If multiple users are editing a transcript simultaneously, each user's attempt to save their changes may cause conflicts. EchoVideo handles this by presenting a list of the changed cues and asking the user to select which one to keep in the newly saved version. This is done when the user clicks Save as New Version.

Essentially, multiple users open the latest version of the transcript and begin editing. When the first users save their changes, those changes are applied, and a new version is created. When the next user saves, conflicts arise because the cues in the first user's saved version no longer match those in your version, even if you did not make those changes.

Your changes are on the right, and the other user's changes are on the left. The area above the listed cues also shows how many conflicts there are (remaining). As you select which cue to keep, that number decreases. Once at zero, the Merge Changes button becomes active.

Logically, only cues that differ between the two versions are in conflict and require intervention to determine which to keep.

Use the checkboxes to the left of each cue to determine which version of that cue to keep.

Use the checkboxes at the top to select all cues from either you or the other user.

If the individual cues do not have checkboxes, see the section at the bottom of this page for why this might be and what to do.

Once the changes are merged, a new version is created and saved. Other users who may be editing the original or a previous version will encounter conflicts between your most recent saved version and theirs. Subsequent editing should use the most recent saved version to reduce conflicts. See the Best Practice section below for help and tips.

Best Practice for Multiple Concurrent Editors

If you know that you are going to be editing transcripts in parallel with one or more other users, the best practice would be to split the work across segments of the video. For example, if you and another user are editing an hour-long transcript, agree that one of you will take the first 30 minutes and the other the second 30 minutes.

In this case, when the first user selects to save, they do not see a conflicts page, because their edits are the only ones EchoVideo is aware of.

When the second user selects to save, they will see a conflicts page, and there might be a large number of conflicts. Do not panic. If each user worked only on the sections of the video / audio transcript file they agreed to, the second user can accept the first user's changes for the half they worked on, then select the other user's changes for the other half. The timestamps of each conflicting cue are shown, making this method easier.

After both users have saved, we strongly recommend that if there are further edits to make, both users work with the newest (most recently saved) version and continue editing their sections of the cues.

I Cannot Select Individual Cues

You may encounter a situation where you try to save your edits in the Transcript Editor and see a slightly different merge editing conflicts window. It provides a different error message, but the one thing you will notice is that the individual cues do not have checkboxes. This is shown in the figure below.

This is fairly rare, but it can happen if another user uploads a transcript file while you are editing, and the uploaded file has a significantly different number of cues. The person uploading may have removed some while editing the file offline, or perhaps they uploaded the wrong VTT file for this media. In either case, there are too many conflicts to merge, and the number of cues does not align.

To address this situation, you can view the differences and determine whose version is correct. It should be reasonably clear which is the one to keep, especially if the wrong transcript file was uploaded to cause this. Once you determine which one to keep, use the checkbox at the top to retain either your version with all its changes or the other user's uploaded version.

If you select to keep the uploaded changes, you will lose all of your changes. We recommend instead that you keep all of your changes and apply them. This creates a new version of the transcript file. The uploaded version is still available (as the previous numbered version), and you can switch to it if needed using the Version drop-down list.