Troubleshooting

Most problems come down to a macOS permission, a second player competing for the Play/Pause key, or a setting that’s one click away. Find your symptom below; if it isn’t here, write to us — the address is at the bottom of the page.

Starting a session

The Start button is disabled

Hover it — the tooltip says why:

• “Grant System Audio Recording access to start” or “Grant Microphone access to start” — press Grant… in the banner above. See Permissions.
• “Connect a microphone to start” — macOS reports no input device. See Microphone setup.
• “Add at least one subtitle language to start”, or “Your plan allows up to … subtitle languages at a time — remove the extra ones to start” — fix the language chips above the button.
• “Stop the current session first” — a Subtitles session and a Listening or Speaking session can’t run together.

Sign-in doesn’t finish

If the overlay stays on “Waiting for your browser…”, press Cancel and try again — make sure you complete the Google page in the browser window that opened. “Sign-in timed out. Try again.” means the browser step took too long.

“You were signed out. Sign in again to continue.”

Your sign-in on this Mac was ended by the service — most often because the account was signed in on more computers than it allows, which signs out the oldest one. Sign in again to carry on; your plan, credit and local history are untouched.

The service is unavailable or the connection was lost

RainbowSay needs an internet connection while a session runs. Short drops are bridged automatically. If you see “Could not reconnect”, check your network and press Start again — sentences you completed are already saved.

Listening

It’s running, but nothing is ever translated

• Check System Audio Recording Only in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording. Without it macOS hands the app silence rather than an error. If you granted it mid-session, stop and start again.
• Did you pick a single app under Listen to? Only that app is heard. The overlay shows “Listening to: …”; switch back to All system audio in the options if needed.
• “Paused — waiting for audio” means standby after silence; it wakes with the next sound. “Suspended — not listening to audio” means you pressed suspend: press Unsuspend.
• Is the audio actually speech? Music and noise are deliberately ignored.

The video doesn’t pause at the end of a sentence

Auto-pause works by pressing the Play/Pause media key for you, which is what the Accessibility permission (Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27 and later) is for. If the overlay says it is off, add the app by hand. Then check that Auto-pause at sentence end is on in Settings → then Session → then Listening → then Sentence detection.

The wrong player pauses — or music starts playing

With All system audio, the Play/Pause key goes to whichever player macOS considers active, and macOS doesn’t let apps ask which one that is. Two fixes:

• Close or quit the players you aren’t using, or
• choose the one app under Listen to. The pause is then sent only while that app is really playing, and the resume only for a pause the app made. See Choose what to listen to.

The video runs a little past the sentence

Expected: the end of a sentence can only be recognised just after it happens, and the pause lands a beat later. The card and the Original replay always contain the whole sentence. If it bothers you, try High eagerness in sentence detection.

Sentences are cut too early, or never seem to end

That’s sentence detection: Low eagerness for longer sentences, High for shorter ones, and the Sentence length limit for speakers who don’t pause. You can always press Space to translate right now.

Music, noise or an ad got “translated”

Non-speech is normally discarded and the video resumes by itself. For sung or spoken material you don’t want — ads, sponsor reads, theme songs with clear lyrics — use Suspend.

A card came back thin or strange

Press the ↻ next to Original to redo the breakdown, or the ↻ next to Translation to redo the spoken translation.

The spacebar doesn’t work — or I’m worried it will interfere with typing

The global spacebar needs Spacebar control (Settings → then Session → then Listening → then Sentence detection) and the Accessibility permission every Listening session has — if the overlay says it is off, turn it back on. It is built to stay out of your way: while you are typing, and in places where a bare Space already means something — Quick Look in Finder, Spotlight, System Settings — the key is passed through untouched. When the app has no use for it (suspended, or nothing playing), the spacebar simply controls your player as usual.

Speaking

My microphone isn’t listed, or shows “No signal”

See Choose and test your microphone. The list updates by itself when you plug something in. “Allow microphone access to see input levels” means the Microphone permission is missing.

Nothing happens when I hold the spacebar

If the overlay says the Accessibility permission is off (it can be switched off in System Settings while a session runs), turn it back on — the spacebar works again within a few seconds. Otherwise use the round Hold to talk button in the overlay. A press shorter than a fraction of a second is ignored on purpose.

It started translating its own voice

It shouldn’t: the microphone is closed while the app speaks and for a moment after. If a loud, echoey room still causes it, lower the speaker volume, use a headset, or switch to Push-to-talk.

Subtitles

The caption window disappeared

It may be hidden rather than gone: press Show subtitles in the overlay, or Subtitles → Show Subtitles from the menu-bar icon. If the session ended after a long silence, the overlay says so — see Silence and auto-end.

“Your plan’s limit on subtitle languages is reached”

End a language before adding another, or see Pricing for plans with more.

There’s no audio to replay in a saved session

Save audio (original and translations) was off for that session; the transcript is still there. Turn it on in Settings → then Session → then Subtitles → then Storage for future sessions.

Plans and purchases

I paid, but the app still says my allowance is used up

Press Refresh under Settings → then Provider → then Usage & plan, or the ↻ on the overlay’s plan screen. See Plans and credit.

Updates

RainbowSay keeps itself up to date, and never interrupts a session to do it. It checks shortly after launch and every few hours, downloads quietly, and installs only when no session is running; the new version is simply there the next time you open the app. After an install you’ll see a small Update pill in the overlay’s header and a Restart to update item in the menu-bar menu — restarting right away is optional.

Still stuck?

Email us — the address is just below. Tell us your macOS version, what you were playing (the app, not the title), and what the overlay’s status line said. A person reads every message.