StoryCorps FAQs

There are many ways to share your interview, but your options vary depending on your privacy settings and whether you have chosen to publish your interview to archive.storycorps.org.

Share your public interview from the StoryCorps App

Share your public interview from archive.storycorps.org

Share your private interview

Share an unpublished App interview

Share your published and public interview from archive.storycorps.org

Please note: for others to be able to access the interview when you use these sharing options, you'll want to ensure the interview's privacy is set to public. Learn more about your privacy settings here. If you prefer to keep your interview Private your only option for sharing is to create a secret link.

If you log into your archive.storycorps.org account on a desktop or laptop computer, you have a multitude of sharing options:

Facebook

Twitter

A direct link to the interview (to include in an email or other message)

Embed code (to embed the interview into a website)

Download (to download the interview to your computer to back up or share with your preferred file sharing program)

You can find all of these options by clicking the “Share” icon instructions beside the audio player on your interview’s page.

Here is a step by step guide:

5 STEPS

1 The first step is to log in to archive.storycorps.organd click your profile image

2 Click View Profile

3 Scroll down and click the interview you want to share

4 Click theshare icon

5 Click the sharing options of your choice!

Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

https://www.iorad.com/player/1566862/archive-storycorps-org---How-to-Share-Your-Interview

Share your published and public interview from the StoryCorps App

As soon as you’ve published your interview, you’ll be able to share it with friends and family directly from the app.

After uploading the interview, you’ll see the “Share” icon at the bottom of the interview box in the app.

Click on “Share” and you’ll be able to send a direct link to the full interview through email or your messaging app. You can also share the interview to most social networks you have activated on your phone, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Sharing a Private Interview

If you’ve chosen to keep your interview private, normal sharing options won’t work. However, you can create a secret link, so only select people with the link can hear your interview, but it will remain inaccessible to the public. For directions on creating a secret link, click here.

You can also export your interview audio file from your device to your computer by following these instructions and then emailing the audio file to family and friends. The audio files are often quite large, so the file may be too large to attach to an email. We suggest using a file-sharing service like Google Drive or DropBox.

Sharing an unpublished App interview

If you’ve chosen not to publish your interview, the only copy is on your device. This means that it is not on the web, so there is no way to link to it to share via social media.

However, you can download a copy of your interview to your computer. Then you can use your preferred file-sharing service to send the audio file to anyone you’d like.

Export your interview audio file from your device to your computer by following these . The audio files are often quite large, so the file may be too large to attach to an email. We suggest using a file-sharing service like Google Drive or DropBox.

We recommend that you use either an iPhone with an operating system of iOS 7 or above, or an Android device with an operating system of Android 4.0 or above. We also recommend that your device have minimum available storage of 500MB (or 0.5GB).

To check the available storage on your iPhone:

Open Settings.

Scroll down and choose “General.”

Select “About” and scroll down to “Available."

To check the available storage on your Android phone:

Open Apps manager (it's usually a 3x3 dot icon located within the bottom panel of your screen).

Select Settings.

Once inside Settings, the layout varies based on what Android device you have. Here are two common options:

Select "More" from the options within your Settings banner.

Scroll down your Settings options and select "Storage."

Once inside Storage, you will see used, total, and available space displayed for both your SD card and your device

StoryCorps has a suggested list of questions which you can access on our website or by logging into your account on the app from your device.

When you’re logged into your account on the app, you will see a page with three horizontal dashes on the upper-left hand corner. Tap the dashes, and then tap “My Interviews”. On the “My Interviews” page, you will see a “+” symbol on the upper right hand corner of the screen, which you can tap to access the “Prepare an Interview” option. When you tap “Prepare an Interview”, you will be prompted to create a list of questions. The app has an extensive list of prepared questions you may browse to help prepare for your interview.

You are not required to use any of these questions, but they will help you start thinking about what to ask your participant. The app also allows you to create your own custom questions. Listen closely and let your chosen questions guide the discussion, not control it. Make sure to ask follow-up questions.

If you haven’t prepared a list of questions, you will be able to see and use our prepared questions while you are recording an interview. You can also access the StoryCorps suggested question list by logging into your archive.storycorps.org account from a computer, clicking on your username, and clicking on “Create a Question List” in the dropdown menu.

Every StoryCorps signature interview contains information about the interview, including an interview description, interview log notes, and keywords. One purpose of this information is to make your interview more searchable within our archive and to connect each interview with other interviews.

Our StoryCorps facilitators are trained to enter this information in a standardized way to ensure consistency in our archive, and for this reason we don’t allow users to edit the contents of their own signature interviews. However, sometimes we make mistakes, and if so, we want to hear from you! Please submit a request if you see an error or typo in your interview, and we’ll respond as soon as possible to address your concerns.

Yes. If you've published your interview, you canexport your audiofile from the website to a desktop or laptop computer by following these steps:

Log into your account at archive.storycorps.org.

Click on your username in the upper rightcorner of the screen.

Click on "My Interviews & Profile."

Scroll down and select the interview you’d like to download.

Click on the share icon (The sideways V in the gray play bar) below the interview image.

When the drop-down menu appears, click on “Download” and the audio file will be saved to your desktop or laptop computer.

We know that you want your experience recording an interview to be smooth and trouble free: that way you and your interview partner can focus on the conversation, not technical issues. That’s what we want too.

To make your recording experience as smooth as possible, take a look at these tips to prevent technical issues that might disrupt your interview experience.

Note: If you ignore all our tips but one, we hope you’ll see the last tip about using airplane mode when you record. A phone call interrupting your interview can ruin the experience and your ability to record.

Tips for a trouble-free recording:

Make your account before you sit down to record. Don’t make your interview partner wait for you to select a password. Open the app and create your account in advance.

Give the StoryCorps App access to your microphone and camera. The app should prompt you to do this when you first open it: if not, make sure your microphone and camera work with the app when you do a test recording. Why?

Check your device’s storage and operating system. This will make sure there is enough room on your device for the recording. Find instructions here.

Prep your recording space for good sound quality. Check out our tip sheets here for instructions on how to ensure great sound quality (plus tips for conducting a great interview!).

