As you are working on subtitles, it is important to save your work. You should regularly click on the Save button in the upper right corner of the editor window:


Screenshot of the Save button in the top-right hand corner of the Amara Editor


Saving your work regularly prevents your changes from being lost if your browser or your computer crashes.


The Amara Editor has an automatic warning that lets you know if you have unsaved changes when you try to exit the editor.


Warning message if you try to exit the editor but have unsaved changes. The buttons are "Wait, don't discard my changes!" and "Exit".


Go back and save your changes before exiting to make sure your work is preserved.


Completing Subtitles

Subtitles cannot be marked as complete if there are blank or unsynced subtitles. See the article Warning Messages in the Editor for how to address blank or unsynced subtitles.


If you have an empty subtitle, review that part of the video to see if you need to fill in the subtitle or delete it. 


If you have an unsynced subtitle cell, synchronize it to the video timing. Then you should be able to mark your subtitles as complete.


Viewing Saved Subtitles

You can view the subtitles you recently worked on in your Amara account activity page. Click on the username menu in the top right corner of the Amara home page, the Account menu item, and then the Activity tab on your Account page. Here you can see your recent activity including the videos and subtitles you worked on. Click a video title to see video information and a list of complete and incomplete subtitles. Click a subtitle language to view subtitle versions or compare revisions.


Restore Unsaved Subtitle Edits

While you are working on subtitles, each time you click the Save button you save a new version on the server. But your work also gets automatically saved in the local storage of your Web browser at frequent intervals. This is done to preserve your work from being lost if your browser or computer crashes before you can click Save.

If your browser or computer crashes;

  • open the subtitle set that you were working on in the same Web browser and on the same computer. 

  • If there is a backup version, you will see a popup in the Amara Editor that asks you to restore or discard the unsaved changes from your interrupted work. 


Important: Do not edit other subtitles in the same browser before you have restored and saved your work!


Pop up message "You have an unsaved backup of your subtitling work, do you want to restore it?", with buttons for Discard or Restore.


Click Restore to recover all except maybe the last minute of your interrupted work session. After this, make sure to immediately save your subtitles by clicking the Save button! If you close the subtitle editor without saving, the backup of your work will be discarded. If you change your mind about your recent edits, you can click the Subtitle tools button in the Amara Editor then click Revert to last saved version to discard your recent changes.


If you click Discard, the backup will be irreversibly erased and the last version that you saved will load in the Amara Editor.


If you have any questions or suggestions, please share your feedback!

  • To submit a quick ticket, click No in the Did you find it helpful link below.

Thank you for your contributions to support an inclusive and accessible media ecosystem!