Forum Discussion
Live captions not working in Teams (Potentially widespread issue?)
Hi all, hope you can help.
I work for a local council in the UK's IT department and we were looking into why a particular user couldn't get live captions to work in Teams meetings/calls.
All of the options are enabled to get them to work, but in teams calls, it just shows the area at the bottom of the call window where the captions should appear, but no words come up.
We updated the user's computer, and reinstalled the Teams app. We have tested this on the Teams app, as well as the browser version of Teams, on multiple computers, with different people, to the same result. The live captions simply aren't working.
The user also mentioned their sister who works for another council is also having the same issue.
Could this issue with live captions not working be widespread?
- The issue is now resolved. It was fixed by Microsoft.
- I just confirmed through a test that starting Live captions in the Teams app on a mobile device that joins a Teams meeting enables everyone in the meeting to start Live captions on PC. This works for both enterprise and personal accounts that join the meeting on a mobile device and activate Live captions.
- One of our admins just indicated that Microsoft has confirmed that the mobile device workaround I mention above works. Microsoft said the issue has to do with an upgrade they put in that cause a sharp increase in resource utilization. In order to fix it, Microsoft had to turn off captions for desktop and are working on a resolution in order to turn the function back on.
Same here in the Netherlands. Live captioning has been borderline unusable since last week with some lags, but this week it has completely transformed into a chocolate teapot with the first sentences of hello and good morning appearing in the 8th minute of the call. This holds the same for the transcription functionality. Tried all the testings: getting called, dialing out, joins a meeting, trying the same on iPhone, asking my colleague to try on theirs - still the same.
I am in Ontario, Canada as well and I am having the same issue too and it is incredibly frustrating. I am partially deaf and actually need the captions to work. For the last week, it has been incredibly buggy but it isn't working today at all (Jan 18 2023. 11.19 am)
Is there an update or fix coming up any time soon?
- Having the same issue here in the US - cc's was working fine up until this week, and it's the same meetings with the same people, so not an issue with new permissions from external accts
- Thanks for your reply. The user I was corresponding with who needed these mentioned that, just like yourself, that the captions had been becoming more and more unreliable until today, when they stopped completely.
- This was updated in the Microsoft Admin Message Center last week. May be what's causing the issue even though it says it won't affect anything for 60 days-
Message Summary
Updated January 14, 2022: We have updated the content below to provide additional clarity. Thank you for your patience.
Today, we are excited to announce Microsoft Teams Premium. Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaboration experience of Microsoft Teams, this new offering makes every meeting from 1:1s to large meetings, to virtual appointments to webinars more personalized, intelligent, and protected. Unlike the disconnected experience and costs of multiple point products or add-ons, with Teams Premium you get everything you need for just one low price.
As part of the Teams Premium announcement, these existing features will move to Teams Premium, and will be still open for everyone for a grace period of time:
Live translation of captions – available to all until 60 days after Teams Premium General availability.
Custom together mode scenes - available to all until 30 days after Teams Premium General availability.
Timeline markers in Teams meetings recordings (join/leave meetings)- available to all until 30 days after Teams Premium General availability.
Virtual Appointments - available to all until 30 days after Teams Premium General availability.
SMS notifications
Organizational analytics in Admin Center
Scheduled queue view
Teams Premium will be generally available in February.
Message Summary
Updated January 14, 2022: We have updated the content below to provide additional clarity. Thank you for your patience.
Today, we are excited to announce Microsoft Teams Premium. Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaboration experience of Microsoft Teams, this new offering makes every meeting from 1:1s to large meetings, to virtual appointments to webinars more personalized, intelligent, and protected. Unlike the disconnected experience and costs of multiple point products or add-ons, with Teams Premium you get everything you need for just one low price.
As part of the Teams Premium announcement, these existing features will move to Teams Premium, and will be still open for everyone for a grace period of time:
Live translation of captions – available to all until 60 days after Teams Premium General availability.
Custom together mode scenes - available to all until 30 days after Teams Premium General availability.
Timeline markers in Teams meetings recordings (join/leave meetings)- available to all until 30 days after Teams Premium General availability.
Virtual Appointments - available to all until 30 days after Teams Premium General availability.
SMS notifications
Organizational analytics in Admin Center
Scheduled queue view
Teams Premium will be generally available in February.
Learn more about Teams Premium here: Introducing Microsoft Teams Premium, the better way to meet.Carol DeMuth thanks , that explains it. Shame on Microsoft for putting accessibility behind a paywall.
- Captions are NOT behind a paywall according to that post from Carol - it's the translation of captions that will be.
Carol DeMuth Hi, this was posted in 2022 so hopefully not the same issue.
- Yes I was on a teams meeting today 19 Jan 2023 with no live captions. 'Live Captions are not available, please try again later'
Would you please advise as I really need live captions for meetings at work.
Thank you
You mentioned 'Live translation of captions – available to all until 60 days after Teams Premium General availability'
I'm not sure what this means? Does this mean only those who have Teams Premium will get Live translation of captions? I have just had a teams meeting (Scotland) and got a message that live captions is unavailable, try later. I really need live captions for work. Would you please clarify so I can contact my IT department? I don't know what level subscription we have.
Thanks in advance
Regular closed captions are NOT behind a paywall according to that post from Carol - it's only the translation of captions that will be.
There is a systemic issue with Closed Captioning that Microsoft is actively addressing and fixing - below is the most recent update (thanks to LewisJFC) :
Update from Microsoft in the Service Health section of their admin dashboard. Title: Users may be unable to change captions or transcription languages during Microsoft Teams meetings User Impact: Users may be unable to change captions or transcription languages during Microsoft Teams meetings. More info: In addition, audio may be desynced, and live captions may not be available during Microsoft Teams meetings. Current status: We've begun slowly re-enabling the captioning service for Microsoft Teams meetings and we're continuing to monitor to ensure resolution as the change reaches full saturation. Scope of impact: This issue may prevent any user from changing captions, transcription languages, live captions, or may cause audio desync during Microsoft Teams meetings. Root cause: A recent client update to Microsoft Team meetings is resulting in impact. Next update by: Thursday, January 19, 2023, 7:00 PM (7:00 PM UTC)TEMPORARY SOLUTION for users who have the Mobile Teams app (thanks to @bigbee) :
Starting Live captions in the Teams app on a mobile device that joins a Teams meeting enables everyone in the meeting to start Live captions on PC. This works for both enterprise and personal accounts that join the meeting on a mobile device and activate Live captions.
Looks like the closed caption feature has been restored on my end. I just got off a call and it started working halfway through. I would recommend everyone to try turning off and turning on the closed caption feature to enable it. and see if it works! glad it is working now that was a concerning turn of events!
- The issue is now resolved. It was fixed by Microsoft.
- Same problem here in Bay Area, California. I switched to my TEAMS mobile app for my meetings (added the device) in addition to joining from the desktop app as the temporary solution also reported by bigbee. I am deaf and rely heavily on TEAMS captions. Hope this issue is resolved soon!
- Same issue exactly here in UK but also tried it on 3 different computers with 3 different account names and different ISPs so definitely a Microsoft issue. Same frustration. Sympathize with everyone