Do a test recording. Before you meet with your partner to do the real thing, record a practice interview from start to finish. This will also give you a chance to practice entering keywords and other data; you can even publish the practice interview to our archive. (You can always delete it later!) Doing a test recording helps you make sure you understand how everything works before you record the real thing.

Use the “Prepare an Interview” feature. When you click the “+” icon in the app, it gives you the option to prepare your interview or start recording. For the best experience, we recommend you prepare your interview in advance. This gives you a chance to create a title, enter the participant name(s), and most importantly, create the list of questions you’ll use when you record.

Use airplane mode when you record. You’ll need to be connected to the internet later to publish your interview, but when you sit down to record, put your phone on airplane mode. Not only will a phone call during your interview cause a disruption, it will also take access to your microphone away from the app. Putting your phone in airplane mode will help prevent a microphone interruption. (Just don’t forget to turn airplane mode off and connect to Wi-Fi afterward so you can publish!)

Yes. The minimum age for using the app is 13 years old. Users under 18 must have parental consent to create a StoryCorps account. For further details, please review the Terms of Use for the StoryCorps App.

Often our staff receive questions like: Would you be interested in recording an interview with____? How do I apply to record an interview?

The answer is that anyone can record a StoryCorps interview. StoryCorps is interested in collecting interviews from everyone across the United States to add to our archive. Far more interviews are recorded and archived with the Library of Congress than we could ever share through our broadcasts, podcast, and animations. But whether your interview makes it to the radio or not, by recording with StoryCorps you’re contributing to a historical record of American life.

How can you make an appointment? Keep an eye on our Participate page to see if you're anywhere near one of our StoryBooths, or our MobileBooth.

If you're not near one of our recording locations, consider using our app to record and share your story. The StoryCorps App (which you can download from the App Store, Kindle Store, or Google Play ) and archive.storycorps.org are places where you can record, share, and catalog your story. You can record a conversation, and it will be preserved by the Library of Congress.

You can see more steps on getting started with the app here.

We appreciate your generosity! Your support helps us make StoryCorps available to as many people as possible.

For more information about ways to give, visit us here.

You can make a donation online or by mail:

StoryCorps, Attn: Individual Giving

80 Hanson Place, 2nd Floor

Brooklyn, NY 11217

We currently don’t offer users the ability to change their usernames. To change your username, you’ll have to delete your currently registered account and re-register under a new username.

Please note that deleting your archive.storycorps.org account will permanently delete any audio files associated with your account, whether they were published to the archive.storycorps.org website or kept private on your device. We highly recommend that you create a backup of your audio files for your own records by saving them to your desktop or laptop computer.

If you’ve published your interviews to our website, you can save the audio files as follows:

Log into your account at archive.storycorps.org.

Click on your username in the upper right corner of the screen.

Click on "My Interviews & Profile."

Scroll down to the interview you’d like to download.

Right-click or control+click on the small cloud icon in the upper right corner of the interview box.

When a drop-down menu appears, click on “Save Link As” and save the audio file to your desktop or laptop computer.

If you kept your interviews private and only saved them to your device, you can follow these steps to export your interview audio files from your device to a desktop or laptop computer.

When you’ve completed downloading your interviews to your desktop or laptop computer, you can delete your account as follows:

Click on your username in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Click on "Edit Profile."

Click "Delete Account" on the left side of the screen and follow the instructions.

After you’ve deleted your account, please return to the archive.storycorps.org login page and sign up for a new account under your desired username. Once a new account has been created, you can upload your backed-up audio files to that new account by logging into archive.storycorps.org from your computer, clicking on your username, clicking on "Add a New Interview" in the drop-down menu, and following the prompts.

You will have to reset your password by visiting archive.storycorps.org/login/. Click on "Forgot Password” and you’ll be prompted to enter your email address or username. Enter the email address registered to your StoryCorps account, and we'll send you a reset link that will include your currently registered username.

We are happy to provide you with a digital copy of your recording. You can request a copy by submitting a request to us here. Please provide as much information about your interview as you can (date, location, interview partner, etc.) to help us locate your recording more quickly.

The StoryCorps Online Archive has long been the home of interviews recorded with the StoryCorps App. StoryCorps is now beginning to incorporate more than 15 years of Signature interviews, recorded in our booths or with a StoryCorps Facilitator, into this online home.

If you recorded a Signature interview recently, when it becomes available you will receive an email from StoryCorps with a special claim link. If you recorded a Signature interview in the past, please know that we are bringing our past interviews into the online archive in batches. When your interview becomes available you will also receive an email from StoryCorps with a special claim link.

What is a Claim Link? This special link is intended for you to use to create an account and "claim your interview. When you use this link to create an account it will ensure that your account is associated with your Signature interview, allowing you to access it, change your privacy settings, and more. (Need help? Watch this step-by-step guide to claiming your interview )

Do not forward your Claim Link to others. Only you and your interview partner(s) should claim your interview. If you wish you wish to share your interview with others don't forward your claim link!

How do I share my interview? Sharing your interview from archive.storycorps.org is easy! Learn more here.

What are my privacy options? There are three privacy settings available to users, but remember that the terms of your release form still apply. Learn more here.

How do I change my privacy? You can find step-by-step instructions here

What if my interview partner changes my privacy? Both you and your interview partner have the ability to change the privacy setting on your interview. If your privacy setting is changed you'll receive an email letting you know.

Do I have to claim my interview? You are not required to claim your interview, but please keep in mind that claiming your interview is the way to gain control over your privacy setting. If you would like a link to access your interview in the online archive without claiming, contact us.

Can I edit the title or description of my Signature interview? Participants do not have access to edit Signature interviews, but if you find a typo or error, please let us know! You can learn more about why and what to do if you find an error here.

What if I do not want my interview to be in the online archive?If you have concerns about your interview's presence in the online archive, please contact us to discuss your release status.

Can I access my Signature interview through the StoryCorps App?Once you claim your interview, on archive.storycorps.org your Signature interview(s) will appear alongside the interview(s) you record and publish using the StoryCorps App. However, when you look at "my interviews" in the StoryCorps App, you will only see your App interviews. We look forward to future improvements to the StoryCorps App to allow you to easily access your Signature interview(s) through the App as well!

In a few short weeks after you record you should receive an email from StoryCorps giving you access to your interview. For the majority of participants to chose to sign a General Release, this will be a link to claim your interview in the online archive.

