Help & troubleshooting
YouScript isn’t showing a transcript?
Most problems are fixed in a minute. Start at the top.
1. Quick fixes
- Refresh the YouTube page. A tab that was open before YouScript was installed or updated needs one reload.
- Wait a few seconds. The card says “Reading…” while it collects the transcript. On a slow connection or while an ad is playing it can take longer.
- Press “Try again”. If the card says it could not read the transcript yet, that button reads it again.
- Check you are on a video page. The card appears on
youtube.com/watchpages, not on the home page, search results or Shorts. - Disable other transcript extensions. Two extensions working on the same page can get in each other’s way.
- Restart the browser, or disable and re-enable YouScript on
chrome://extensions.
2. “This video has no transcript”
YouScript shows the transcript YouTube has for the video. If YouTube has none, there is nothing to show. That happens when:
- the creator turned captions off,
- the video was just uploaded and YouTube has not generated automatic captions yet (try again in a few hours),
- the video has no speech, such as music or silent footage, or
- YouTube does not generate captions for the language spoken.
To check, look at the video’s own “Show transcript” button under the description. If YouTube does not offer one either, neither can YouScript.
3. The Language menu
- No Language menu? It only appears when the video has more than one caption language or YouTube offers a translation. A video with a single caption track and no translation shows nothing to choose.
- “Could not load that language”? Press the same language again. If it keeps failing, reload the page and try once more; YouTube sometimes needs a moment after a video starts.
- The translation reads oddly? It is YouTube’s automatic translation, the same as the one in YouTube’s own subtitle menu. Names, slang and songs are the hardest for it.
4. Still stuck? Email me
When the card could not read a transcript it shows a Copy details button. Press it and paste the result into your email: it is a short technical report with no personal information. It also helps if you include:
- the link to a video where it happens,
- what you expected and what you see instead,
- your browser and version (for example Chrome 130),
- the YouScript version: 1.0.0.
Good to know
- Settings missing on another computer? The three settings follow your Chrome profile if Chrome sync is on.
- Want the card out of the way? Press the arrow at its top right to collapse it. It stays collapsed until you open it again.
- Leaving a review on the Chrome Web Store helps other people find YouScript.