On my phone the hear this app seems to work good, I can synchronize the text files to the phone and do the recordings. But I do have problems with play the recorded clips, because the play button seems not to work.
Is there a solution for this, I`m hoping to do recordings in the village on the smartphones.
Job, if this is a program problem, we’ll need more information to try to help, since the play button certainly works on most devices. At least the model and android version of the phone and exact model of any headset you are using. But there are some things you can try yourself…
First, check your recording level…the moving bar across the bottom of the screen. This will confirm that your microphone is picking up something.
When you sync, can you play the recordings on your main computer? If not, the problem may really be the recording process.
If sync confirms that you are getting good recordings, the next thing to check would be volume levels on the phone. Many phones have several volume settings. Try turning them all well up and see if it helps. If so, you can fiddle with them until you work out which one affects HearThis playback.
If you are using a headset, try unplugging it for playback. In fact, experiment with both recording and playback without a headset. I would not recommend this for serious work, but if the program basically works when not using a headset, it’s possible your headset is wired wrongly. Unfortunately there are several common kinds of headset with plugs that will fit the socket on most androids, and some phones need one while others need the other. A headset with a microphone will usually have four connectors (3 plastic bands on the tip separating it into four metal bands, including the tip). But there are at least two ways of connecting this up. See https://help.longtailproducts.com/hc/en-us/articles/207970396-Smartphone-Headset-Standards-Apple-iPhone-AHJ-CTIA-OMTP.
If you are using a Bluetooth headset, inability to play back is a known problem, for which I haven’t been able to find a fix. Maybe I will eventually. For some reason, it seems to be really hard to get an Android to use a bluetooth headset for anything but phone calls. Try a regular (or usb) headset.
Hello John, I am having the same issue. I have tried the Android app with both my Samsung Galaxy s7 phone and my Samsung Galaxy s3 tablet. The text displays on my phone and tablet, but after I hold the record button and record, there is nothing to playback. I don’t see any mic volume bars at the bottom of the app. I see them on my computer, but not on the mobile devices. Is the Android version supposed to display the mic recording bars? When I sync with desktop, there is no recording present on the pc. I’ve checked all my volume levels on the mobile devices, they are all turned up. My Android version is 8.0. As a side note: When I record on my PC and sync with my phone it syncs successfully. The text I’ve recorded on my PC shows up as “green” (meaning it has been recorded already, I assume). When I try to play the audio on my phone that has been synced from my PC, even though it is showing up green, there is no audio played. It plays fine on my PC. I’m just struggling to get the Android version to work. Thanks for any help!
Hi Casey,
Sounds like you (and maybe Job too?) are really having problems with recording rather than play-back. HearThis Android DOES have a microphone volume bar. It’s a horizontal bar at the very bottom of the screen, so not quite like the desktop, but it should definitely be there. If you’re not seeing that, HearThis is not getting any signal from your microphone, so there’s nothing it can record.
HearThis Android does not copy sound files from your computer to the phone. (This is to save time in the transfer and space on your phone.) As a result, things you record on the computer can’t be played on the phone.
I’d still like to know:
Thanks John!
I was NOT using an external mic. Only the built in mic.
You were right, it was a permissions issue! I opened up the app in settings and saw the permissions for mic and storage were NOT “checked”. Once checking those, the mic volume bar appeared and I could record! Thanks for clearing up for me the issue with playback on my mobile device of recorded text from my PC. I was unaware that previously recorded audio from my PC would NOT be able to be played back on my mobile device. I apprecaite your quick response. I am planning on using a “snowball” external mic via an OTG cable from my tablets usb-c port. Will Hearthis recognize the external mic? Any heads up about this method?
Also, I see that the .wav files are stored in my internal storage on my tablet. Is there any way to have HT store them on the SD card? I don’t see any options for that in the HT settings.
Thanks!
Great to hear that solved the problem. It would certainly be possible to sync the audio files both ways, but the audio for a whole New Testament can get quite big. Would people want it synced automatically? Would it be helpful to have as an option?
There is not yet any way to have the audio stored on the SD card, though this also could certainly be done if there is a need for it (programmer resources permitting). Please let us know!
I’ve done testing on some devices using an OTG cable and USB microphone and have had it work. I expect it to work for your setup but I haven’t tested that exact combination of device and mic so I can’t promise. Please let us know!
Yes, I imagine it may be helpful to have the ability to store audio on an SD card. How big might the .wav files for an entire NT recording be if stored on the internal memory of an android device? It would be bothersome to have to delete other apps in order to make room for recording more audio. I bought a large SD card for storing these types of files.
Hi all, Thanks for both your feedback, this was helpful, I allowed the app to use the microphone and it all worked. We do have an other workshop session in February where we certainly gone a try to record on the phone. Thanks for now. Job
A new version of HearThis Android is now available. This version addresses this major usability defect that made the beta version difficult to use for so many new users.