Your research sources deliver the silent treatment. No captions, no transcript, just raw audio trapped inside a video player that demands you become a human stenographer.
Productivity grinds to a halt as you manually chase every spoken word across minutes or hours of content.
Modern AI tools are now capable of extracting speech from any video and convert it into clean, readable text within minutes.
Many creators intentionally skip YouTube’s auto-captions because third-party tools now outperform them in terms of readability, formatting, & editable benefits.
And if you are using a tool like TubeOnAI, you can not only extract the transcript from a raw YouTube video, but also repurpose that source and turn it into endless content formats, which might clear up your long work hours.
Why a YouTube Video Might Not Have a Transcript
There are a few common reasons why this happens:
The Creator Disabled It: YouTube creators have the option to turn off the automatic transcript feature for their videos. They might do this if the auto-generated text is not accurate enough.
Poor Audio Quality: If the video has a lot of background noise, music, or if the speaker is mumbling, YouTube’s AI system can’t understand the words clearly. When it can’t understand the audio, it can’t create a transcript.
The Video is Too New: When a video is first uploaded, it can take YouTube’s system anywhere from a few hours to a day to process the audio and generate an automatic transcript.
Unsupported Language: YouTube supports many languages but its automatic transcription may not work for less common languages or particular dialects.
How to Transcribe a YouTube Video with TubeOnAI
The easiest way to get a transcript from a YouTube video, even if the video doesn’t have a transcript, is to use an AI-powered tool that connects directly to your account. TubeOnAI is one of the best tools to make this transcription process seamless and simple.
Here’s how you can easily get a perfect transcript using TubeOnAI.
Step 1: Get the YouTube Video Link
Go to the YouTube video you want to transcribe. Copy the URL (the link) from your browser’s address bar. Make sure the video is not shorter than 1 minute and not longer than 4 hours.
Step 2: Paste the Link into TubeOnAI
Open TubeOnAI and find the option named YouTube summary. Paste the video link into the designated box.
Step 3: Start Transcribing
After getting the summary, click the “Transcript” tab. You’ll get the transcript of the YouTube video according to the length of your video.
Step 4: Review the transcript and export, or edit
In just a few moments, you will have a complete, accurate transcript. Before copying or downloading the transcript, you can edit it if you find it necessary.
Troubleshooting Common Transcription Issues
Even with powerful AI like TubeonAI, you might run into a few issues. Like-
Time limit: you can’t transcribe the YouTube video, shorter than 1 minute and longer than 4 hours.
Inaccurate Words: If there was background noise or a strong accent in the video, TubeonAI might mishear a few words.
Didn’t find any transcript- TubeOnAI can’t generate a transcript from a YouTube video only when the video contains music, with no spoken words.
Other problems- If you face any other issues besides these problems. You can ask for help at their ‘Help Centre’ option.
Manual transcription method
Manual transcription is an old, traditional way to transcribe any audio or video. You need to type it or write it word by word without using any automated tool. This method is commonly used by legal professionals like lawyers, paralegals or court reporters who need detailed and accurate transcripts.
If your files are related to the healthcare or legal industries, in that case, a human touch is necessary because AI is not yet smart enough to be entirely relied upon without mistakes. So the results might not look as good as you’d expect.
On the other hand, the manual transcription method requires a lot of focus, patience, and time because you have to pause the video or audio repeatedly to write every word accurately.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between a transcript and captions?
Captions (or subtitles) are the words that appear at the bottom of the screen while you are watching the video. A transcript is the entire written text of the video that you can read or download as a complete document.
2. Can I get a transcript for a YouTube video in a different language using TubeOnAI?
Yes, you’ll get the transcript even if the YouTube video is in a language other than English. But the transcript will be made in English.
3. How accurate is AI transcription?
Modern AI transcription is very accurate, often over 95%, especially when the audio quality in the video is clear.
4. Why is my generated transcript not perfect?
The most common reasons for errors are poor audio quality, heavy background music, multiple people speaking at once, or very strong accents.
5. Can an AI tool also summarize the video?
Yes! Advanced tools like TubeOnAI do more than just transcribe. If you want a transcript using TubeonAI, you should summarize the YouTube video first, which saves you even more time.
