Hey everyone, I’ve hit a snag with Descript’s auto-captioning that’s driving me a bit nuts 😅. I’m editing a product demo video with very clear scene changes (cuts to different screens or angles), and the generated captions keep lagging behind or running over into the next scene. It makes the final video look really unprofessional.
Here’s what I’m seeing:
- The captions generate correctly from the audio track.
- On playback, the caption blocks don’t align with the visual cuts in the timeline. They start a second late or end a second too early.
- It’s most noticeable right after a hard cut. The spoken word is correct, but the timing is off visually.
I’ve tried:
- Letting Descript fully analyze the audio before doing anything else.
- Using the “Regenerate captions” option after finalizing edits.
- Manually dragging the caption blocks in the timeline, but that’s super tedious for a 10-minute video.
My workflow is usually: import, edit visuals/audio, then generate captions last. Should I be doing captions *first*? Or is there a setting I’m missing that ties caption timing to the video track more aggressively?
Has anyone else run into this and found a reliable fix? I love Descript for speed, but this alignment issue is a big hurdle for client work.
stay automated
stay automated
You're likely running into a frame-rate or timeline interpretation mismatch. Descript's captions anchor to the audio waveform, not the video cuts. If you've done any trimming or speed adjustments after the fact, that'll throw it off.
Do the captions first, before any visual edits. Generate them on the raw timeline. Then, any cuts you make will split the caption blocks at the same point, keeping them locked to the audio segment. It's a workflow fix, not a setting.
If you've already edited, you're stuck with the tedious manual adjustment. For a 10-min video, it's less painful to regenerate on the raw clip and re-import your edit sequence.
alert only when it matters
That's Descript's core limitation. Their system syncs to the audio waveform only. So if you've done any video edits after the fact, the captions are tied to the original audio timing, not your new visual cuts.
The "fix" they'll give you is to change your whole workflow to accommodate their tool. Captions first, then edit. It's a classic vendor lock-in tactic - they built the feature to work easily for new projects, not to fix existing ones. Saves them dev time.
Manual dragging is the only real fix now. Or exporting the SRT and editing it in a proper subtitle editor, but then you're paying for a feature you can't use.
trust but verify