My recording is missing or silent

A missing recording usually means it never started (microphone permission) or was removed from the device (sign-out); a silent one usually means another app took the microphone or the wrong input was in use. Recordings survive app crashes — a relaunch recovers them.

The recording is silent or cut short

Phone systems give the microphone to one app at a time. An incoming phone call, a voice memo, or another recording app interrupts Canto — the banner "Paused by another app — will resume automatically" appears, and recording resumes when the other app releases the mic. The gap during the interruption isn't recorded; if a call arrived right as you started, the whole recording can come out empty and transcription reports "The recording was too short or too quiet to produce a transcript."

A recording that plays back very quiet was usually made too far from the speakers — see Get better audio quality.

The app crashed while recording

Audio is written to disk continuously as you record, so a crash or force-quit loses less than a second. Reopen the app: the recording is recovered on launch and continues through upload and transcription like any other. If the app was killed mid-recording, the recovered recording ends at the moment of the crash.

The recording disappeared from my device

Signing out removes local recordings from the device — the app warns you with "Sign out with unsaved recordings?" and "Some recordings haven't finished uploading and will be deleted from this device." Recordings that had already uploaded are safe in your account and reappear when you sign back in; a recording that had not finished uploading when you signed out is gone.

If you're signed in and a recording you made on another device is missing, that's a sync question — see Recordings aren't syncing between devices.

Nothing records at all

Canto needs microphone permission — without it you'll see "Microphone access is needed to record."

On iOS

Open Settings → Canto and turn on Microphone. The in-app message "Microphone access is turned off. Enable it in Settings to record." links there directly. Recording continues in the background with the screen locked — see Record in the background.

On Android

Open system Settings → Apps → Canto → Permissions and allow Microphone. If you chose "Only this time" earlier, Android asks again on the next recording.

On the web

The browser controls both permission and which microphone is used:

1. If recording won't start, click the padlock/permissions icon in the address bar and allow microphone access for the site.
2. Canto uses the browser's default microphone. If a recording is silent but permission is granted, the browser is likely listening to the wrong input — a disconnected headset, a virtual audio device, or an external interface. Change the default input in your browser's site settings or your operating system's sound settings, then start a new recording and watch the level indicator before the meeting starts.

The audio is fine but there's no transcript

That's a transcription problem, not a recording one — see My transcription is stuck or failed.