How to create transcripts and enable closed captions for video and audio files

Updated Oct 22, 2024
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This article describes features available to all customers on dropbox.com.


You can use our AI-powered transcription feature to create transcripts for video and audio files in Dropbox. Once created, you can do the following:

  • Edit the transcript
  • Find and replace text within the transcript
  • Select a section to skip to a timestamp
  • Copy the transcript
  • Enable or disable closed captions for videos
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Note: You can only transcribe videos or audio files that are up to 105 minutes long.

How to create a transcript for video or audio files

To create a transcript for a video or audio files:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Open the video or audio file you’d like to transcribe.
  3. Click Transcript in the toolbar.

Your transcript may take a few minutes to generate, depending on the length of the video or audio file. When ready, you’ll see it in the Transcript tab in the right sidebar.

How to edit a transcript

To use the edit tool to modify a video or audio transcript:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Open the video or audio file with the transcript you’d like to edit.
  3. Click Transcript in the toolbar.
  4. Hover over the section you’d like to edit.
  5. Click edit  (pencil icon), then edit the text in the box.
  6. Click the checkmark to save.

How to find and replace transcript text

To find and replace text within your transcript:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Open the video or audio file with the transcript you’d like to edit.
  3. Click Transcript in the toolbar.
  4. Click the search (search icon) in the Transcript tab in the right sidebar.
  5. Click the slider (slider icon) in the search field, then enable the Replace toggle.
  6. Type the keywords you’d like to find.
  7. Type the new text you’d like to replace it with.
  8. Click Replace to replace one of the instance or click Replace all to replace all the instances throughout the entire transcript.

How to copy transcript text

To copy a section of a transcript:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Open the video or audio file with the transcript you’d like to copy.
  3. Click Transcript in the toolbar.
  4. Scroll to the section you’d like to copy, select the text you want to copy.
  5. Click the Copy text icon in the top right. 


To copy your entire transcript:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Open the video or audio file with the transcript you’d like to copy.
  3. Click Transcript in the toolbar.
  4. In the Transcript sidebar, click “” (ellipsis), then Copy transcript

highlighter icon Note: Unless your default settings have changed, your file or folder automatically downloads to the Downloads folder on your computer.

How to turn closed captions for a video on or off

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Notes:

  • Closed captions are off by default unless turned on.
  • Closed captions aren’t available for audio files.

To turn closed captions on or off:

  1. Log in to dropbox.com.
  2. Open the video file you’d like to view.
  3. Click CC in the controls at the bottom of the video window to turn closed captions on. 
    • Click again to turn closed captions off.
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