Help
Troubleshooting
The problems people actually run into, and what to do about them.
Showing the iOS appweb app
Most of what looks like a bug in Lyric Genie is a control that is waiting for something. This page is grouped by where the problem shows up.
Where did my work go#
I signed in and my library is empty#
You are almost certainly in the other account. Lyric Genie signs in with Google or with Apple, and those are two separate accounts even when both use the same email address. Songs written under one are invisible to the other.
Sign out, sign back in with the other button, and check whether your songs are there. Nothing has been deleted.
I recorded something and cannot find it in my song#
Open the Recordings tab. If the recording was made from the Start tab rather than from inside a song, it is unattached and waiting there. Use Add to Song on it.
This is the most common confusion in the app and it is worth reading How it fits together once to get the shape of it.
My lyric sheet does not show the changes I made#
A lyric sheet is a frozen snapshot, taken at the moment you created it. Editing the song afterwards never changes a link you have already sent, which is the point: what you sent a publisher last week still reads the way it did when you sent it.
Make a new sheet when you want the current version. See Lyric sheets.
Buttons that do nothing#
Perform is greyed out#
The song has no lyrics yet. Perform needs something to display. Write a line and it wakes up.
The title suggestion button does nothing#
Same cause. It reads your lyrics to suggest a title, so it needs lyrics to read.
Nothing happens while I type, and I was expecting suggestions#
In-line suggestions are silent without AI access. They do not interrupt you with an upgrade screen while you are writing, which is deliberate, but it does mean the feature simply never appears.
Check the In-line Suggestions row in Preferences. That is where the switch and the upgrade prompt both live. See In-line suggestions.
Refine Context opened the upgrade screen#
Refine Context uses your AI calls. On the free plan, the upgrade screen appears once they are used up. Everything on the AI Context sheet is still free to edit by hand. See Plan limits.
Wish Workshop#
It asked me questions instead of writing#
The song had no AI Context, so Wish Workshop stopped to collect some. It needs a mood, a theme, or a reference point before it can write in your voice rather than in nobody's.
Answer the questions once and it will not ask again for that song. You can also fill the fields yourself from the ⋯ menu.
It rewrote my line when I wanted new material#
A selection was active. With text selected, Wish Workshop rewrites that text. With nothing selected, it offers Creative Spark, which writes something new.
Tap anywhere to deselect, then open the lamp again.
My rewritten line does not fit the melody any more#
One of the two constraint toggles was turned off. Both are on by default: one holds the syllable count, the other holds the rhyme. Turn them back on and run it again. See Wish Workshop.
It said my selection was too large#
Rewrite takes up to six lines and 500 characters. Rhyme and Thesaurus are tighter still: they want a single line or less. Shorten the selection and try again.
I ran out of AI calls#
The free plan includes 15 calls of the larger AI features and 50 of the lighter ones. Current numbers for both plans are on Plan limits.
Collaboration#
My solo song suddenly has tabs#
Generating an invite code makes a song collaborative straight away, before anyone accepts it. The song grows a tab row and a Master tab at that moment.
If nobody joins, nothing else changes, and the tabs are harmless.
On the web you can undo it. While nobody has joined, choose Stop sharing from the ⋯ button on the Collaborators section's header and the song goes back to being yours alone. See Inviting a collaborator.
My collaborator cannot see my Scratchpad notes#
Working as intended. The Scratchpad belongs to you, not to the song's writers, and it is the one place on a shared song that stays private. It says Private · only you can see this, with an eye icon.
If the song was shared before scratchpads became private, notes that were in the shared scratchpad were copied into each writer's own, so you may both see the same old notes. Anything you add from now on is yours alone.
Master says someone else is editing#
Only one writer types in Master at a time. While someone is, the Master tab shows a lock in their colour with their initial, and tapping in says, for example, Sam is editing Master · free in 12 s.
Wait for it. The lock frees itself 30 seconds after they stop typing, or sooner if they tap the lock to let others in. If it is you who is holding it on another device, or a collaborator who has wandered off, the 30 seconds still apply. Send to Master and Arrange on Master wait for the lock too.
On the iPhone, typing in Master needs version 2.23. In older versions Master is read-only, and you change it by sending sections to it.
See The Master.
I sent lines to Master and they went to the bottom#
That is where sent lines go: the end of Master, exactly as you selected them. Move them into place by typing in Master, or with Arrange Master. See The Master.
Nothing was emailed to my collaborator#
An invite code is never emailed. It is a six character code plus a share link, and you send it however you like. The recipient enters it under Settings, Song Invite Code. See Inviting a collaborator.
The web can email an invitation, but only to someone you have written with before, picked from Previous collaborators. They accept it from their notifications.
I can't invite anyone else#
The song is full. A song can have up to eight collaborators, you included, and invites nobody has used yet count toward that. Cancel an invite that is no longer needed, or remove someone, to make room. See How many people.
I'm not getting chat notifications on my iPhone#
Chat pushes need version 2.22 or later of the iPhone app, and notifications allowed for Lyric Genie in the iOS Settings app. You get one push per message, but only one item per song in the bell, which clears once you have read the chat. Reading the chat on the web clears the song's chat notifications on your iPhone too. See Notifications.
Sessions#
Song sessions work on the web app and in the iPhone app from version 2.23.
I can't find sessions at all#
Sessions are open to everyone. On the iPhone they need version 2.23 or later: older versions have no Live Session in the ⋯ menu, so update from the App Store. On the web, reload the page if you still see Join a song where the Session circle should be.
