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Quick troubleshooting checklist

Before diving into the sections below, run through this list:
  1. Restart Granola — Right-click the Granola icon in the dock (Mac) or system tray (Windows) and choose “Restart Granola”.
  2. Match audio devices — Your system’s default microphone and speaker (or default communications device on Windows) must be the same ones your meeting app (Meet, Teams, Zoom, etc.) is using. See Match system audio with your meeting audio below.
  3. Check permissions — On Mac: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and Screen & System Audio recording must be enabled for Granola.
  4. Bluetooth and external audio — Granola captures your system’s default audio. If you use Bluetooth headphones or external speakers, set them as the default (and default communications) device in system sound settings. Some Bluetooth or USB devices can cause dropouts; if transcription stops after a few minutes, try built-in audio or a different device.
  5. Language — If notes or transcript appear in the wrong language, check Language settings and ensure your meeting language is selected. Transcription uses the language you’ve set for your account/workspace.
Granola uses your computer’s microphone and system audio to transcribe — there is no meeting bot or separate recording app. You must have Granola open and be in a note (or have clicked into a meeting) for transcription to run. See How transcription works for when Granola starts and stops. If you’re still having issues, work through the sections in detail below.

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Testing if Granola is able to transcribe your meetings

To test if transcription is set up correctly:
  1. Open our demo meeting video
  2. Click “Quick Note” in Granola
  3. You should see some dancing green bars at the bottom of the note
  4. Click these to open the transcription window, and you should see text appearing in grey
  5. Start speaking: you should see more transcription from your own voice in green
If this isn’t working, this usually means we can’t connect to our transcription API, and there are a few different things you should try. Not working properly? Here are some common fixes.

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Restart Granola

This resets the connection to our transcription provider and often resolves connection issues.
  1. Find the Granola ‘g’ icon in your dock (icon menu on the bottom of the screen) on macOS, or system tray (bottom-right of the taskbar under the ^ icon) on Windows.
  2. Right click the Granola ‘g’ icon
  3. Click “Restart Granola”.
Try testing again using the above steps.

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Match system audio with your meeting audio

Granola uses your default sound devices (in macOS or Windows) to transcribe audio from your meeting, so these settings need to match the devices you’re using in Google Meet/Teams/Slack or any other virtual meeting software you’re using.

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macOS

On Mac, you can find the relevant settings under System Settings > Sound > Audio, and then check that the microphone selected under the ‘Input’ tab is the same as the microphone selected in your meeting software. image.png

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Windows 11

In Windows 11, the settings are found under Settings > System > Sound. Granola looks for the output/input devices that are set as the default device, which you can pick using the circular button on the left. If separate devices are selected for default device and default communications device, Granola will use:
  • Output: Default device
  • Input: Default communications device
To change this, scroll down to ‘more sound settings’: image.png In the new window that opens, right-click on the device you want to use Granola with, and choose ‘Set as Default Communication Device’: image.png Repeat this in the ‘Recording’ tab for your microphone. Check that these devices line up with the devices selected in your meeting app. Ideally do this while you’re testing Granola.

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Windows 10

In Windows 10, the settings are found under Settings > System > Sound > Playback. Granola will use:
  • Output: Default device
  • Input: Default communications device
To change this, right-click on the audio device you want to use in the Playback tab and choose ‘Set as default communications device’. Repeat this for the device you want to use in the ‘Recording’ tab. image.png Check that these devices line up with the devices selected in your meeting app. Ideally do this while you’re testing Granola.

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Turn off audio enhancement (Windows only)

Some audio devices also have settings that interfere with Granola, so we recommend turning these off.

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Windows 11

Open the sound settings by typing ‘sound settings’ into your Start menu or opening the Settings app and going to System > Sound. For each sound device, click the right arrow: image.png Look for ‘Audio Enhancements’ and change this to ‘Off’: image.png Repeat this for your Input device. Also try checking that ‘Mono audio’ is turned on under Settings > System > Sound. Some audio devices are not compatible with Granola in stereo audio mode: image.png

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Windows 10

Type ‘sound settings’ into your Start menu and press enter to open the Sound control panel, or go to Settings > System > Sound > Playback. For each device you want to use, right click it and choose properties, then turn off ‘enable audio enhancements’ and click OK: image.png Repeat this in the ‘Recording’ tab for your microphone. Try turning on ‘Mono audio’ if you’re still having issues.

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Check audio permissions (macOS only)

Make sure Granola has permission to access your system audio:
  1. Open System Settings
  2. Go to Privacy & Security > Microphone
  3. Find Granola in the list and make sure it’s toggled on
  4. Repeat for Screen & System Audio recording

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Disable audio mixing software/hardware settings

Some hardware devices or software that add extra processing on audio can interfere with Granola - such as USB microphone amplifiers, or audio mixing software that combines audio from multiple microphone streams. If you’re not using any devices or software like this (you’d know if you were!) feel free to skip this section. If you try disabling or bypassing these, and Granola starts working, these may be the culprit. You may still be able to use these by checking the following things:
  • Disable any ‘pass-through’ options - this will turn a microphone input into both an input and output device, meaning that your microphone audio will be transcribed in Granola as though it was from others in your meeting.
  • For stereo inputs/outputs, make sure your input/output audio is sent to the Left channel (or both Left and Right). Granola expects mono audio, but if your audio devices are set to stereo then it will read the Left audio channel.
  • Make sure any voice chat/microphones are routed to Granola as well as any call software

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Recording or transcription stops after a few minutes

If transcription starts but then stops (often reported around 4–5 minutes):
  • Sleep / idle — Granola stops when it doesn’t detect new audio for about 15 minutes, or when your computer goes to sleep. Keep the machine awake and ensure the meeting audio is actually playing through your default output device.
  • Bluetooth / external audio — Some Bluetooth or USB audio devices drop out or stop streaming after a period. Try switching to built-in speakers and microphone, or a different external device, to see if the problem goes away.
  • Restart Granola — Sometimes the connection to our transcription service drops. Right-click the Granola icon > Restart Granola, then open your note again and resume.
  • If it keeps happening, note when it stops (e.g. “always around 4 minutes”) and contact hey@granola.so for help.

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Restart your computer

Occasionally, the processes we use to transcribe system audio crash, and restarting Granola doesn’t fix this, but restarting your computer does, so try this if the steps above haven’t helped.

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Network troubleshooting

If you’re still having issues getting Granola to transcribe, this may be due to your networking set-up.
  • For some users, Granola cannot resolve the domain name for our transcription API. Try using 8.8.8.8 as your DNS server.
  • For some users, Granola cannot establish a TLS connection to our APIs. Things we have seen that work:
  • For some users, some connections are dropped or time out. Try adjusting or removing your firewall.