Finding a Saved Transcript or Recording

If you finished a recording in the mobile app and can’t find the transcript, it is almost always still there. The most common reason a transcript seems “lost” is that it was saved but not yet assigned to a patient, so it is waiting for you in the Unassigned list rather than on a patient’s record.

Where your recordings and transcripts are saved

Your recording is saved automatically as you go, so it is hard to lose. Depending on how far along it is, you’ll find it in one of these places:

• On a patient’s record, if you picked the patient before recording. A new recording is saved to that patient as soon as it is transcribed, and its note opens right away (app and extension).
• In the Unassigned list, if you transcribed it but did not assign it to a patient yet. This is normal, your transcript is safe here until you file it.
• In the Unprocessed list, if the recording was captured but not yet transcribed. This usually happens if transcription did not finish (for example, you had a weak connection in a patient’s home). The audio is saved, and the app retries these on its own once you’re back on a good connection.

How to find a recording or transcript (mobile app)

For the patient you picked: on the Visit screen, tap Recordings in the visit summary box (in the middle while the box is empty, in the bottom-left corner once it has text). It lists that patient’s recordings grouped by day, with the time, length, and first line of each. Tap one to put it in the box, or tap its edit icon to open its transcript, with a Note tab at the top to switch to the note written from it.

For all patients, including Unprocessed and Unassigned:

1. On the Visit screen, tap Voice Scribe in the visit summary box.
2. Tap the menu icon to the left of the Voice Scribe title.
3. This opens Saved Transcriptions, grouped by patient. Pinned at the top of this list are two groups:
   • Unprocessed, recordings whose audio was captured but not yet transcribed.
   • Unassigned, transcripts that are done but not yet assigned to a patient.
4. Tap the item you’re looking for. A transcript opens on its Transcript tab, and the Note tab next to it shows the note written from it (or a Write Note button if there isn’t one yet).

If something seems to have disappeared, check the Unprocessed and Unassigned groups at the top of this list first. A long visit you recorded but did not finish filing will almost always be sitting in one of them.

How to find a recording or transcript (browser extension)

• For the patient you picked: click Recordings in the Visit Summary box on the Visit screen. It lists that patient’s saved transcripts. Click one to drop it into the box, or click its edit icon to open its transcript, with a Note tab at the top.
• For all patients: click Voice Scribe to open it, then click the menu icon at the top left of that screen. It opens Saved Recordings, every saved recording across your patients, including Unassigned ones. Click one to open it on its Transcript tab; the Note tab shows the note written from it, or a Write Note button if there isn’t one yet. An Unassigned recording has an Assign button next to Record More, and one already on a patient has Reassign there instead.

The menu icon on the Visit screen itself opens Saved Notes, not recordings.

Finishing an Unprocessed recording

If your recording is in the Unprocessed list, the audio was saved but the transcript was never created (often because of a connection issue at the time).

In most cases you don’t need to do anything. Once your phone is back on a working connection and the app is open, it transcribes these recordings for you in the background. They move to the Unassigned list, or onto their patient if the recording already had one. If you recorded several visits somewhere without signal, they are worked through one at a time.

To transcribe one yourself instead of waiting:

1. Open Voice Scribe from the Visit screen and tap the menu icon to the left of the Voice Scribe title.
2. Find the recording under the Unprocessed group and tap it.
3. It opens back up so you can play it, then tap Transcribe to create the transcript.

Transcription happens online either way, so a recording stays in the Unprocessed list until the phone has a working internet connection.

A recording that stays in the list after you’re back online usually means no speech was detected in the audio. The app leaves it alone rather than retrying, so you can listen to it and decide.

If you tap a recording and see “Recording not found,” the audio for it is no longer on your phone, so it can’t be played or transcribed. You can keep it in the list or tap Discard.

Recordings from before an app update

On earlier versions of the app, a recording saved to Unprocessed before the app updated could stop working afterward: playback stayed at 0:00 and Transcribe never finished. In some cases the recording also dropped off the list. Updating to the latest version fixes this. Those recordings reappear under Unprocessed and transcribe normally, as long as the app wasn’t deleted and reinstalled in between. A recording that had dropped off the list comes back without a patient attached, so you’ll choose the patient when you save it.

