Understand job progress and cancellation

The stages, in order

Once you click Process, the job opens its own screen and reports a single stage label plus a percentage. These are the stages, in the order you will see them on a normal cutting job:

Two labels you may also see: Failed when a job errors, and Idle before any work has started.

Stage 6 is skipped in substance when Bad-take removal is off — that job is a silence-only cut, and the finished review says so. A Transcribe Only job stops after transcription and jumps straight to done; it never builds a timeline.

The label reads Transcribing audio (whisper.cpp) on every job, including Pro Cloud transcription jobs where whisper.cpp is not the engine doing the work. The label is generic; the transcription source is whichever one you selected on the job.

Transcription is the longest stage

Transcription takes longer than every other stage combined on most recordings, and the progress screen says so while it runs. The percentage moves slowly through that stretch because it is reporting real progress through a long piece of work, not stalling.

How long it actually takes depends on the length of the recording, your Mac, and whether you chose on-device or Cloud transcription — so treat any number you have seen before as a rough personal benchmark rather than a rule. RoughCut does not promise a processing time, and neither should you when planning a deadline around it.

The stages either side of it are quick by comparison. If a job appears stuck, check which stage it is on before assuming anything is wrong.

While the speech model is still downloading

If you are on On-device transcription and the speech model has not finished installing, the download's live status appears where you are working, rather than leaving you guessing:

Downloading model… <n>%

Once byte counts are available it also shows how much of the total has been written. Until the model is ready, Process stays disabled and the screen tells you what is missing. Cloud transcription needs no local model, so a Pro job set to ✦ Cloud (OpenAI) can run while the download is still going. See Install the local speech model.

Cancelling a job

The progress screen carries a Cancel Job button.

• Clicking it requests cancellation. The job stops at the next checkpoint — after probing, after audio extraction, after silence detection, after transcription, or after the editor pass. During transcription the request reaches the speech engine directly, so it does not have to wait for a long stage to end.
• A cancelled run does not consume one of your included cuts. A run is only counted when a job actually reaches a completed state. Cancelled and failed jobs stay free.
• Partial files may remain in the job folder — whatever the pipeline had already written when you cancelled. They are not in your way, and automatic cleanup removes finished jobs in the ordinary course of things. You can also clear finished jobs yourself with Delete Completed Jobs Now in Settings → Models & Data.
• Your source media is untouched, as always. Cancelling loses the work in progress and nothing else.

Cancelling is the right move as soon as you notice a wrong setting. There is no advantage in letting a job you already intend to redo run to the end.

Banners on the job header

Three notices can appear above a job, each carrying real information.

Variable frame rate

Detected during the probe stage, on cutting jobs only:

Variable frame rate detected. For best relinking results, transcode to constant frame rate
before import.

What it means. Screen recorders and phone cameras often write variable frame rate media, where the interval between frames changes as the recording goes on. Frame-accurate editing assumes a constant rate, so a cut list built against a variable-rate file can land slightly off once it is relinked in an editor — and the drift usually grows through the recording.

What to do. RoughCut still produces the cut, and for many recordings the result is perfectly usable. If precision matters, or if you can see drift after importing:

1. Transcode the source to a constant frame rate — 25, 30, or whatever matches your project.
2. Process the transcoded file as a new job.
3. Use that timeline instead.

Doing the conversion first is much less work than fixing drift by hand in Final Cut Pro afterwards.

Smart Silence result

On jobs that used the Pro Smart recording environment:

Smart Silence picked <n> dB

A measured noise-floor figure appears alongside it when one is available. This is the threshold that was actually used, and it is worth noting: type the same value into Custom dB on future recordings made in the same room and you get a comparable result without the subscription. See Choose the recording environment.

Second Look failure

Second Look could not run — this cut is the standard single-pass result.

The specific cause follows that sentence. This banner is not a broken job. The refine pass is isolated by design: when it fails, the first-pass result stands, and what you are looking at is a complete, exportable rough cut identical to one processed with Second Look switched off. See Use Second Look safely.

When a job fails

A failed job shows Job failed with the error message, and offers Delete Job Artifacts.

Work through it in this order:

1. Read the whole message first. RoughCut's failures are written to name the cause and, usually, the fix. They are not generic. Read to the end of the sentence before acting — the second half is often the instruction.
2. Fix the cause the message names. Most failures are one of a small set:

1. Create the job again. A failed job is not resumed and not repaired in place — you start a new one with the cause fixed. That costs nothing: failed runs never consume an included cut.
2. Delete the artifacts only when you are finished with them. Failed jobs keep their working audio deliberately, which is what makes a second look at the cause possible. If you are going to ask for help, keep the job until you have.

The full catalogue of messages is in Error reference, and symptom-first guidance in Troubleshooting by symptom.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a slow transcription stage is a hang. It is the longest stage, and the percentage moves slowly through it on purpose.
• Letting a job finish that you already know is wrong. Cancel it. Cancelling is free.
• Believing a cancelled or failed job cost you a cut. Only a completed job counts.
• Ignoring the variable frame rate warning and then blaming the cut for drifting. Transcode first when precision matters.
• Deleting a failed job before reading its message. The message is the diagnosis.
• Reading the Second Look banner as a failed cut. The cut is finished and exportable.

Troubleshooting