Forum Discussion
Live captions not working in Teams (Potentially widespread issue?)
- The issue is now resolved. It was fixed by Microsoft.
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 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- Some of us have successfully been using the workaround by joining MS TEAMS via your mobile app. Enable captions when you join from the mobile app. Live captions will also appear on your PC / laptop. It's a problem if you don't have the mobile app. This morning 1/19/2023 8:30 AM PST live captions were working for me. Maybe there's a rolling update? Not sure. I've seen posts that MS is aware and is fixing the issue. But still sucks for those of us who desperately need it!
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.
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.
- Any update....I am in the UK and same issue. It is a big issue for people that need them like me, as severely deaf.
If it was caused by an update, would telling my IT to roll back the settings to before 2 weeks ago help?
