Help

Getting started, and fixes for the most common problems. This page is in English only for now.

Getting started

1. Install. Join the beta to get the app. We send you the app when you join. Drag it to Applications.
2. Sign in. Click the account button at the top right of the window. It shows Sign In or your free minutes. Enter your email, and we email you a 6-digit code. New accounts get free trial minutes.
3. Add a video. Drop a video file on the window, or click Choose Video. MP4 and MOV files work best.
4. Pick the languages. The video opens on a short setup card. Set the language the video is in and the language you want.
5. Keep or cover the original subtitles. Choose Keep to put your translation above the original subtitles. Choose Cover to hide the originals under a blurred band with your translation in it.
6. Translate. The card shows about how many minutes the video uses and how many you have. If you aren't signed in yet, the button says Sign In and Translate. Press Translate Video. The app reads the lines, translates them and saves a new video, all in one go. If the lines turn out to cost more than the estimate, it stops after reading and shows the real cost. Press Translate Video again to go on.
7. Watch the result. When it finishes, the new video appears in the window, ready to play. Click Open or Show in Finder. New files go to the Subtitle Wand folder in your Movies folder unless you pick another in Settings. An .srt subtitle file is saved next to each video unless you turn it off in Settings > General.
8. Fix anything you like. Click Fix a Line or Change the Style to open the editor. Editing lines and exporting again uses no minutes.

Using the editor

The editor shows the video, a table of every line with its translation, and a panel on the right. To start a new video in the editor, click Open in the Editor Instead on the setup card.

• Read from sets where the lines come from: On-screen text for subtitles in the picture, Speech, or the video's Subtitle track. Click Read Lines to read them.
• If the editor found speaker names, it lists them before translating with a suggested spelling for each. Fix any that are wrong. The translation uses your spellings in every line.
• The translate button shows the cost, for example Translate · 23 min. You can edit any translated line in the table afterwards.
• Choose the subtitle size and position, then click Export Video.

Troubleshooting

The app found no lines, or very few

If the app finds no subtitles in the picture, a message at the top offers Read the Speech. If it found only a few lines, the finished video says where it read them from and offers another source, such as Read the Speech Instead. In the editor, check the Read from setting. On-screen text only finds subtitles that are part of the picture. If the video's subtitles are a separate track you can turn on and off, or there are none, use Speech. Also check that the source language is right. Very small or blurry subtitles in low-resolution videos can be missed.

Importing from a link finds no video

Import from a Link, at the bottom of the sidebar, opens the page in a small browser inside the app. The app can only find the video once the page starts playing it. Until then it shows "Waiting for a video. Start playback on the page."

• Press play in that window and wait a few seconds for the video to start.
• If the site needs an account, sign in inside that window. The app does not use your other browsers' logins.
• Some pages put the player in a pop-up or a separate page. Open the player itself, then press play.

If you already have the video file, adding the file directly is faster and more reliable.

"This stream is protected and can't be saved"

Many paid streaming services encrypt their videos with copy protection (DRM). Subtitle Wand does not save protected streams, and there is no setting to change that. Only import videos you have the right to save.

I bought minutes but my balance hasn't changed

• Wait a minute. Paddle confirms the payment first, and then the minutes are added. This usually takes a few seconds.
• Click your minute balance at the top right of the window. Opening it refreshes the balance.
• Make sure you are signed in to the same account you used to open the checkout page.

If the minutes still haven't arrived after 10 minutes, email us with the order number from your Paddle receipt. We will add them by hand.

A translation stopped partway

If a translation fails or you cancel it, you only pay for the part that was translated. The rest of the minutes go back to your balance automatically. Click Retry in the message at the top, or press Translate Video again. It picks up where it stopped. In the editor, click Translate.

The app says this video needs more minutes than you have

The app says how many minutes the video needs and how many you have, and opens your balance so you can buy a pack. Once the minutes arrive, it carries on by itself. You can also click Buy Minutes in the message. The cost depends on the video's length and, for videos with a lot of text, on how much text there is.

Contact

Email support@subtitlewand.com. Tell us your Mac model, your macOS version and what you were doing when the problem happened. We read every message and usually reply within two working days.