What do the statuses in the Participants panel mean?

The Participants panel, opened from its icon in the right sidebar, shows the host or producer a headcount and a live status for everyone in the session. Hosts and producers can also see a compacted version of this in the lower left of the room.

During a session

• Ready: Connected, not recording yet.
• Saving… (green): The recording is saving on the device and uploading in the background.
• Slow upload (amber): That person's upload is falling behind. The part that hasn't uploaded yet exists only on their computer, so make sure they keep SureTake open until the upload finishes.
• Upload paused (amber): That person's connection is slow, so SureTake pauses their upload to keep the call smooth. This is normal and intended. If their connection improves, the upload picks back up during the take and the label goes away. Otherwise, it uploads at full speed after you stop, so make sure they keep SureTake open until it finishes. It can only stay paused for so long, though. On a long take, the upload has to start again during the recording, and call quality may degrade for that person until it catches up. This doesn't happen on phones, tablets, or 4K recordings.
• Backup failing (amber): That person's device can't save its local backup, usually because its storage is full or blocked. Recording and uploading carry on, but anything not uploaded yet exists only in the open SureTake page. If that page is closed or the browser crashes before the upload finishes, that part can't be recovered, so make sure they keep SureTake open until it's done. To avoid it next time: use a normal browser window (not private or incognito, which allow very little storage), make sure the computer has free disk space, and allow cookies and site data for SureTake.

After recording

• Uploading X% (blue): The recording has stopped and the file is uploading.
• Finishing upload… (blue): The upload was received and the file is being finalized.
• Complete (green): The track is fully uploaded and safe.
• Upload failed (red): The upload hit an error. It retries by itself for about half an hour, and that person's upload box shows a Retry now button.

The recording is captured on the device the moment you hit record, it keeps uploading in the background, and it finishes after you stop. Keeping the tab open until it shows Complete is all that is needed.

If an upload ever fails, individual tracks can often be recovered, and the combined backup is there as a fallback (see A track is missing. How do I recover it?). Once recording has stopped and everyone shows Complete, you're all clear.

When someone leaves

In the status list in the lower left of the room, someone who leaves stays for a few minutes as a greyed-out Left row, so you can still see whether their recording made it. Grey or green means nothing is left to upload, and blue means their page is still uploading. Amber or red means they left before the upload finished: ask them to reopen SureTake on the same computer and browser, and the rest will upload. Once a Left row disappears, check your dashboard instead.

Tip: if a guest's upload is still going after a take, they can click Leave and keep the “Session ended” page open. Their upload carries on, and you'll see it finish.

Expand the Participants panel to check each guest's mic, camera, audio output, and headphones, and see Changing your guest mic and camera settings for how to adjust any of it yourself.

While a camera is on, the panel also shows its resolution and frame rate. The frame rate turns amber below 20 fps. The quality chip turns amber when a camera is sending less than it can, often because another app or tab was using the camera first. The camera's owner also sees a warning in their room when the camera is delivering less than the resolution they chose on the pre-join screen. The fix: check that the camera isn't open in another app or tab, close it there, and refresh the room before the next take. A take that's already recording keeps going at the lower quality.