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Troubleshooting

Solutions to common issues you might encounter with TTS Buddy.

Audio Generation​

Generation takes too long​

Possible causes:

  • Very long text (100,000+ characters)
  • High server load during peak hours

Solutions:

  • Split your text into shorter sections (30,000-50,000 characters recommended)
  • Try again in a few minutes
  • Pro and Ultimate plans get priority processing

Generation fails with an error​

Possible causes:

  • Network connection issues
  • Text contains unsupported formatting
  • Server-side processing error

Solutions:

  1. Check your internet connection
  2. Try with a smaller portion of the text
  3. Remove any unusual characters or formatting
  4. Wait a minute and try again
  5. If the issue persists, contact support

Audio sounds robotic or unnatural​

Solutions:

  • Try a different voice — some voices handle certain content better than others
  • Reduce the speed if you're above 1.0x
  • Clean up the source text (remove extra whitespace, fix formatting)
  • Let the AI sanitizer process the text (it's on by default)

Playback Issues​

Audio won't play in browser​

Solutions:

  • Try a different browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge all supported)
  • Clear your browser cache
  • Check that your browser allows audio playback (some browsers block autoplay)
  • Download the file and play it in a local audio player

Audio file won't download​

Solutions:

  • Check your browser's download settings
  • Ensure you have disk space available
  • Try right-clicking the download button and selecting "Save link as..."
  • If the file has expired (see retention periods), regenerate the audio

Audio sounds sped up or slowed down​

This is likely due to your speed setting. Check the speed slider on the dashboard and adjust to 1.0x for normal speed.

Account Issues​

Can't sign in​

Solutions:

  1. Verify your email address is correct
  2. Try the "Forgot password" link
  3. If using social login (Google/GitHub), ensure you're using the same provider you originally signed up with
  4. Clear browser cookies and try again
  5. Try a different browser or incognito/private window

Not receiving verification emails​

Solutions:

  • Check your spam/junk folder
  • Add noreply@ttsbuddy.com to your contacts
  • Wait a few minutes — emails can be delayed
  • Try requesting a new verification email

Subscription not showing as active​

After upgrading, your subscription should be active immediately. If it's not showing:

  1. Refresh the page
  2. Sign out and sign back in
  3. Check your email for a payment confirmation from Stripe
  4. Wait 5 minutes — there can be a short delay
  5. If still not active, contact support with your payment confirmation

PDF Issues​

PDF text not extracting​

Possible causes:

  • The PDF contains scanned images (not selectable text)
  • The PDF is password-protected
  • The PDF uses unusual encoding

Solutions:

  • Open the PDF and try selecting text manually — if you can't select it, TTS Buddy can't extract it either
  • Remove password protection from the PDF
  • Try a different PDF or copy-paste the text directly

Extracted text is garbled​

Some PDFs use non-standard fonts or encoding that can cause extraction issues. Try:

  • Copy-pasting text from the PDF manually
  • Opening the PDF in a different viewer and copying from there
  • Using an online PDF-to-text converter first

Browser Compatibility​

TTS Buddy works best on:

  • Chrome 90+ (recommended)
  • Firefox 90+
  • Safari 15+
  • Edge 90+

If you experience issues on an older browser, try updating to the latest version.

Chrome Extension Issues​

Voice chat not working​

  • Check microphone permissions: chrome://settings/content/microphone
  • Ensure TTS Buddy extension has microphone access
  • Try refreshing the page and clicking the extension icon again

Markdown copy produces unexpected output​

  • Some sites with complex layouts may produce imperfect Markdown
  • Try selecting specific text and using right-click copy instead

Extension not appearing in toolbar​

  • Click the puzzle icon in Chrome's toolbar to find and pin TTS Buddy
  • Make sure the extension is enabled in chrome://extensions

Still Need Help?​

If none of the above solutions work, contact our support team. Include:

  • What you were trying to do
  • What error message you saw (if any)
  • Your browser and operating system
  • Screenshots if possible