Help & Support

By default, you'll see a show called “My Podcast Studio”. Click the settings button to make it yours: rename the show, add your artwork, and set your host name so guests see who they're joining. While you're there, you can also set an email address to be notified with download links each time you finish a new recording. (Ideal for a VA, editor, etc.)

Recording solo is the simplest way to use SureTake, with no guests and no links to send. Open your show's studio and hit record. Everything captures locally at full quality and uploads safely in the background as you go. During recording, you can drop timestamp markers and notes to make editing and clip creation easier later. And if you're working with a studio, they'll be notified automatically when your recording is ready.

Recording with a guest works just like a solo episode, with one extra step: send your guest the invite link ahead of time (see “How to invite a guest or producer” below). When they arrive they'll wait in the lobby until admitted by a host or producer.

When everyone is ready, hit record. Each person is captured locally on their own device at full quality, so you get a clean, separate track per person. Drop markers and notes as you go, and every file uploads on its own after you stop.

On your dashboard, find your show and click “Invite.”

For a guest, copy the reusable guest link and send it however you like (text, email, or your scheduling software), or enter their email address and hit “Send email” to have SureTake send it for you. The same link works for every session.

For a producer, copy the producer link. Anyone who opens it goes straight into the room without waiting to be admitted, so only give it to someone you trust. The link stays the same for every session, and hitting Reset replaces it so the old one no longer works.

You can also make someone a producer without sending them the link. If they are already in the room, change their role in the Participants panel. If they are still waiting to be let in, the admit box lets you bring them in as a producer instead of a guest.

On a paid plan you can have up to 5 guests in a session, plus the host. The free plan allows 1 guest.

A producer does not count towards that limit.

SureTake doesn't have built-in scheduling, but you don't need it. Every show has a reusable invite link (copy it from your show via “Invite”) that stays the same for every session, so you can drop it into whatever scheduling tool you already use. We recommend Calendly: add your invite link as the location of your Calendly event, and guests automatically get it when they book. Calendly handles all the reminders and notifications too, and integrates with your personal calendar.

SureTake records right in the browser, so everyone, host and guests alike, needs a supported browser: Chrome, Brave, or Edge on a laptop or desktop. Safari, Firefox, and phones/tablets are not supported. You'll also want a reliable internet connection. We recommend at least 10 Mbps upload and download, with 20+ ideal, especially when recording with guests. On top of that, headphones (to prevent echo) and a quiet space make a big difference. Not sure about your setup? Run a quick TestTake here.

Send your guest the invite link ahead of time and let them know they'll wait in the lobby until admitted by a host or producer. Beyond that, the same Technical requirements above apply to them. The big ones are a supported desktop browser (Chrome, Brave, or Edge), headphones, and a solid connection. The easiest way to catch any browser, mic, or camera issue is to have them run a quick TestTake here before your session, so problems turn up early instead of when you're both on the clock.

Once you're in the room, click the red Record button to start capturing. Give it a moment to settle before you start talking. Everyone in the room records locally on their own device for the best quality. Click Stop Recording when you're done. Each participant's file will upload automatically. Each participant must wait for their own file uploaded confirmation before closing the page.

A producer can start and stop recordings too, but the host has to be in the room before one can begin.

Yes. You can run multiple recordings at once on the same account, as long as each is on a different show. The limit is that a single show can only have one live session at a time. Also, all hosts must log in to the main account to access their show's recording studio, which typically means sharing a login.

A producer can help run a session without appearing in it. They take on the host's controls in the room, but they are never part of the finished recording.

A producer is never recorded. Everyone hears them live, and they have no camera, so nobody sees them. The one exception is screen sharing: if a producer shares their screen, that screen is recorded and arrives as its own file.

A session can have one producer at a time. Available on paid plans.

A producer has the host's controls: admit and remove people, mute anyone, help the host or a guest fix their microphone, camera or speaker, lock the session, share their screen, write in the shared notes, and stop a recording.

A producer cannot start a recording unless the host is in the room, and cannot have a camera, so they cannot be seen.

If the host drops off mid-session, the recording keeps going for as long as the producer stays. The host can rejoin and pick back up, or leave the producer to stop it.

The marker button (bookmark icon) lets you drop a timestamp into your notes during recording, which is useful for marking the start of a new topic, a retake, or anything you'll want to find quickly in editing. Markers are saved alongside your recordings. You can add a note with the timestamp, as well as edit the notepad independently.

Notes will be available with the file downloads and to your editing studio if applicable.

Notes aren't fully private. They appear on any share link you send, and they go to your editing studio and to any notification email or automation set up on the show.

If there is a producer in the room, the notepad is shared and you will see each other's typing as it happens. Try not to type at the same moment, as one of you can overwrite the other.

Last question is a paid feature. A small on-screen reminder shows the host's latest question, so a guest mid-answer doesn't lose track of what was asked. It's in beta and off by default. Each person turns it on for their own screen with the captions button by the settings gear, and hosts can turn it on too, just to see what's being shown to guests. It only ever shows the host's questions to the whole room, not each person's own.

