Audio transcription malfunction, hard line breaks partway across every line

I have this same issue...started this month October. When I copy transcript to print it out, every line is created as an "end paragraph" so there is no flow to the transcript. Help please

Jay

Hi @LadyBug17, could you attach a screenshot showing what you're describing? Is this for any file you attempt to transcribe?

Going from the layout which includes transcript details to the option without transcript details, the layout does not change to a normal flow pattern...only the time markers are removed. This is on M4A files.

Thank you

Jay

If you copy the transcript to a text file, does it appear with the line breaks?

The second photo is a "copied text" to Pages. The line breaks do not appear as in the first photo, but each line ends with a "paragraph" symbol as seen in this last photo of the highlighted text.

Hello I can't see how to attach a file here, but this is a pasted snip of .wma transcribed text in Word with the formatting symbols on. I haven't tried a different file type yet but I mostly use .wma The problem began only recently. Thank you

I copied my text to WordPad and the same thing happens with the line breaks.

This issue is still happening as of 3:50pmPT

Any progress in solving it?

Hi everybody,

Thanks for getting in touch about this issue.

Our team is already looking into it.

Would it be alright if we contacted you through the email associated with the accounts?

We'll share more details as soon as we have them.

Thank you. Yes, email is fine. I appreciate the efforts.

Yes thanks

Hi everybody,

Can you please check if this issue has been resolved on your end?

The team has confirmed that it should be fixed, and we want to ensure everything is working properly for you.

Hello...The issue continues as of 10amPT 10/21/24

There is no change in layout of text from before "hide transcript details" to after. The line break continues.

thank you

Hi @LadyBug17,

Thank you for contacting us promptly.

Your information has been passed to the team to investigate the issue's persistence.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Hey @LadyBug17,

The team has come up with a couple of steps for you to try.

If you’re on a Mac, select the text you want to copy first and then press cmd+shift+v.

For Windows users, just highlight the text you want to copy and then you should use ctrl+shift+v instead.

This should help you maintain the formatting.

Would this help you ?

Let us know if you need any further help.

This did not change the format...On a Mac...The format stays the same with or without transcript details highlighted. Is anyone else having this issue? I have been using Dropbox to copy transcript since June with no problem....until October.

Hi @LadyBug17,

Thanks for reaching out and confirming this issue persists.

I’ve passed your info to the team so they can look into this issue further.

We really appreciate your patience while we sort this out.

Thank you...I look forward to a resolution. The next time I will use the transcription function will be November 4.

Anyone else reporting this issue?

Hey @LadyBug17,

We know this is taking a bit longer than we'd like, and we totally understand how frustrating that can be.

Just a heads up that our team is looking into it.

We'll update you as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime, it seems some folks have found success with the earlier solution we provided.

We're addressing each situation one at a time.

Thanks for hanging in there with us.

Problem is not resolved, it's the same as before.

Also the suggested copy paste workaround doesn't work in Windows. Hard line breaks still there, it won't copy more than a screenload of text no matter how much is highlighted, and now it includes all the time stamps!

I pay for a Dropbox subscription and this feature should be functional as it was before. Not happy about this. Cleaning up the formatting in an hour long transcript has become an ordeal.

Hi @halfpenny,

We understand this is taking more time than what we expected.

Our team is on it and looking into the issue.

We’ll update you as soon as we have news.

Thanks for your patience.

I've got an update that may shed more light.

I just tried to transcribe an mp3 file and the same thing happened with the line breaks. I did notice that the transcript in Dropbox has inserted numerous time stamps every few seconds in the middle of someone speaking, which did not happen before. In fact I can't remember if time stamps ever used to appear in the Dropbox transcript.

In effect, those time stamps in the transcript translate as hard line breaks when the transcript is copied from Dropbox to a Word document.

So there are 2 problems: 1) the inappropriate number and placement of time stamps within the Dropbox transcript, which makes for very choppy reading in Dropbox while listening to the audio, and 2) the conversion of the time stamps to hard line breaks when the transcript text is copied from Dropbox.

Are the time stamps a recent addition to the transcript feature?

I also tried opening a shorter audio file in Dropbox and have same problem with the insertion of frequent time stamps every few seconds in the middle of someone speaking.

Also, I am pretty sure that a previously saved audio file, once transcribed, retained the original transcription when reopened, without re-transcribing all over again with the time stamp insertions, which is what I now see happening in my saved audio files.

Just another observation. I believe that there used to be a time limit of about an hour in length to transcribe audio files. I know because a couple of months ago I had to split a long, almost 2 hour audio file into two parts before it would transcribe. Recently, around the time the current problem began, it seems that the transcribe limit has expanded beyond an hour. Is that another update to the transcribe feature that could be related to the current problem?

EDIT: It seems the time limit is nominally over an hour so it really hasn't changed.

Yet more observations. In reviewing my latest audio upload and transcript, it appears that the excessive time stamps in the transcript also result in frequent gaps of several minutes and more; i.e. a lot of missing text. Previously, such gaps were short and infrequent.

Also the transcript auto scroll display is significantly mismatched to the audio. Every time the scroll advances, the displayed text doesn’t match the audio playback. This also seems to be related to the time stamps.

Hi @halfpenny,

Thanks for sharing more details about this.

I've passed the info along so the team can check it out and figure things out.

We'll keep everyone updated as soon as we hear back.