Transcription is unavailable on this device

Why generating needs a capable browser, why reading never does, and the one-device workaround that unblocks the whole team.

What you're seeing

The transcribe button is disabled or shows an "unavailable on this device" note, while transcripts other people made open and read normally.

Why it happens

HoldFast generates transcripts in your browser, on your own machine; audio is never uploaded for processing. That privacy choice means generating needs a device and browser with modern graphics access: a recent Chrome or Edge on a reasonably current computer. Older machines, some corporate builds, and most phones cannot run the speech model, so the button turns off rather than failing halfway.

Reading is different. A transcript, once generated by anyone, is stored with the video and opens on every device and browser, phones included.

Fix it

• Use a recent Chrome or Edge on a desktop or laptop. The first transcription downloads the speech model, which can take a minute on a slow connection; after that it is cached and later runs start quickly.
• If your machine cannot do it, any teammate's capable machine can: transcripts are per-video, not per-person, so one generation serves everyone.
• Senders can also pre-generate transcripts for a whole review link before the client ever opens it, which is the polite default for client-facing links.

Still stuck

If a capable machine on a current Chrome still shows the button disabled, a workspace policy or browser flag may be blocking the capability. Contact support from the app with your browser version and we will look at the capability check with you.