Yes, on any plan. Anyone in the room can share, one screen at a time. Guests ask to share and the host, or a producer, approves or denies it. Either of them can stop any share. The shared screen shows up as its own tile (you can pin it to enlarge it), so it never replaces the sharer's camera, and it's recorded as its own separate video file you download like any other track.

Only the screen's picture is captured, not its sound. If you play a clip while sharing, the clip's audio won't be heard or recorded.

We recommend not starting and stopping a screen share too many times in one recording. Each share becomes its own separate video file, so a lot of on and off will leave you with many small files to piece together afterward.

Yes. The recording room has a group chat that the host and all guests can use during a session, handy for dropping a link or a quick note without interrupting, or if you're having technical trouble and can't hear each other. Messages are only visible live and aren't saved or included with your recordings.

CPU Saver shuts off the live incoming video of the other people in the room, so your computer spends far less effort. Turn it on in the ⚙ settings menu if you're on an older or slower computer, or if the call feels laggy or choppy. It only changes what you see live. Everyone else still sees you normally, and it never lowers your recording quality. In fact, on a struggling machine it frees up power for a smoother, higher-quality recording.

The Participants panel (the small box in the bottom-right of the recording room) shows the host, or a producer, a live status for everyone in the session:

Saving: recording normally. Their track is captured locally and uploads in the background.
Falling behind: their upload is lagging their recording, usually a slower connection. Nothing is lost, everything is still captured on their device, but they should keep their tab open after the session so the upload can catch up.
Uploading X%: recording stopped; their file is uploading, with a live percentage so you can watch it finish.
Finishing upload…: upload done, just finalizing.
Complete: their track is fully uploaded and safe.
Upload failed: their upload hit a hard error; they'll see a retry prompt on their own screen.
Ready: connected, not recording yet.

Guests see the same box with only their own status.

Yes, the host or a producer can. Click the Participants panel (bottom-right) to expand it and you'll see each person's live setup: their microphone, camera, and audio output, plus whether they selected headphones (echo cancellation follows that choice automatically). It updates within a few seconds when someone switches devices, so it's the easiest way to help guests ensure they're on the right mic, with their exact device names right in front of you.

Yes, the host or a producer can, with the guest's permission. In the expanded Participants panel, each person's microphone, camera, audio output and echo cancellation is a dropdown showing what they're on right now. Pick a different one and that guest gets a prompt asking them to allow it. Devices can only be changed while recording is stopped, so get everyone set before you hit record. Audio output is the exception and can be changed any time.

Your recording is captured locally on each participant's device, so a brief connection blip usually won't interrupt it. As long as your browser tab stays open, what you've recorded keeps saving, and uploads catch up once you're back online. A longer or more serious drop can interrupt the recording, though, especially on a live call. If that happens, SureTake flags it right away and you just follow the on-screen prompts: you'll either continue where you left off, or be asked to refresh and rejoin (which starts a fresh take). Either way, everything captured up to that point is already saved, and you can rejoin with the same link.

If there is a producer in the room, the host dropping out does not stop the recording at all. It keeps running, and the host can rejoin and pick straight back up.

SureTake flags interruptions the moment they happen rather than letting you continue on unaware and lose audio at the end. Whatever message you see, everything captured up to that point is already saved. Just be sure to follow any file-upload notices before leaving the page.

Guests see a waiting screen until they are let in. The host, or a producer, sees a notification in the room when someone is waiting. Click 'Admit' to bring them in. And if a guest arrives while nobody is in the room yet, the host gets an email as a reminder to hop in. You can also lock the room once everyone is present to prevent new guests from requesting to join mid-session. The lock clears automatically when you stop recording.

You can find all recording sessions in your dashboard view, with every recorded track listed under each session. Download individual tracks in MP4, MP3, or WAV. You can also copy a share link to send a download/preview page anywhere you'd like, accessible by anybody with the link.

Files are usually available within a few minutes of the uploads completing. Each participant's track uploads in the background and finishes shortly after recording stops. You'll see the status update in your dashboard as files come in. If files have not finished processing after an hour, please contact support.

As long as you and your guest(s) keep the browser tab open and wait, everything should upload on its own, even if the internet drops briefly. Keep the tab open until the connection recovers.

If, around 30 minutes after your session ends, a track is still missing, the person whose track is missing (you or your guest, depending on what's missing) should open the recover page, app.suretake.io/recover, on the same device and browser they recorded on. It automatically finds anything that didn't finish uploading and sends it up; just leave the page open until it's done. From your dashboard you can also click “Missing a file?” on a session to get this link and send it to a guest. The recovered track appears a few minutes after it uploads.

Each participant's individual track is recorded locally at up to 1080p (1920×1080), 30fps, and delivered as an H.264 MP4, high quality and ready to edit and publish.

Audio is captured and delivered through a very high-bitrate encoding process. For spoken word it's virtually indistinguishable from lossless. We also deliberately record without browser noise-suppression, so a good mic isn't degraded.

High-quality tracks are delivered essentially as raw. The only thing we apply in the backend is a very gentle HPF for rumble, safe normalization, and echo cancellation (only when enabled during the recording session). MP3 and WAV downloads are available too, for editor compatibility. (The combined backup is captured from the live call, so its quality depends on everyone's connection.)