By claiming your interview you receive access to your interview to listen to streaming on the web. Additionally you can easily share your interview with friends and family from this platform, and control your privacy setting. You can learn more in this article.

How to claim your interview

The email you receive will have a special link. Do not forward this email or this link. It is intended only for you and your interview partner to claim your interview. Forwarding it to others will compromise your privacy.

To claim your interview

Click the link in the email

This will take you to a page that will prompt you to create an account.

Create an account on this page

Do you already have an account? If you use archive.storycorps.org or the StoryCorps App you can claim your interview with the same account! Instead of creating an account log in at that page to claim your interview

You're done! This should take you directly to your interview. You can always find your interview again by logging in to archive.storycorps.org and going to your profile page. If you don't see your interview on your profile page right away, make sure to scroll down.

Need additional help? Try this step-by-step walk through of claiming an interview:

( click here to see it full screen )

26 STEPS

1 The first step is to open the email sent to you by StoryCorps!The subject line will be: Your StoryCorps Interview is Ready

https://www.iorad.com/player/1608277/How-To-Claim-Your-Signature-StoryCorps-Interview

2 This email explains that your interview is now in the StoryCorps Archive.Scroll Down.

3 Click Claim Your StoryCorps Interview.

4 This will take you to an account creation page! To claim your interview you need to create an account so you can log in and access it. (If you already have an account, log in on the right instead!)

To begin creating an account,

click First Name

5 Type yourFirst Name and Press Tab

6 Type yourLast Name and Press Tab

7 Select aUsername (and remember, usernames cannot be changed!) and Press Tab

8 Type yourEmail Address and Press Tab

9 Chose aPassword and Press Tab

10 Type your Password again, to confirm.

11 Now you need to enter your birthday to confirm your age.

Scroll down and click Month

12 Select the month

13 Click Day

14 Select the correct day

15 Click Year

16 Select the correct year

17 Please note, to create an account you must be either 18+ years old, or be at least 13 years old and have the consent of a legal guardian.

If this is the case,click the checkbox.

18 Click Create Account

19 You've done it! You have now claimed your interview.

Next we'll show you what you can do on this page...

20 Here you can listen to your interview.

21 To share your interview, click the share icon.

(remember that even if you share the link to your interview, your privacy settings still apply!)

22 If you'd like to adjust your privacy settings, clickEdit Visibility

23 Now, anytime you log into archive.storycorps.org, you can find your interview again by clicking your avatar in the top-right corner....

24 Then, click View Profile

25 App interviews appear on your profile page above Signature interviews. So make sure to Scroll down to find your signature interview.

To access it, click the image.

26 And that's it!

You can learn more about updating your profile, your privacy settings, and more in our Help Center.

Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

We primarily partner with other nonprofits and institutions that are interested in recording and archiving voices in their communities.

In our StoryCorps cities ( Atlanta and Chicago ) and stops along our Mobile Tour, we partner with local organizations that serve communities whose voices are least heard in our history books and in the media. These partnerships are free of charge.

Organizations can bring our staff to their community in custom partnerships.We facilitate on-site recording days, create unique content for distribution, and offer trainings and workshops for organizations or groups seeking to launch their own recording project. Program fees for StoryCorps training partnerships start at approximately $7,000, and fees for recording partnerships start at approximately $15,000.

Please note that we generally need to start planning on-site recordings and trainings three months in advance. To learn more or send us an inquiry about a potential partnership, visit our website.

We also offer corporate partnerships and collaborations. For more information about these partnerships and collaborations, submit a request to us here, and tell us about your organization and how you would like to work together.

The StoryCorps App is a tool that is available to anyone, anywhere at no cost, and no formal partnership is needed. Check out our Strategies for Groups to learn more about how you can get started recording and archiving right way.

If you and your students encounter technical difficulties, we’re here to help. The answer to most issues can be found in our Help Center, and our Public Support team can provide one on one support over email if you submit a request.

Before your students begin recording, we recommend reading Before You Record: Tips for a trouble-free recording experience.

If you are experiencing technical difficulties: do not uninstall or log out of the app. On most devices, uninstalling or logging out of an app clears your account data and files. This means that uninstalling or logging out of the StoryCorps App will delete any unpublished interviews stored on your device.

For Accounts created between 11/7-11/15 - Please read this article about a bug that may have impacted your account

Some of the most common issues, and how to troubleshoot:

Log In Problems: The same log in information works for both the StoryCorps App and archive.storycorps.org. If you experience difficulty you can reset your password here.

Interview Disappears From Device: If a successfully recorded interview no longer appears in the app, don’t worry! Even if the interview has not yet been published to the archive it can typically be retrieved. Review the instructions in this article.

Upload Issues: Audio files recorded by the StoryCorps app, particularly for longer interviews, can be quite large. If you experience difficulty uploading an interview to our online archive follow these troubleshooting steps. (If your account was created between 11/7 and 11/15, please see this article about a bug that may be the source of your upload issues)

Syncing: It is normal for interviews to be marked as “syncing” immediately after they are published to the archive. While this is typically brief, in high traffic times (like The Great Thanksgiving Listen) it can take up to 48 hours for the “syncing” status to go away.

If your interview is marked as syncing for longer than usual (or you can’t wait), we recommend attempting to publish again or using the alternative upload method in this article.

Playback Issues:Sometimes there is a delay of up to an hour between upload and when audio can be played from the app or from the StoryCorps Archive website. If you experience a longer delay, this article can provide troubleshooting assistance.

Pausing: Please note that the pause button is intended to pause recording briefly. It is not intended for interviews to be paused for hours or paused while the app is closed and reopened. Leaving the app while recording can result in loss of audio.

Communities: If you are using the community feature and are having difficulties please check out the Communities section of the Help Center

If you or your students are still having trouble with the StoryCorps App, please submit a request and include as much detail as you can so we can recreate the issue.

You can also visit the Technical Support for the StoryCorps App section of the Help Center for additional how-to's and troubleshooting tips.

After version 4.0 of the StoryCorps app was released on November 8, a bug was found. Users impacted by this bug will find that if they have created their account through the StoryCorps App after the release of version 4.0, they are unable to publish any interviews that they record. It is also possible to have difficulty publishing because of a slow internet connection or other non-bug related issues.

