Help & Troubleshooting
Most issues are solved by the steps below. Please try them before emailing us.
Tapesmith runs entirely on your Mac, so almost every hiccup is a macOS permission or a device that another app is holding. The fixes below take under a minute each.
Best practices for the sharpest captions
Set a healthy mic level. This is the single biggest thing you can do for caption accuracy. On your audio interface, set the input gain so your loudest words peak around two-thirds up, roughly -12 to -6 dB, the same as tracking a vocal. Too quiet and the captions miss words and pick up hiss; too hot and it distorts. Wear headphones so your speakers stay out of the mic, and get close, about 6 to 8 inches. On-device captions are fast and private but not perfect, so tap any word on the Review & Adjust screen to fix or add one before you render. A strong, clean signal means fewer fixes.
First launch: allow screen recording, then Quit & Reopen
The first time you press Record, macOS asks to let Tapesmith capture your screen. Click Open System Settings, turn on Tapesmith under Screen Recording, and when macOS offers Quit & Reopen, choose it so the permission takes effect. This is a normal one-time step that every screen recorder on macOS asks for, and you only do it once. Your camera and microphone prompt the same way the first time you use them.
The screen looks black, or Tapesmith can't see my screen
macOS needs to grant screen recording. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording and turn on Tapesmith. Then click Relaunch in the banner at the top of the app so the permission takes effect.
My camera is black or doesn't show up
Grant camera access in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera, then relaunch Tapesmith. Also quit any other app that might be holding the camera (Zoom, FaceTime, Photo Booth), since only one app can use it at a time.
My voice has a background hiss or hum
Turn on Remove Background Noise in the Audio section. It clears steady hiss and hum from your mic or interface, plus speaker bleed when you're not on headphones, without changing your voice. Leave it on unless your voice ever sounds processed. A steady hiss usually comes from the mic input itself, so it is worth checking your interface's input gain isn't turned up higher than the mic needs.
No sound from my iPhone screen while recording
Plug the iPhone in, unlock it, and tap Trust This Computer. Pick the iPhone as your source in Capture. Your Mac plays the phone's audio at your system volume, so keep the Mac around 50% so it doesn't cover your voice. The recording always captures the phone audio at full quality, even if it sounds quiet live.
A caption is wrong or missing a word
Every caption is editable before you render. On the Review & Adjust screen, tap any word to fix it, then Save Final Video. You can also re-caption after the fact: drag any video onto the Tapesmith window (the uncaptioned original, or any video at all) and it transcribes fresh and reopens the word editor so you can customize the words, then renders a new captioned copy.
A take didn't save, or export failed partway
Check that you have free disk space; Tapesmith auto-stops and saves a take if the disk runs low. Every banked take is a finished file in your Movies → Tapesmith folder, so earlier takes are safe even if the last one failed.
macOS says Tapesmith "can't be opened" the first time
Right-click (or Control-click) the Tapesmith app icon and choose Open, then Open again in the dialog. You only need to do this once.
Still stuck?
If the steps above didn't do it, email us and we'll help. Telling us your macOS version and what you were doing when it happened gets you a faster answer.
Email hello@tapesmith.app