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SharePoint Online: Fixing “We’re having trouble generating a transcript and captions right now”

While working with a video stored in SharePoint Online, we encountered the following error when attempting to generate captions:

“We’re having trouble generating a transcript and captions right now. Try again in a bit.”

The message didn’t explain why caption generation had failed. After investigating where the video was stored, we found a simple workaround that resolved the issue in our environment.

The problem

The video had been uploaded to the Styles Library of a SharePoint Online site rather than a regular document library.

The Styles Library is intended primarily for site styling and related assets, not as a general-purpose repository for business documents and videos.

What resolved the issue

We moved the video from the Styles Library to another SharePoint document library.

After moving the file, we tried generating captions again. This time, caption generation worked.

What we learned

The location of a video within SharePoint may be worth investigating when troubleshooting caption-generation failures.

In this particular case:

  • Caption generation failed while the video was stored in the Styles Library.
  • Moving the video to another document library resolved the issue.
  • We could not establish the underlying technical reason for the failure.

Important: This is an observed workaround, not a confirmed Microsoft product limitation. The same error can have other causes, so moving a video should not be considered a universal fix.

Troubleshooting considerations

If you encounter a similar error, check which library contains the video.

If it is stored in a library intended for site assets rather than general documents, consider testing with a copy of the video in a standard document library, subject to your organisation’s content-management policies.

Be aware that moving or copying files can affect links, permissions and metadata, depending on the method and destination.

Conclusion

In our case, the issue was resolved simply by moving the video out of the Styles Library.

It was a useful reminder that the storage location of SharePoint content can be relevant when troubleshooting unexpected behaviour, even when the error message doesn’t indicate a storage-related problem.

Originally documented in April 2024. This article describes an observed troubleshooting outcome rather than a verified product defect.


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