This bug has been resolved in version 4.0.2 (4.0.3 on Android) of the StoryCorps App, but if you created your account on version 4.0 you should still take the steps outlined below.

If you have unpublished interviews on your device, please do not uninstall or log out of the StoryCorps App. Logging out or uninstalling the app will clear your account data, including your unpublished interviews.

How to tell if you have been impacted by the bug:

Open the StoryCorps App

Open the menu (This icon: here )

At the bottom of the menu you should see your avatar and name (or username)

If your name or username does not appear alongside the avatar at the bottom of the menu, you are impacted by this bug.

What to do if you are impacted by the bug:

What to do depends on whether or not you have unpublished interviews on your device. When you look at “My Interviews” any unpublished interviews will display this below the title:

Successfully published interviews will say “published” instead.

If you have unpublished interviews:

Logging out and back in to the app will resolve the issue, but first you need to back up your interviews so that they are not lost when you log out.

Export your unpublished interview to your preferred file sharing service (such as Google Drive or DropBox) using these instructions.

Your interview audio is now backed up and you can log out and back in to the app. If you do not want to publish your interview, no more needs to be done. If you would like to publish your interview to StoryCorps’ online archive, please use this alternative publishing method:

Transfer the file from your preferred file sharing services to your computer

On a computer, go to archive.storycorps.org and log in with the same account you use in the app

Publish your interview via the web using these instructions.

That’s it! Your interview is now published to the online archive and you can log out and back into the StoryCorps App, ensuring easier publishing for your next interview.

If you have no interviews, or all your interviews are published:

Open the StoryCorps App

Open the menu (This icon:)

Log out.

Log back into your account.

That’s it! You should now be able to record and publish with no errors. To be certain, you can go through the steps to see if you have been impacted by the bug again: your name should now appear at the bottom of the menu.

If you are not impacted by this bug, but are having difficulty publishing/uploading your interview, please see our troubleshooting steps .

It depends on choices that you make.

While we’d love for everyone to publish their interview and make it public to the world, the StoryCorps App gives you the option to keep your interview on your phone only, or to publish it to our online archive with your choice of privacy settings.

If you choose not to publish

If you do not wish to share your interview with StoryCorps, the Library of Congress, or our online archive, simply save your interview without publishing. In this situation, the only copy of your interview will exist on the device you used to record it. (We recommend creating a backup of your audio file by exporting your interview to a computer, just in case.)

If you publish your interview to archive.storycorps.org

Once you publish to archive.storycorps.org, your interview is made available to StoryCorps as per our Terms of Us e, and it is archived with the Library of Congress. This is true for all privacy setting s. Whether or not others can listen to your interview on the web through archive.storycorps.org is based on your privacy settings.

Please note that the StoryCorps App archive at the Library of Congress is currently a closed collection that is not accessible to the public at the Library. If you would like to access or share your interview, please do so by visiting archive.storycorps.org.

If you published your interview, you can listen to itby logging into your account on archive.storycorps.org.

You can download the StoryCorps App from the AppStore, Google Play, or the Amazon App Store (for Kindle).

Thank you for recording with the StoryCorps App! You have just contributed to a culture of listening, and if you chose to publish, your interview is now a part of our online archive and preserved in the StoryCorps App collection at the Library of Congress.

Now is the time to ensure your interview is properly preserved, whether you’ve published it to the archive or not, so you can access it forever. Here are our best practices.

If you chose to publish your interview

If you chose not to publish your interview

If you chose to publish your interview

Make sure you published successfully.You should have received an email from StoryCorps after you published your interview with a link to where you can find your interview on the web. It is important to listen to your interview on archive.storycorps.org to ensure it uploaded properly. If your interview is marked as syncing, that’s ok. During busy times it can take up to 24 hours for the audio to transcode, so be sure to check back the next day and give it a listen (and if something went wrong, reach out to us right away by submitting a request ).

Choose the privacy setting that is right for you.If you weren’t confident when you made your privacy choices upon publishing, that’s ok. You can always change your privacy settings. Take a look at this articleto learn more about your options.

Use keywords to make your interview easy to find.Keywords, descriptions, and participants are important information that give context to your interview and make it easier to find through a search. If you rushed through publishing you can always go back. Read our suggestions for creating great keywords and descriptions.

Share your interview with friends and family. StoryCorps interviews often become treasured memories for friends and family, so be sure to share your interview with your community.

Consider joining a community!Communities are a new feature of archive.storycorps.org and a great way to find and share stories about topics you care about. Once you’ve joined a community, you can select which interviews you’d like to share with that community. Explore the communities in the archive.

If you chose not to publish your interview

Listen! No technology is perfect. Give your interview a listen to ensure the audio recorded properly and the sound quality is good. If something went wrong, you’ll want to know now, not when you return to the interview in a year.

Don’t delete the app or log out.When you remove the StoryCorps App from your mobile device or log out of your account, files associated with your account will also be removed. That means the audio file of your interview will be deleted! This cannot be undone. If you must uninstall the app, make sure to export your audio file first.

Make sure you have a backup.Since you chose not to publish, the only copy of your interview is on your mobile device. If this device is lost, stolen, or damaged, StoryCorps cannot assist you in retrieving your audio. Now is the time to make sure you have a backup of the audio file! Follow our instructions to export your interview and keep a backup on your computer.

Still fill out your information. Keywords, descriptions, participants, and titles still matter. Your interview is a memory, and as long as you keep the StoryCorps App on your device, these details are a great way to help you remember the details of your interviews, even if you decide not to publish to the archive.

Share your interview.If you don’t publish, your sharing options are limited, but you can still send your audio file to friends and family!

Remember, you can always publish later.You can always change your mindif you return to the app, you will still have the option to publish. Even if you remove the app from your device, if you have a backup of your audio file, you can upload it to archive.storycorps.org directly if you decide to publish later.

While StoryCorps interviews do not have a minimum length, the maximum length is 45 minutes. As you record your interview on the app, you will be able to see the time elapsed and time remaining on the app screen. The app will automatically stop recording at minute 45. If you would like to record an interview for longer than 45 minutes, you can create a second recording (or more) and publish each one to the archive.storycorps.org website as Parts I, II, etc.

