Why is the YouTube transcript not showing?

When a YouTube transcript does not appear, the most likely cause is that the video has no captions, and so no transcript to show. Run the checks in order, because the first one settles most cases. If the video has no captions, no setting on your computer or account will bring the transcript back. The other steps below help you confirm this and decide what to do next.

Check whether the video has captions

Look at the video player for a CC or subtitles button. If the button is missing or greyed out, the video probably has no caption track, and a transcript cannot be built from one. This check takes seconds, and it rules out the most common cause before you look at anything else.

We could not open YouTube's own help page for transcripts while preparing this answer, because the page was rate-limited to our research tools. The link between captions and transcripts is therefore our reading of the platform's behaviour, not a quotation from YouTube, so check the current behaviour on a video you know has captions.

Check the captions are the ones you need

A video can have captions in one language and none in another. If you cannot find a transcript in your language, check the caption menu on the player to see which languages the video offers.

Automatic captions also have their own problems. In a 2017 study of YouTube's automatic captions, the authors found lower accuracy for women and for speakers from Scotland ¹. A caption track can be present and still be poor, which can look like a transcript that is "not working" when it is simply wrong.

Decide whether the video is the kind that has transcripts

Not all videos are alike. If you are looking at a very short clip, a music video or a video with little speech, there may be little or nothing to transcribe. Our sources did not give a list of video types that lack transcripts, so do not assume a rule for a specific format. Look at the video itself: if no one speaks, there is little or nothing to transcribe.

What to do when there is no transcript

If the video has no captions, you have three routes. Each one has limits.

1. Ask for the transcript. If you need the words for work or publication, ask the owner. This is the safest route, and it avoids the question of downloading.
2. Transcribe the audio yourself, if you may. YouTube's terms bar downloading any part of its content unless the service specifically permits it ². If you own the video, or have permission, you can transcribe your own file. Whisper, the open model from OpenAI, supports 98 languages, so it covers many cases ³.
3. Use a live caption tool for playing audio. Live captions on a computer show text as the sound plays. Whether you can save that text depends on the app, so check for an export option before you rely on it.

Whichever route you take, read the result against the video. Check names and numbers first. The guide to video to text covers the steps and the copyright limits.

It depends on who owns the video and why you need the words

• Your own video, with no captions. Transcribing your file is the simplest case, and it does not raise the download question for the file you already have.
• Someone else's video, for study. The terms still bar downloading. Reading whatever transcript the page shows is the lighter route.
• Someone else's video, for work. Ask for the transcript or permission. Copyright questions depend on the country and the use.

What to do

1. Look for a CC button on the video player, and check the language of the captions.
2. If the captions are missing, do not expect a setting to restore them. Choose one of the routes above.
3. If the captions are there but the transcript is still missing, reload the page. If it still does not show, report the problem through YouTube's help pages.
4. Check the text against the audio before you use it, especially names, numbers and quotations.

For how to get a transcript when the video has one, read how to get a YouTube transcript. If your problem is in an editor rather than on YouTube, see how to transcribe audio in Premiere Pro. For the wider subject, start with transcription, and for the terms used here, see the entry for automatic speech recognition.