Ghost Radio Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting common issues

There are no sounds from the app

If the app doesn’t produce any sounds, there are some things worth checking out before contacting our support:

1. Does the interface sounds work? -Do you have any sounds at all from the app, i.e., does tapping on the different User Interface buttons produce clicks (Ensure that “UI Sounds” are enabled in the Settings)?
2. Does the speech sounds work? -Also, does the “Test Voice” button on the Setting screen produce any sound?
3. Does sound in other apps work? -Do other apps produce sound on your device?
4. Headset/Headphones, external speakers? -Have you had any headset or headphones connected to your device? When using wired headphones, connect and disconnect them from the device and also temporarily disable bluetooth to ensure that sound isn’t redirected to the wrong speakers. Also try to connect headphones to your phone and see if they produce any sound from the app.
5. Check your phones mute mode? -Ensure that your device isn’t in mute mode or similar.
6. Are all app settings ok? -Ensure that Speech is turned on, on the Settings screen.
7. Ensure that the app permissions are enabled. -Please read the following Google guide for how to change individual app permissions in Android: Change app permissions on your Android phone (support.google.com). For full operation, the app should have the following permissions enabled:
   

• Camera → The app doesn’t use the Camera but needs permission to access the Camera to turn the flashlight on and off if you have this setting enabled in the app (Flashlight Entity Alert).
• Microphone → If you record using the normal mode (Not Settings: Legacy Recording), then the app must have access to the Microphone to be able to record sound.
• Storage → Both recording and the Speech to Text log need to be able to save files to the persistent storage of your device. If any of the above permissions are disabled, the app may behave unexpectedly or even crash in some cases.

8. Restart the device -Finally: Completely shutdown and restart your device.

Recording failures

• Check your available storage space
• Ensure the app has permission to access your microphone
• Verify that your microphone isn’t blocked or covered
• Ensure that you’re not using a headset when recording

App crashes

Each version contains many optimizations and bug fixes, so always ensure that you have upgraded to the latest version of Ghost Radio.

If you have the latest version and still experience crashes, try the following:

• Close other apps to free memory
• Enable Automatic Recording - The automatic recording feature, which you can turn on/off on the Settings screen, enables the app to record only when an entity is present. This minimizes the time that the app records audio, thus minimizing memory consumption.
• Lower Recording Time Limit — Longer recordings use more memory, and setting a lower limit may fix any crash issues that you experience. This option can also be changed on the Settings Screen.
• Disable third party apps or features that optimize CPU/Battery/Memory consumption Both Operating System features and third party apps that optimize the device battery consumption and memory usage can affect our apps in a negative way. Therefore, try to disable any such apps and features on your device or specifically for Ghost Radio.
• Clear the application cache Some issues may be resolved by clearing the application cache for the app. Here’s an article that explains how to do that on Android devices: Clear cache (Android.com).
• Restart your device

I have recording problems

Since Ghost Radio normally records using the device microphone, there are some things that are especially important:

Ensure that the app sound is coming from the speaker, so don’t use any type of headset (wired or wireless) while recording. The best results are achieved using an external speaker (wired or wireless) since these usually have better sound quality than the built-in ones. Also, ensure that the volume level is high enough for the microphone to pick up the audio from the app and that nothing is obstructing the speakers of your device. Recording Limit, which can be set on the Settings screen, limits the maximum time the app records. When recording and the time limit are passed, the app will automatically stop the recording. The limitation on recording time ensures that the app won’t crash due to memory consumption or drain the battery of your device. If you encounter crash issues when recording, it can be an indication that you should try a lower recording limit. Certain devices have noise cancellation features which can interfere with recordings. If possible, try to turn it off in your device settings (usually found somewhere in the Sound/Audio category). The Legacy Recording feature, which is activated from the Settings screen, allows you to record entirely without the microphone. You can enable this feature on the Settings screen. When Legacy Recording is enabled, the app will only record the sound that itself produces, and the microphone won’t be used at all. The app will save files in WAV format, which means that the recording files are larger than in the normal mode. To avoid instability, the Recording Limits (Settings screen) will automatically be lowered. The Auto Recording feature, which also is activated from the Settings screen, means that the app doesn’t immediately start recording when you press the Recording button on the main screen. Instead of glowing red, the light below the recording button glows yellow to indicate that the app is in auto recording mode. When the light is yellow, the app does not record, but is in standby to record: While in this mode the app will start recording automatically each time an entity is detected and then pause the recording when the signal is lost.

Each time this happens, a new recording file will be saved, and all recordings from an Auto Recording session are saved in a group folder. On the recording screen you can browse such folders by clicking on them, much like browsing the file system on your device or a computer. When doing so, their contents are revealed, i.e., the individual recording files. You can use these files as normal, e.g., listen, delete or share them.

• Some users have reported problems to start the Auto recording while an entity is already present. To avoid this problem, please start the recording immediately when the radio is started. The app will still not record until something interesting is detected. The Recording Limit applies only to each recording moment, so in theory you could be able to record for hours and still only get files with interesting content. The files produced when using Auto Recording are normally in M4A format or WAV format if you use Auto Recording together with the Legacy Recording feature (5). It is, of course, also possible to record using a third party app, or a digital recording device. This is especially a good alternative when using the app on older or low-end devices, since recording uses quite a lot of system resources.
• On Android devices, the app normally records files in AMR format. Recordings require storage space on your device, so please ensure that you have enough free storage for recording files to be created.
• On Android, ensure that the app has permission to use the microphone: Open device Settings then Apps and select the Ghost Radio app. Tap App Permissions on the App Info screen. You will see a list of permissions the app requests, and whether those permissions are toggled on or off. Tap the toggle to customize the setting.

App has low performance on my device or drains the battery too fast

Due to the nature of Ghost Radio, it requires both ample amounts of processing power and memory to perform well. On, high-end devices, the app should normally run without any performance problems. If you feel that the app behaves sluggishly, and/or the sound is distorted, make sure that you don’t have any Battery Saving apps/features active, since these will generally degrade app performance.

What does our Support need to help you?

If nothing of the above helps, please contact our support.

We will need at least the following information to be able to help you:

• The name of the app that your issue is related to, since we have several apps.
• The brand and model of your mobile device or computer.
• The name and version of your device Operating System (iOS, Android, or Amazon Fire OS).
• A clear description of your specific issue so that we quickly can reproduce the same problem on our test devices.

App Information

• Ghost Radio App Page → Learn more about Ghost Radio, view screenshots, and download from app stores