While there is no limit to the number of participants, the StoryCorps model is a conversation between two people. We find that the best conversations, and the best audio quality, are achieved when it’s simply two people sharing a conversation.

Yes! You can record your interview in any language you choose. The StoryCorps Archive has over 50 languages represented so far!

If you do, we recommend that you add the name of your language as a keyword when prompted.For example, if you record in Spanish, you can add a keyword of "Spanish" or "Espaol".

You can edit your interview information from either the StoryCorps App or the web via archive.storycorps.org. Changes made in one place will be reflected in the other. Note: this article applies to app interviews. If you have concerns about editing a signature interview, look here.

How to edit your interview through the app

How to edit your interview on archive.storycorps.org

How to edit your interview through the app

Log in

Tap the three (...) dots in the lower right of your interview’s square

Edit Info

Interview Title/Summary/Keywords/Participants

Save

Note: Some fields are required and therefore must have data entered.

How to edit your interview on archive.storycorps.org

Log in to archive.storycorps.org

Click your profile photo (upper right)

My Interviews & Profile

Click anywhere on your interview’s image (or click the gear icon in the upper right of the image)

Edit Interview

Enter the information you wish to edit: a Title or Quote from Your Conversation/Add a Summary or Description of Your Interview/Who Participated in This Interview/Tag Your Interview to Help People Find It

Click the Save & Archive button

Note: Some fields are required for submission.

The most important thing to bring is yourself and your interview partner!

We suggest bringing a bottle of water, and your list of questions. StoryCorps provides tissues in case you need them.

Please note that we will ask you to turn your electronic devices completely off, and may suggest you remove watches or jewelry that make noise.

A StoryCorps facilitator will walk you through the entire process, and take care of the logistics, so you only need to think about sitting down with your loved one or friend. This isn’t a performance, and you’re not live on the radio, so there’s no need to rehearse; we do suggest thinking in advance about what you’d like to focus on during your interview. After all, you can’t get to everything in 40 minutes! For inspiration, take a look at our Great Questions.

Read more about what to expect during your reservation.

Yes!We invite anyone over the age of 13 (with parental consent if you’re under 18) to participate in the Great Thanksgiving Listen by recording a meaningful conversation with someone you know.

While The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a technology-based assignment originally developed for high school students, it has also been applied successfully as an extracurricular and community-building opportunity in classrooms, OST (out-of-school) environments, community centers, living rooms, and kitchens across the country.

Visit www.thegreatlisten.org to get started.

The Library of Congress is a public institution in Washington, DC, and anyone can visit and listen to StoryCorps interviews on site. To visit and listen to your interview (or others) in the Library of Congress reading room, contact the American Folklife Center in advance of your visit:

Telephone: 202.707.5510

Email: [email protected]

For more information about the American Folklife Center, please visit their website:

www.loc.gov/folklife

StoryCorps is an independently funded 501(c)(3) organization. Since 2005, we have been proud to produce segments that are broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition and on the NPR website, and we partnerwith local NPR member stations for each stop of our Mobile Tour.

If you would like to hear more StoryCorps stories, and see us in more cities, donate to StoryCorps here.

Your privacy and sharing options vary depending on whether you recorded a StoryCorps App interview or Signature StoryCorps Interview.

If you recorded a Signature Interview

If you recorded an App or User-Uploaded interview

If you recorded a Signature Interview

If you choose "Public", your interview and related information will be available to anyone on the web,and StoryCorps may use the interview as specified in the release form you signed.

If you choose "StoryCorps Community", your interview and related information will be available to anyone with an account on the StoryCorps Archive.Your interview will be publicly accessible on the archive.storycorps.org website, and StoryCorps may use the interview as specified in the release form you signed.

If you choose "Private", your interview and related information will not be shared on the Online Archive. You can share your interview via a secret link that only select people can access, while still keeping your interview private and inaccessible to the general public on-site. For instructions, click here. StoryCorps may still use the interview as specified in the release form you signed.

Remember, the release form you signed still applies, regardless of this setting.Your privacy setting only controls the interview's visibility on our Online Archive. If you signed a General Release, StoryCorps can still share your interview publicly outside of the Online Archive, even if your online setting is "Private". You can learn more here.

You can change your privacy settings at any time -- and so can any other participant(s). Any interview partners who have also created an account and claimed the interview can change the privacy setting. Remember, in order to protect your privacy, you and your interview partner should not share the claim link with others as only participants should claim the interview.

If you have concerns about how your interview is being shared, please contact us.

To change your Signature interview privacy settings,

Go into your account

Click “My Interviews & Profile”

Click on your interview

Click “Edit Visibility”

Select your updated preference.

If you recorded an App or User-Uploaded interview

After recording your interview, The StoryCorps App gives you three options for sharing after you record your interview under "Who Can Listen to this Interview". The three options are: "Everyone", "StoryCorps Community", and "Private".

Please keep in mind that these options apply only if you publish your interview. Unpublished interviews are only saved to your device and therefore are not accessible online to anyone.If you decide to not publish your interview, we recommend exporting it to create a back-up as StoryCorps does not receive a copy of the audio of unpublished interviews.

If you choose "Everyone", your interview and related information will be available online to anyone on the web. Your interview will be publicly accessible on the archive.storycorps.org website, will be transmitted to the Library of Congress, and can be used in the StoryCorps broadcasts and materials.

If you choose "StoryCorps Community", your interview and related information will be available online to anyone with an account on the StoryCorps Archive. If you select "StoryCorps Community," when your interview is published it will be accessible on the archive.storycorps.org website to anyone who creates an account and logs in, it will be transmitted to the Library of Congress, and can be used in StoryCorps broadcasts and materials. (This setting was previously named "Archive Users Only")

If you choose "Private", your interview and related information will be private and only accessible online by you. When published, private interviews are still transmitted to the Library of Congress and available to StoryCorps. Private interviews are only shareable if you use a secret link or export the file. You can learn more about sharing a private interview here. (The "Private" setting was previously named "Only You")

Please note that you always change your privacy settings at any time.

From the app:

Click the three dots at the bottom right of your interview,

choose "Edit Info" to adjust "Who Can Listen to this Interview?" along with other interview information.

