Uploading a track runs two separate jobs, and knowing which one failed saves most of the guesswork. The screen tells you which.
Read which stage failed
A track moves through Uploaded, Transcribed, and Confirmed.
- Upload Failed means the file never landed. Nothing was processed, so the problem is the file or the connection.
- Transcription Failed means the file arrived but SongPilot could not pull lyrics from the audio. The track exists; the words are missing.
These are different problems. Re-uploading fixes the first and often does nothing for the second.
Check the file against the stated limits
The uploader states what it takes, on screen: Supported formats: MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, M4A • Maximum file size: 200MB.
Most upload failures are one of those two. A WAV of a long track passes 200MB easily, so exporting an MP3 is usually the quickest fix. An unusual container or codec that happens to carry a .mp3 extension can also be refused.
When the upload succeeds but transcription does not
Transcription runs automatically after the upload finishes, so you do not have to start it. If it fails:
- An instrumental has nothing to transcribe. That is not a fault, and you can type or paste the words yourself in the track’s Lyrics tab.
- Very quiet or heavily processed vocals are harder to hear. A rough mix with the vocal forward often transcribes better than the mastered version.
- You can run detection again from the track, and a toast reading Detecting Lyrics confirms it started.
Before you ask for help
Have this ready, because it is what anyone helping will ask for:
- The file format and size.
- Which of the two failures you saw, word for word.
- Whether other tracks upload successfully from the same machine.
Then open Help & Support from your account menu. Support can see your workspace, so it can tell whether the track actually exists with a missing transcription or never arrived at all.