If a recording stopped before you tapped Stop

Sometimes the phone itself interrupts a recording. A phone call, Siri, or switching to another app can take the microphone away, and occasionally the recording cannot restart afterward.

When you come back to the app, it tries to pick the recording back up on its own. If it can, you’ll see “Recording resumed” and you can keep going. Everything stays in one recording, with a gap covering the time you were away.

If it cannot restart (for example the call is still going), the app tells you the recording stopped early, and the audio recorded up to that point is saved for you in the Unprocessed list, where it is transcribed once you have a connection.

If the app closed entirely during a recording (for example, your phone shut it down while you were in another app for a long time), you’ll see a prompt the next time you open the app asking whether you want to recover the unfinished recording. Tap Recover and it opens back up ready to transcribe.

Two things worth knowing:

• Audio from the moment of the interruption until you returned to the app is not captured. The phone controls the microphone during that time, so a few minutes may be missing from the middle.
• To avoid the interruption entirely, keep SOAP Note Buddy in the foreground while recording a visit. The screen can be off, but switching to another app is what most often causes it.

Assigning (or reassigning) a transcript to a patient

Once you’ve opened a transcript from the list:

1. On the Transcript tab of an Unassigned recording, tap Assign (next to Record More).
2. Choose the patient (or tap + New Patient). The recording and the note written from it both move to that patient, and you stay on the note.

Recorded on the wrong patient? Open the recording, and on its Transcript tab tap Reassign, then pick the right patient. The recording and its note move over, and they are taken back out of the first patient’s visit summary and previous note, so that patient’s next note isn’t written from this visit.

Adding more to a recording you already saved

If you saved a recording and want to add to it afterward (for example, dictating your goals privately after leaving the patient’s home), you don’t need a second transcription.

• Record for the same patient again the same day. When you start recording for a patient you already recorded today, the app asks whether to Add to that recording or Start a new recording. Tap Add to that recording and the new audio is added to the end of that same transcription.
• Or reopen it. On the Visit screen, tap Recordings, tap the edit icon on the recording, then tap Record More on its Transcript tab. When you finish, the note is rewritten to include what you added.

In the app, Voice Scribe on the Visit screen opens Voice Scribe with the patient you picked already selected. In the extension, Voice Scribe in the bottom-right corner of the Visit Summary box does the same for the patient you picked, and the new transcript is added to the end of the box.

I saved it to a patient on my phone but don’t see it in the browser extension

Transcripts you file to a patient on the mobile app sync to the same patient’s record in the Chrome extension automatically. If a transcript you just saved on your phone isn’t in the extension yet:

1. Pick that patient in the extension’s patient switcher and click back into the extension window. Clicking into the extension (bringing it into focus) refreshes that patient’s transcriptions from the cloud, so a recording you filed moments ago on your phone shows up in the dropdown next to Record in the Visit Summary box. Picking the patient also pulls the latest.
2. Give it a moment on a weak connection. If you saved the recording on your phone while on a weak connection (for example, in a patient’s home), the phone finishes syncing it once it’s back on a good connection. Reopening the mobile app helps it catch up right away.
3. Confirm you’re signed into the same account on both the phone and the browser.

Almost always the recording is safe and just needs the extension to refresh (step 1). If it still doesn’t appear after that, email us and we’ll track it down.

I still can’t find it

A few things to check:

• Look in the Unprocessed and Unassigned groups (pinned at the top of Saved Transcriptions, from the menu icon in Voice Scribe). This is where almost every “missing” recording turns out to be, Unprocessed if it wasn’t transcribed yet, Unassigned if it was transcribed but not filed to a patient.
• Make sure you finished transcribing. Recording the audio is one step; tapping Transcribe is what produces the saved transcript.
• Check the device you recorded on. Transcripts sync across your devices once they’re saved, but a very recent one may take a moment to appear on a second device.

If you’ve checked the Unassigned list and still can’t find it, email support@soapnotebuddy.com with the rough time you recorded it and which clinician/visit it was for (no patient details needed, the first name or initials is plenty), and we’ll help you track it down.