From archive.storycorps.org:

From your interview page, click "Edit Interview"

change"Who Can Listen to this Interview?" along with other interview information.

No. It’s not possible to use your phone to call someone and simultaneously record an interview on the StoryCorps App.

You will need to use a second phone for the calling or recording function. For better sound quality, we recommend using a computer with video calling software (such as Skype) for the phone call itself while recording the interview with the app on your phone.

There are many ways for individuals and organizations to participate in StoryCorps. Here is an overview of ways to record your story:

Visit a StoryBooth

Anyone can make an appointment to record a story or interview in one of our StoryBooths, which are intimate soundproof recording booths that accommodate up to three people. Our StoryBooths are located in Atlanta and Chicago.

After interviewing at a StoryBooth, your interview will be archived and you will receive a copy of your recording. We offer this service for free with a suggested donation of $50.

Record in our MobileBooth:

Each year, we visit 10 cities and towns across the country with our StoryCorps MobileBooth, an Airstream trailer outfitted with a recording studio. Partnering with local public radio stations, we offer an opportunity to residents of these communities to make an appointment and bring someone they love to the MobileBooth to record an interview. See where we’re headed and make a reservation here. We offer this service for free with a suggested donation of $50.

Use the StoryCorps App from wherever you are:

You can record and share the stories that are all around you using the the free StoryCorps smartphone app. The app walks users through an interview by providing all the necessary tools: help preparing questions, finding the right environment for your conversation, recording a high-quality interview on your mobile device, sharing the finished product with friends and family, and uploading your conversation to the StoryCorps Archive at archive.storycorps.org. The app is available for iPhones, Android devices, and Amazon Kindle. Download the app from the iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon.

StoryCorps offers recording and archiving as a free service, and there is no cost to participate. We want everyone to have the opportunity to record, preserve, and share their personal histories with their loved ones, and to become a part of our archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

StoryCorps is an independently funded organization. Our suggested donation of $50 goes toward the day-to-day recording operations and helps make the StoryCorps experience available and accessible for others. If you would like to make a donation at the time of your recording, please bring along your preferred form of payment. You may also donate online.

While there is no charge for participating in StoryCorps, we do require a credit card at the time you schedule your appointment. We do not charge your credit card when you sign up for your appointment, and the only time we will use your card on file is in the event of a last-minute cancellation.

StoryCorps will apply a $50 fee to your credit card if you cancel your appointment less than 48 hours in advance or you no-show for your appointment.

If you do not have a credit/debit card and would like to make an appointment, please call 1-800-850-4406 who will assist you in a reservation.

No. You are not required to share your interview. After you finish recording, you'll be given the option to "publish" your interviewor to save the interview to your device.

If you choose to publish, the interview and photo will be uploaded to archive.storycorps.org, and they will become publicly accessible and archived by the Library of Congress.

If you choose to save the interview locally, it will only be saved to your device, and it will not be available to the public. We recommend that you back up your interview audio file by exporting it from your device to a desktop or laptop computer (please see instructions here ).

There are a lot of reasons you may wish to export the audio file of your interview directly without publishing to the StoryCorps Archive. Perhaps you’ve chosen not to publish your interview and would like to create a backup. Or, if you’re having difficulty publishing to the archive, exporting to your computer and uploading it directly to archive.storycorps.org is a great solution!

Export to a file-sharing app on your device using an internet connection

Export via USB cable from an iPhone or other iOS device

Export via USB cable from an Android device

Export to a file-sharing app on your device using an internet connection

You can export your interview audio file from the app ordirectly from iPhone and Android devices to a desktop or laptop computer. To export the audio file from the app, please follow these steps:

Log in to your StoryCorps account using your device and open “My Interviews.”

Scroll to the interview that you would like to export, and click on the three dots in the lower right-hand corner of the interview box.

In the drop-down menu, tap “Export Recording,” and choose the icon for the file-sharing app in which you wish to save your interview file (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, iPhone Files).

Please note:while exporting into an email is an option, the large audio files created by your recording may be too large to attach to an email. Exporting to a file-sharing app is best.

this article

Export via USB cable from an iPhone or other iOS device

We recommend that you update to the latest version of iTunes. Please see iPhone system requirements and screenshots here.

Plug your iPhone into your computer using a USB cable.

Launch iTunes on your computer.

Click on the iPhone image on the upper left side of the screen (located to the right of the three dots).

Click on “Apps” on the left, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to “File Sharing.”

You will see a list of file-sharing apps on your iPhone. Select the StoryCorps App. The StoryCorps documents saved to your iPhone will be listed on the right side of the screen. (Note: the audio files will be listed with the extension .wav and the date and time of the recording.)

Click on the audio file(s) you would like to save to your computer. In the lower right corner, a “Save to” button will appear.

Click on “Save to,” and you will be able to save the audio file to a specific location on your desktop or laptop computer.

You’re done! If you’ve exported because you wish to upload your interview to archive.storycorps.org from a computer, refer to this article for upload instructions.

Need a little more help? Try this step-by-step tutorial.

16 STEPS

1 The first step is to plug your iOS device into a computer

2 Open iTunes

3 Click the iPhone icon

4 Click File Sharing

5 Find theStoryCorps App on the list of File Sharing Apps

6 Click StoryCorps

7 Files associated with the app will appear on the right.

8 Your interview audio files will have filenames ending in .wav

9 you can use the dates on the files to determine which is the audio file you are searching for.

10 Click the file you would like to export

11 Click Save to...

12 select where you'd like to save the file on your computer

13 Click Save To

14 The file will now save to your computer!

Click Done

15 close iTunes

16 The file should now be saved to your computer.

Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

https://www.iorad.com/player/1568747/How-to-export-your-interview-audio-files-from-an-iPhone-to-a-computer

Export via USB cable from an Android device

Please see here for general instructions on transferring files from your Android device to a computer. Androids do not have a built-in program for finding content. Users (generally Mac computer users) may need to download a program that will open their phone’s content on their desktop or laptop computer (such as Android File Transfer ). You might want to visit your manufacturer's website to get software recommendations. To play the audio file on your computer, you may also need special media software (such as VLC Media Player or QuickTime Player ).

Plug your Android device into your computer using a USB cable.

