Troubleshooting

The most common problems people hit, and how to fix them. If nothing here matches what you are seeing, the Help menu has a "Report A Bug..." link that goes straight to the support form.

Microphone permission denied

If you clicked Record on a paragraph row and the row immediately shows a red error like "Microphone access denied" or "No input device available", the OS is not letting the app read from your microphone.

The per-row inline error that appears when microphone access is blocked or no input device is available.

Fix on Windows

1. Open Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone.
2. Make sure Microphone access at the top is ON.
3. Make sure Let apps access your microphone is ON.
4. Make sure Let desktop apps access your microphone is ON. (VoiceOverAndOver is a desktop app, so it falls under this setting.)
5. Restart VoiceOverAndOver and try Record again.

Fix on macOS

1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone.
2. Find VoiceOverAndOver in the list and turn its switch ON. If it is not in the list yet, click Record once more in the app to trigger a fresh OS prompt.
3. Restart VoiceOverAndOver and try Record again.

No microphone is attached

If the OS lets the app access microphones but no input device exists, you will see the same "No input device available" error. This usually means:

• You have a USB microphone or audio interface that is unplugged or asleep.
• Your laptop's built-in mic is disabled in Windows Device Manager or macOS Sound preferences.
• The OS recognizes the device but has it muted - check the system volume mixer.

Plug the device in (or unmute it), wait a few seconds, then click Record again on the row. The app picks up the device live - no restart needed.

The audio comes out very quiet (or very loud)

Recording level is set by your OS, not by VoiceOverAndOver. The app records whatever the operating system hands it.

To raise or lower the recording level on Windows

1. Right-click the speaker icon in the system tray and choose Sound settings (or open Settings > System > Sound).
2. Scroll to Input. Click the input device you are using.
3. Adjust the Input volume slider. Test by speaking - the level meter should hit about 60-70% on a normal speaking voice, with occasional peaks near 90%. If you hit 100% the audio is clipping and needs to come down.

To raise or lower the recording level on macOS

1. Open System Settings > Sound.
2. Click the Input tab.
3. Pick your input device and adjust the Input volume slider. Aim for the level meter to hit about 60-70% on a normal speaking voice, with peaks no higher than 90%.

Play does not work / waveform does not appear

If you finished a recording but Play does nothing and no waveform shows up, the audio file probably did not write to disk. This is rare and usually means one of:

• Disk is full. Free up space. Each minute of recording is roughly 1 MB.
• The project folder lost write permission. Re-launch the app; it will recreate the folder if needed.
• Antivirus blocked the write. Add VoiceOverAndOver to your antivirus's allowed-apps list.

Click Re-record on the row. If the next take comes back with a working waveform, the problem was transient.

Import... fails on an audio file

The app uses ffmpeg internally to transcode imported audio. Almost any common format (wav, mp3, m4a, aac, ogg, flac, opus, webm) works. If your file fails to import, the most likely causes are:

• The file is corrupt or has no valid audio stream. Try playing it in another app to confirm it works.
• The file path contains characters that the underlying tools struggle with. Move the file to a simple folder path (no special characters) and try again.
• The file is locked by another app (open in an editor, for example). Close the other app and try again.

Export fails or hangs

If Export prints a red error to the status panel, the message tells you the cause. Common ones:

• Write permission denied. Pick a different destination folder. Folders inside Program Files or other system locations are read-only for normal apps.
• Disk full. Free up space and try again.
• File in use. If you are overwriting an existing file, close it in any other app first (a media player keeping it open, for example).

Windows SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC"

The Windows installer is not currently signed with a code-signing certificate. The first time you run it on a new machine, Windows SmartScreen may show a blue warning that the publisher is unknown.

This is not a sign that the installer is unsafe - it just means SmartScreen has not seen the file enough times to recognize it as established. To run anyway:

1. Click More info on the warning dialog.
2. Click Run anyway.

The macOS build, by contrast, is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper opens it without any warnings.

The app won't launch / crashes immediately

If the app crashes on launch or fails to open:

1. Reboot. (Yes, really. It clears a surprising amount of OS-level audio device weirdness.)
2. Re-run the installer. Existing projects are stored outside the install folder and are not touched by reinstalling.
3. If the problem persists, use Help > Report A Bug... and include your OS version and what step you were on.

Where projects live on disk

If you need to back up, copy between machines, or recover from a corrupted project, the project folders are here:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\VoiceOverAndOver\VoiceOverAndOver\projects\
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/VoiceOverAndOver/VoiceOverAndOver/projects/

Each project is one folder. Inside that folder:

• project.json - the script, the paragraph list, the per-paragraph settings (crop times, gain).
• audio/ - one paragraph-NNN.webm file per recorded paragraph.
• exports/ - any merged previews the app has produced for this project.

"There is a .tmp file in my audio folder"

Every audio write goes through a two-step pattern: write to paragraph-NNN.webm.tmp, then rename. If you see a stray .tmp file in a project's audio/ folder, it means a previous save crashed mid-rename. It is safe to delete the .tmp file - the matching final file should still be there, or your most recent take is the version you should re-record.

Projects list is empty after a successful install

If you had projects in a previous install and the list now shows "No projects yet", check the path above for your OS. If the folder exists and contains your project subfolders, but the app does not see them, the most likely cause is a permissions glitch - run the app as your normal user (not Administrator), make sure the projects folder is readable, and restart.

Still stuck?

Use Help > Report A Bug... from inside the app, or visit chiltonwebb.com/bug/ directly. Include:

• Your OS and version (Windows 11 23H2, macOS 14.4, etc).
• The app version from the About box (Help > About VoiceOverAndOver).
• Exactly what you were trying to do when the problem happened.
• The text of any error message in the status panel or on a row.

The more specific you can be, the faster a fix can land.