Troubleshooting
Here are the situations where you can do something yourself or where it helps to know how things carry on.
Recording limit reached¶
If a take won't start and podsink says the recording limit is reached, your plan's hours are used up. A take that was already running got thirty minutes of extra time before it stopped, and everything recorded is kept. If you're on Free, you can carry on right away with Pro or Max. On Pro, Max and Business, podsink tells you when your hours start over, and if you regularly need more on Pro or Max, we're happy to set up a Business plan that fits. There's more on Plans.
The browser blocked the camera or microphone¶
If podsink shows "Camera access blocked" or "Mic access blocked", the browser refused the permission, and only you can grant it. Click the camera or lock icon in the address bar, allow the microphone and camera for this site, and reload the page. On macOS the system itself can also block the browser. Under System Settings, Privacy & Security, Microphone and Camera, you can check whether your browser is allowed.
If the waiting room gets stuck at "Waiting for mic and camera permissions", the browser is still waiting for your answer to a permission prompt. It's usually at the top of the window, right next to the address bar.
Picture or sound acting up during the session¶
podsink keeps an eye on your mic and camera reaching the others. Some problems it fixes on its own, and for others it shows you a button to try. If that doesn't help, or you can't see or hear the others, reloading the page is what's left, and it's safe. Anything that hasn't been uploaded yet carries on uploading afterwards, and if a take is running, your recording continues on a fresh track. In the middle of a take, a reload costs the few seconds until you're back in, but sometimes that's the better way than waiting for the take to end.
The recording itself doesn't depend on the live picture. What the others see and hear goes through a media server, while your recording happens on your device and uploads from there in small pieces. Whether it's landing, the host can see from the marks next to your name. If even a reload doesn't help, maybe you're on a network that blocks video calls, as some corporate and hotel networks do. podsink then falls back to a connection that gets through most of those networks, but sadly not all of them.
You closed the tab or the browser crashed¶
On the session page, podsink warns you when you close the tab while you're recording or something is still uploading, but sometimes the tab gets closed anyway, or the browser just crashes. That doesn't mean your recording is lost, because whatever hadn't been uploaded yet is still in your browser. There are two ways to get it to the server.
- Open the session link again. As long as the session hasn't ended, podsink uploads the rest in the background, and if a take is running, your recording continues on a new track.
- Open podsink on the same device in the same browser. A note about unfinished uploads shows up at the bottom, and it takes you to the upload page, which uploads the rest for you.
All that matters is that you use the same browser on the same device, and that the session hasn't ended yet. There's more on Upload.
The session sends you back to the start page¶
Then the host has ended the session, and for guests there's nothing left to do there. We'd love to take every last piece, but ending is what makes a recording final, so from then on nothing more can be added to it. That's why the host's end dialog shows who's still uploading before anyone ends. If pieces were left on your device, the upload page lists them and lets you remove them. There's more on Upload.
The browser support screen on a browser that works¶
The support screen shows up in every browser that isn't Chromium-based. If you see it even though you're using a Chromium-based browser, please drop us a quick line at hello@podsink.com saying which browser it is. Until then, recording works with Chrome or Edge. On an iPhone or iPad the screen shows up in every browser, Chrome and Edge included, because they all run on Apple's engine there. Why that is is covered on Devices and browsers.
A track has a gap¶
If your sessions list shows that a track has a gap, a piece of the recording didn't make it from the device to the server. Either the browser couldn't store it, or the server turned it down as too large. For audio, podsink puts silence at that spot so the rest stays in place, and for video it carries on with a fresh file. Why it happens and how to avoid it is on Upload.
The upload note will not go away¶
The note at the bottom of the screen tells you there are unfinished uploads on this device. The page it links to lists every session that still has pieces here and what state each one is in. Pieces from a session that has ended can't be uploaded any more, and the page tells you so and lets you remove them. Pieces the server turned down as too large stay listed there too.
If you dismiss the note, it's gone until the next page load. The pieces themselves stay, though, until they're uploaded, removed, or cleaned up by podsink after a few days.
Something else¶
Then we'd love to hear from you at hello@podsink.com, ideally with the session id and when it happened. The id is the 12 characters at the end of the session link. podsink keeps a diagnostic record for every session of what each participant's browser reported, and the id is how we find it.