Once the cable has been connected, Android File Transfer (or the program you have chosen) should automatically open on your computer.

Scroll down to your list of files and folders. Depending on your Android, the file may appear in “root,” “sd card," or as a free-floating file with a file extension of .amr and the date and time of the recording.

Select the audio file you wish to download, and save to your computer by clicking and dragging the file. You can then save the audio file to a specific location on your computer.

You’re done! If you’ve exported because you wish to upload your interview to archive.storycorps.org from a computer, see for upload instructions.

To reset your password on the app, tap the main screen to log in. At the bottom of the next screen, press “Send me a password recovery link” and you’ll be redirected to our “Reset Password” page. Press “Reset Password,” and we’ll email you a reset link immediately that will let you log in to your account.

To reset your password, visit archive.storycorps.org/login/ and click on "Forgot Password." We'll email you a reset link immediately and you'll be able to log into your account.

Yes. If you've recorded an interview in a digital format (for example, on a digital recorder or a voice recording app), you can manually upload it from your desktop or laptop computer to your account on the archive.storycorps.org website.Supported audio file formats are AIFF, WAVE (WAV), FLAC, ALAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR, and WMA.

To add your interview, go to archive.storycorps.org, log into your StoryCorps account, click on your username, click on "Add a New Interview" in the drop-down menu, and follow the prompts. Please note that a photo is required to finalize the upload process.

Need more help? Try the step-by-step guide below:

19 STEPS

1 The first step is to log in to archive.storycorps.organd then click your profile image in the top right corner

https://www.iorad.com/player/1565056/How-to-upload-an-interview-from-your-computer-to-archive-storycorps-org

2 Click Add a new interview

3 To add your audio, clickSelect Files and select the audio file from your computer

4 The audio file you selected should appear below.

5 If you have an image for this interview, clickselect files again and select the image from your computer

6 The image file that you selected should also appear below.

7 Now that your audio and image are selected, click Upload

8 Scroll down and complete the required fields.

The first is thetitle of your interview.

9 Next enter aSummary or Description of your Interview

10 Next, we'll add participants. Scroll down and enter aFirst Name

11 Then enter theirLast Name

12 Email Address is optional.

Once you've entered their information, click Add Participant

13 Now, you need to tag your interview.

At least one general keyword is required but you can enter keywords to indicate thelanguagesused in your interview, thepeopleorplacesdiscussed in your interview and more.

14 Next, enter your recording location. Your street address is optional, but please provide a city, state/province, and country.

15 Now, you must select your privacy settings for this interview.

16 If you are a member of a community, you can select for this interview to be submitted to a community.

17 When you are done, click Save & Archive on the left.

18 You did it!

Your interview will now appear on your profile page.

19 It will be marked as pending for a brief time while the audio is transcoded. This typically takes a few minutes, but can take up to 24 hours.

Be sure to check back tomorrow and listen to your interview to ensure it transcoded properly.

Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

A user has to be a member of a community to submit an interview. To join a community, please read these instructions.

Once you’ve joined a community, you can submit your interview through either the app or archive.storycorps.org.

Share through the app when you prepare your interview

Share through the app after you record

Share from archive.storycorps.org after you publish

Share through the app when you prepare your interview

If you take advantage of the ability to prepare an interview in the app, you can select the community you’d like to share it with before you even start recording.

Click the “+” symbol on the top right hand corner of your screen.

Select “Prepare an Interview.”

On the “Prepare an Interview” screen, select “Who will you share this interview with?”

https://www.iorad.com/player/1566842/archive-storycorps-org---Submit-Your-Interview-To-A-Community

Select the community you’d like to share the interview with.

Click “Save.”

Complete the other information (title, participants, questions) and select either “Done” to start your interview later or “Record This Interview” to begin recording.

Share through the app after you record

You can add your interview to the community at any time. When you complete your interview details when publishing, “Share with a community” is an option (if you’re already a community member). Or, you can edit an interview to add it to a community later.

To submit an interview through the app when editing, follow these steps:

Press “My Interviews” and scroll down to the interview you’d like to submit.

Press the three dots in the bottom right corner of the interview box and tap “Edit Info” in the drop-down menu.

Scroll down and press “Share with a Community.”

Tap the “+” button next to the community you’d like to share the interview with.

Save your changes.

Keep in mind if the community moderates its interviews, your request will be marked as pending while it is reviewed by the community owners/moderators. You will receive an email from StoryCorps when your interview has been accepted.

Share your interview from archive.storycorps.org

To submit an interview to a community from the archive.storycorps.org website, follow these steps:

Log in to your account at archive.storycorps.org.

Click on your username in the upper right corner of the screen.

Click on “My Interviews & Profile.”

Click on “Edit” in the box of the interview you would like to add to the community.

Scroll down to step 7 (“Add your interview to a community”), select the community from the list of communities you have joined as a member, and press “Update Interview.”

If no approval is needed from the community owners/moderators, the interview will be added immediately to the community profile page.

If the community moderates its interviews, your request will be marked as pending while it is reviewed by the community owners/moderators. You will receive an email from StoryCorps when your interview has been accepted.

Need some extra help? Try this step-by-step walk through (we recommend using the icon on the top-right to make it full-screen!):

9 STEPS

1 The first step is to log in to archive.storycorps.organd click your profile image

2 Click View Profile

3 Scroll down to the interview you'd like to edit and click the interview image

4 Scroll down and click Edit Interview

5 Scroll down to the bottom and fine the section that says "Add Your Interview To A Community."

Select the community you'd like to add your interview to.

6 Click Save & Archive

7 You're done! You should be sent back to your profile page.

To see your interview in the community click Communities from your profile page.

8 Click Visit

9 Scroll down. You should see your interview listed in the community.

Keep in mind that if the community is moderated your interview will not appear until it has been approved.

Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

We will email you a copy of your interview a few short weeks after your appointment.

After your interview, a StoryCorps facilitator will talk through options for sharing your interview. If you choose, your recording will be added to the StoryCorps Archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

If you're having trouble with the StoryCorps App, please report it here. Your feedback is extremely helpful.

If you haven't recorded an interview yet, we stronglyrecommend doing a short test recording, and publishing it to ensure that the app works smoothly on your device.

If you're experiencing technical trouble with the app:

Please ensure you're signed into your account.