Alongside the standard MP4 video of each track, you can download an “MP4 Synced” version. It's the same recording, but time-aligned to the start of the session so every participant's track lines up on the same timeline in your editor. This is handy if someone joined late or had a connection hiccup. Drop the synced files onto your timeline and they're already in sync, with no manual aligning.

Individual tracks are separate audio (and video) files for each participant, one clean full-quality file per person, recorded locally on their device, which gives your editor the most flexibility. The combined backup is a single recording of everyone together, captured on our servers from the live call as a fallback. Because it comes from the live stream, its quality depends on everyone's connection. It's there as a safety net if an individual track didn't upload correctly, or if there's a sync problem.

Yes, on paid plans. On any finished session, the combined recording has a Generate Transcript button. Click it and we'll produce a speaker-labeled transcript you can download as a Word document (.docx), usually within a few minutes. Just let it spin and it'll come through. Once it's generated it's available from your dashboard, and from the session's share link too, so an editor you've shared with can grab it.

On the free plan, recordings are kept for 30 days. On paid plans, they're kept for 1 year. Either way, download anything you want to keep before it expires. You'll see a 'Deletes in X days' label on each recording.

Use the Share button next to any session to generate a share link. Anyone with the link can preview and download the files, no account needed. You can also download everything and hand it off directly.

Remember you can also set a notification email address at the show level to automatically notify an editor or assistant.

If you're a client of a studio, they may already be notified and have access to your recordings.

If your account is connected to a studio, your shows are visible to your studio admin by default, so they can view and download your recordings. You can make any individual show private in its settings. If you've set an automatic notification email on a show, that recipient can also view those recordings. Private shows are never visible to anyone except you automatically, but you can still share any recording yourself by generating a share link, which lets whoever you send it to view and download that session. “Private” just means nothing is shared without you choosing to.

Your studio admin can request to join any of your live sessions, but they go through the same link and waiting room as any other guest. You'll see their request and can admit or decline them. They can never join a live session without your approval.

Your recording allowance resets once a month on your renewal date. For paid plans that's your billing date, and for free accounts it's the day of the month you signed up. Your dashboard shows your current usage and the exact renewal date. If you're running low, please contact us for assistance.

Go to your Account page and click 'Upgrade'. You'll be taken to a secure Stripe checkout page. Your new plan activates immediately.

Go to Account → Manage Subscription. You can cancel anytime. You'll keep access until the end of your current billing period. After you cancel, your recordings stay available for a 30-day grace window before deletion, so you have time to download anything you need.

Your recordings aren't deleted right away. When you cancel or drop to the free plan, everything you've already recorded enters a 30-day grace window so you have time to download what you need before it's removed. Anything you record afterward follows the free plan's 30-day retention.

Go to Account → Manage Subscription to open your billing portal, where you can update the card on file.

You'll get an email from Stripe and we'll automatically retry the charge over the next couple of weeks. Your plan stays active the whole time, so you can keep recording while you sort it out. Just go to Account → Manage Subscription to update your payment method. If it's never resolved, your account drops to the free plan (it isn't shut off), and your existing recordings are always safe either way.

Your studio manages the subscription. If you have questions contact your studio directly.

Yes. Sign up for the affiliate program to get your referral link and start earning.

Check that your browser has permission to use the microphone. Look for a camera/mic icon in the address bar and make sure it's allowed. If you have multiple audio devices, try selecting a different one from the dropdown on the pre-join screen. Reloading the page often resolves detection issues.

Make sure no other app is using your camera (Zoom, FaceTime, etc.) and that your browser has camera permission. On Mac, check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera. If the preview is black, try selecting a different camera from the dropdown or reloading the page.

Ask them to use Chrome, Brave, or Edge on a desktop or laptop. Safari, Firefox, and mobile phones are not supported. Make sure they're using the exact link you shared. If the session is locked, you'll need to unlock it from inside the room before they can join.

If the browser tab was closed before the upload finished, the full file may not have made it through. Keep the tab open after stopping the recording until the upload indicator disappears. If a file is still missing, open the recover page, app.suretake.io/recover, on the same device and browser you recorded on. Your browser saves a local backup, and the recover page will detect it and upload it automatically. You have 7 days before the local backup expires. Also check whether the combined backup track is available as a fallback.

If a guest's individual track didn't appear, ask them to open the recover page, app.suretake.io/recover, on the same device and browser they recorded on. Their browser saves a local backup, and the recover page will detect it and upload it automatically. This works even if their connection dropped mid-session. They have 7 days from the session date before the local backup expires. From your dashboard you can also click “Missing a file?” on the session to get this link and send it to them.

Share links expire along with the recordings they point to: 30 days on the free plan, 1 year on paid plans. If the link was generated recently and still isn't working, try generating a new share link from the dashboard. If you're having trouble downloading a specific file, contact support with the session name.

Check our System Status page to see if any services are experiencing issues. If everything shows operational but you're still having problems, contact your studio admin or email us at hello@suretake.io.