Starting a session needs Pro, a free trial included. Joining is free while a Pro writer is in the session.
My collaborator can't see or hear me#
The iPhone app was not allowed to use the camera or microphone. Open the iOS Settings app, find Lyric Genie, and turn on Camera and Microphone. Then leave the session and join again.
Also check that you are not muted, in the session or from the lock screen or Control Center.
Your browser has blocked the camera or microphone. The session check says Allow the camera and microphone in your browser to be seen and heard. You can still join. Click the camera or lock icon in the address bar, allow both for the site, and reload the page.
Also check that the mic and camera are on: purple in a session, not red on the camera and mic check, and that the right Microphone is chosen. In a session, the arrow beside your mic row in Audio inputs switches devices. On a Mac, the browser also needs permission in System Settings, Privacy & Security, under Camera and Microphone.
The DAW plugin is not found Web app only#
Check three things: the plugin is installed, your DAW is open with the plugin loaded on a track or bus, and Lyric Genie is open on the same computer. If you told Chrome or Edge not to let Lyric Genie access apps on this device, turn it back on in the site's settings. See If the plugin is not found.
My collaborators can't hear my DAW Web app only#
- Is it shared? Look at Your DAW in Audio inputs. If it says it is ready to share, click Share. It does not share itself while a collaborator is already sharing audio, or after you removed it in this session.
- Is it muted? Check the mute button on the row, and Mute send in the plugin window.
- Is anything playing through it? The plugin only sends what passes through the track or bus it sits on. Put it on the master bus to send the whole mix.
- Did the sample rate change? The session says so. Click Share again.
If you share computer audio instead of the plugin, turn on Share audio when the browser asks what to share. Without it no sound comes through.
There is an echo#
Someone's speakers are feeding back into their microphone. Headphones fix it. The person whose voice you hear repeated is usually not the one causing it, so ask the others to put headphones on.
Music mode makes this much more likely, because it turns off echo cancellation. Only use it with headphones on.
If you share your DAW and play it through speakers, keep Duck mic on. It lowers your mic while the track plays, so the track does not come through your mic as well.
The video keeps freezing#
A connection is weak. When yours is, the session lowers the quality of the video coming in so the audio stays smooth, and full quality comes back by itself. A collaborator whose own connection is weak shows a Weak label on their video.
Turning your own camera off, and stopping a screen share, both lighten the load. Web app only On the web you can also lower Camera quality in the menu beside the camera button, if it is your video that freezes for others.
My session went quiet when a call came in iOS app only#
On the iPhone a session works like a phone call, so a real phone call puts it on hold. It picks up again when you hang up.
My session ended by itself#
Sessions left open by mistake end on their own. You leave after 10 minutes alone in a session, and after a long quiet stretch or a very long session you are asked Still in the session? first. Each person also leaves after five hours in a session, with a warning in the last ten minutes. You can rejoin straight away. See Leaving and ending.
Recording and importing#
Freestyle starts recording before I am ready#
That is deliberate when you launch it from the Start tab. To open Freestyle without it recording, open a song and tap the microphone icon in the editor instead.
Transcription stopped but the recording kept going#
That is the intended behaviour. Transcription needs a network connection and recording does not, so a network problem costs you the words and not the audio. You will see a message when it happens.
The recording is saved. You can transcribe it later when you have a connection.
My import did nothing#
Older versions failed silently on files that were too large or in an unsupported format. Current versions tell you what went wrong. If you are on an older version, update.
If you are on the current version and an import is refused, the message says why. The two usual causes are a file longer than your plan allows, and a format that is not on the supported list.
I am out of recording time#
The free plan holds 60 minutes of audio in total, with each recording capped at 5 minutes. Deleting recordings you no longer need frees the space back up. Pro raises the total to 10,000 minutes.
The web app says recording needs Chrome, Edge or Safari#
Your browser cannot make AAC audio, which is what Lyric Genie stores, so it cannot record or import audio. Firefox is the usual one. Use Chrome, Edge or Safari for that part. Recordings made on the web play on your iPhone.
The web app needs Chrome, Edge or Safari to record or import audio. Firefox cannot.
Account and billing#
I deleted my account and I am still being charged#
Deleting your Lyric Genie account does not cancel your subscription, because the subscription belongs to Apple rather than to us. Cancel it in Settings, Apple Account, Subscriptions on your iPhone.
Sign in is not working#
Sign in problems now show a message explaining what failed. If you dismissed it or are on an older version, the usual causes are no network connection, or cancelling the Apple or Google sheet before it finished.
On the web, sign-in happens in a small pop-up window. If nothing appeared, your browser blocked it, so allow pop-ups for the site and try again.
Something is still wrong#
Email the address at the bottom of this page, and say which device and which version of the app you are on.
Version is in Settings, at the top of the screen under the wordmark.
Version is the line at the very bottom of the Settings page.
Songs and collaborators#
A song called "… (Conflict copy)" appeared#
The same lines were changed in two different ways on two devices at once. Your song keeps one version, and the other edits are in the copy, linked from a banner in the song. Take what you need from it and delete it.
Where did the Mailbox go#
Lines a collaborator sends you now arrive as cards in the song's chat, from version 2.22 of the iPhone app. See Sending lines to a collaborator.
I can't find something from weeks ago#
On the web, press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows). Search looks through every song, every writer's lyrics, notes, chat, recordings and concepts.