech.

Play the audio back: if you can barely hear the speech yourself, the transcriber couldn't either. For the next recording, see [Get the best audio quality](https://usecanto.com/help/recording/microphone-tips/).

## Troubleshooting

### Retrying fails again

If the same recording fails repeatedly, the audio itself is likely the problem rather than a transient outage. Play it back to confirm it contains audible speech, then see [My transcription is stuck or failed](https://usecanto.com/help/troubleshooting/transcription-stuck/) — that page covers stuck states, repeated failures, and when to contact support with the recording's details.

### The recording is stuck in Transcribing, not Failed

A recording that sits in **Transcribing** or **Queued** for a long time without failing is a different situation — Canto also re-checks in-flight transcriptions automatically. See [My transcription is stuck or failed](https://usecanto.com/help/troubleshooting/transcription-stuck/).

### The recording never uploaded

**Retry transcription** needs the audio in your library first. If the recording is stuck in **Uploading**, the problem is the upload, not transcription — keep the device online and the app open, and see [My recording is lost or silent](https://usecanto.com/help/troubleshooting/recording-lost-or-silent/) if it never completes.

Related articles:

- [My transcription is stuck or failed](https://usecanto.com/help/troubleshooting/transcription-stuck/)
- [Why is my recording locked or not transcribed?](https://usecanto.com/help/transcription/locked-recordings/)
- [How does transcription work in Canto?](https://usecanto.com/help/transcription/how-transcription-works/)
- [How do I get the best audio quality?](https://usecanto.com/help/recording/microphone-tips/)