The transcript on my podcast episode is not synced with the audio. What is causing this?

If you are having an issue with a specific podcast episode, it'll be because the podcast is one of a minority that use 'dynamic ad insertion'. This means that the episodes change regularly as different ads are rotated. Because the ads vary in length, the changes stop the transcript from syncing with the audio.

As we don't have control over these podcasts, there is no fix for their transcripts (fortunately around 95% of podcasts do not have this issue). When there is a podcast with this issue under Featured, we display a note telling you that it cannot be synced. You can still generate the transcript but we won't attempt to sync it with the audio.

If the podcast is one you found yourself (i.e. not in our Featured library), syncing will be attempted but will fail because ads were inserted since we transcribed it, changing the timing of the sentences.

In addition to the above, Apple users might also experience a similar problem with podcasts that don't have dynamic ads. One of our customers who uses Langua on her Apple device told us that when she drags the audio bar, the transcript does not move or stay in sync. She then realized what the problem was: the browser protections. She told us that: "Once I adjusted the Apple cookie settings for LanguaTalk to 'reduced protection', it worked."