Troubleshooting
Screen capture
Section titled “Screen capture”“Could not capture the screen”
Section titled ““Could not capture the screen””Android only produces a new frame when the screen changes. The app caches the last frame and normally recovers, but a fresh consent with a completely static screen can still fail. Change something on screen and try again, or restart capture from the bubble menu.
Capture stops when I switch apps
Section titled “Capture stops when I switch apps”This is expected with A single app. Auto OCR pauses while the captured app is not visible. Choose Share entire screen if you want to read multiple apps; otherwise return to the captured app.
The consent dialog appears every time
Section titled “The consent dialog appears every time”Android does not persist MediaProjection consent across sessions. Grant it when you start capture. Rotating the screen or changing apps does not require a new consent while the session is alive.
The captured app is black
Section titled “The captured app is black”Some DRM video surfaces are black to screen capture even though the rest of the app renders. Netflix subtitles are drawn as normal views and OCR correctly, but the video is black and audio is blocked. Other protected players may be fully unreadable.
Overlay and bubble
Section titled “Overlay and bubble”The bubble disappeared
Section titled “The bubble disappeared”Check Display over other apps in Android settings. Some phones (including Xiaomi HyperOS) reset it after an app update or a reboot. The foreground-service notification still opens the app.
The screen dictionary blocks game buttons
Section titled “The screen dictionary blocks game buttons”Turn off Settings → OCR → Tap text on screen to look it up, or keep the text area on the dialogue box so the layer only covers text.
Taps land on the wrong line
Section titled “Taps land on the wrong line”The layer is up to one OCR interval old but verifies the tap after 250 ms. If the video is scrolling quickly or paused on a transition, tap again. Player controls over a subtitle can be read as text; hide them before tapping.
Clips are silent
Section titled “Clips are silent”The app is recording exact digital zeros. This means the captured app opted out of playback capture. Common cases: DroidDeck (Steam games, targets Android 9) and Netflix. Enable Microphone fallback and keep the speaker on.
Playback capture also requires Android 10+ and the microphone permission.
Clips are too quiet or too loud
Section titled “Clips are too quiet or too loud”Normalize volume is on by default. If one source is still off, check Start offset and End offset; the default 500 ms may be too short for a slow voice line. The waveform editor can fix an individual clip before mining.
Microphone fallback records room noise
Section titled “Microphone fallback records room noise”That is what it does: it records the speaker, not the app’s audio stream. Noise suppression and the speaker-correction EQ help with fans and the tinny speaker sound, but can soften music. It records nothing with headphones.
No audio on Netflix
Section titled “No audio on Netflix”Netflix blocks per-stream audio capture. Text still works because subtitles are normal views, but cards get no sentence clip. This is not supported.
AnkiDroid
Section titled “AnkiDroid”“No such notetype” or a refused note
Section titled ““No such notetype” or a refused note”AnkiDroid’s addNote(modelId, deckId, fields, tags) takes the model first and the deck second.
The app calls it correctly; an old or modified AnkiDroid build may still refuse a note type that
was just created. Droid Sentence Miner retries with the built-in Basic note type so the card is
still created.
AnkiDroid 2.25.0 has a provider bug with freshly created note types. 2.24.1 is tested, including media.
Permission denied
Section titled “Permission denied”Enable AnkiDroid → Settings → Advanced → AnkiDroid API, then grant the API permission from Droid Sentence Miner’s Settings → Anki. The app can only create cards while AnkiDroid allows it.
Cards are missing media
Section titled “Cards are missing media”Check that AnkiDroid has storage permission and that the API is enabled. Media is uploaded through the provider; a card without a picture usually means the provider call failed, not that the screenshot was not captured.
AnkiConnect
Section titled “AnkiConnect”Connection refused
Section titled “Connection refused”- Desktop Anki must be running with the AnkiConnect add-on installed.
- The phone and computer must be on the same network.
- Use the computer’s LAN address, not
127.0.0.1. - Allow port 8765 through the computer firewall.
- The app permits cleartext HTTP only for the URL you configure.
Samsung and Xiaomi
Section titled “Samsung and Xiaomi”Samsung freezes the app in the background
Section titled “Samsung freezes the app in the background”With DSM in the background and no foreground service, the debug API and background work stop.
Bring MainActivity forward before long-running tasks. Keep the screen on during tests with
adb shell svc power stayon usb.
Xiaomi HyperOS blocks the install
Section titled “Xiaomi HyperOS blocks the install”The first adb install can be cancelled by com.miui.securitycenter even with “Install via USB”
on. Install once from the file manager; later install -r works. Display over other apps may
also need to be re-enabled after a reboot.
Emulator
Section titled “Emulator”MediaProjection capture is unreliable on emulators. With -gpu host, frames can contain only the
app’s own overlays; with swiftshader_indirect, UI is captured but video playback is black and
silent. The emulator is fine for UI, Room, lookups and AnkiDroid card creation. Validate capture
and auto OCR on a real device.
Still stuck?
Section titled “Still stuck?”Open an issue with the device model, Android version, OCR engine, and what the log shows. If you can reproduce it with the built-in sample or a public video, include that; it makes the bug much faster to fix.