Please DO NOT delete the app or log out. Please also make sure you have the most updated version of the StoryCorps app and the latest version of your operating system. If you delete the app or log out, you will lose any interviews that have been saved only to your device and not yet published/uploaded to the archive.storycorps.org website.

Try turning your device off and back on.

If you're not able to record with the app, you can still upload an interview to our website by recording with a digital recorder or a voice recording app. Please note that you can only upload such files to archive.storycorps.org from a desktop or laptop computer. To upload an interview from your desktop or laptop computer, please follow these steps:

Create an account at archive.storycorps.org.

Log into your new account.

Click on "Add a New Interview" on the top right corner of your screen.

You'll be prompted to upload your interview file; add an interview title, summary, and keywords; and “save and upload” the interview.

Once your interview is published on the StoryCorps Archive website, you can share the interview with friends and family by sending a link, posting it on social media, or embedding it on your site or blog.

If you recorded your interview with the StoryCorps App and it seems to have disappeared from your device, don’t panic! In most cases when this problem occurs, the solutions below are successful in recovering the audio.

If You Published Your Interview

If you published your interview, you can listen to it by logging in to your account on archive.storycorps.org.

Log in to the site above >

Click your profile photo (upper right) >

My Interviews & Profile > Click anywhere on your interview’s square >

Click the “Play” button (right facing arrow)

If your interview doesn’t play properly, there may have been a problem when it was uploaded. Give the instructions below a try as well.

If you didn’t publish your interview

If you chose not publish your interview (or simply didn’t publish it yet) and it was only saved to your device, try exporting your audio file.

(Heads up: This process will require a USB cable, a desktop, and a few minutes of your time.)

You can find instructions for exporting your audio from an iPhone or Android device in this article:

Can I export an interview from my device to my desktop or laptop computer without publishing it on the StoryCorps Archive website?

After you’ve exported, if you’d like to publish your interview, you can do so from archive.storycorps.org with these instructions. After publishing, the interview should sync with your account in the StoryCorps App as well.

Transcripts are available for all the stories you find at https://storycorps.org/stories/. These include our podcasts, radio broadcasts, and other produced StoryCorps stories. You can read a transcript by clicking on the story, and then the “Read Transcript” button under the photo. The Animations you’ll find on our website all have captions.

On archive.storycorps.org, you can find full-length, unproduced recordings from StoryCorps App and archive.storycorps.org users (and eventually the full recordings of our entire archive will be available here!). At this time, we are unable to provide transcripts of the recordings on archive.storycorps.org.

Communities are a way to collect and share interviews on archive.storycorps.org with friends, classmates, family, colleagues, and any other group of people that shares something in common. Any archive.storycorps.org registered user can create a public community and invite others to join it by sending them a link to the community page. Anyone can browse communities and listen to interviews posted to the community’s page on our website, whether or not they are a community member or registered archive.storycorps.org user. Please note that it is not possible to make interviews private on a community page.

The community feature is primarily a Web-based platform for archive.storycorps.org. In-app community functionality is essentially limited to adding an interview to a community during the upload and edit process. Most other community functions can only be conducted on our website.

You can create an account through either the StoryCorps App or archive.storycorps.org. The same account will allow you access to both platforms.

You can create an account using your email address, username, and password or by connecting your Facebook account. Please note that you should not set up an account using both options, as you will end up creating two different accounts.

Create an account through the StoryCorps App

Create an account through archive.storycorps.org

Create your account through the StoryCorps App

Note: If you’ve already created an account on archive.storycorps.org, please log in with that account to avoid making duplicate accounts.

To create an account from the app:

Download the StoryCorps App and open it on your device.

Swipe left through the information about using the app.

On the final screen, press the button “New to StoryCorps? Sign Up.”

If you’d like to use Facebook to log in, click the blue “Sign Up with Facebook” button at the top.

Otherwise, follow the prompts to create a username and password and enter your information.

Please remember that your username cannot be changed! Select a username carefully.

Create your account through archive.storycorps.org

Note: If you’ve already created an account using the StoryCorps App, please log in with that account to avoid making duplicate accounts.

To create a new account while on archive.storycorps.org:

Click “Log In” in the top-right corner.

Follow the prompts to provide your username, password, email address, name, and birthdate.

If you want to use your Facebook account, skip to the bottom, enter your birthdate, and click “Sign Up with Facebook.”

Click “Create an Account.”

Please remember that your username cannot be changed! Select a username carefully.

Need a little more help? Try this step-by-step tutorial:

17 STEPS

1 The first step is to go toarchive.storycorps.org and click Log In

https://www.iorad.com/player/1568724/archive-storycorps-org---How-To-Create-A-New-Account

2 On the left you'll see the option toCreate A New Account

3 If you'd like to us for Facebook account to log in, you can skip down to the bottom.

Enter your birthday to confirm your age and clickSign Up With Facebook

4 To create an account normally, click Username

5 Type your desired usernameand Press Tab

Don't forget, this username cannot be changed!

6 Type your email address and Press Tab

7 Type your password and Press Tab

8 type your password again to confirm

9 Scroll down and click Month

10 Select the month of your birthday

11 Click Day

12 Select the date of your birthday

13 Click Year

14 Select the year of your birthday

15 Click the checkbox. This confirms that you are either 18 years old and have read and agreed to our Terms of Use or that you are at least 14 and your guardian has read and agreed on your behalf.

16 Click Create Account

17 That's it. You're done.

Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

If you experience problems logging in via the app, we recommend you troubleshoot your account issue via the website, archive.storycorps.org.

To reset your password, click the "Forgot Your Password" link on the Sign Up page. You should receive an email with a link to reset your password. If you do not receive an email, please check your spam folder.

If you still experience issues logging in, please send us an email at [email protected]. When you contact us, please be sure to let us know whether your issue is on the app, archive.storycorps.org, or both. Also be sure to tell us your username and the email address with which you created your account.

For StoryCorps Signature Interviews

You cannot edit the interview audio for a Signature interview. If you have serious reservations about the content of your interview, we urge you to consider the Non-Release option. To speak with an archivist, please contact us.

For StoryCorps App interviews

If you have editing software on your desktop computer, you can edit any interview that you recorded using the StoryCorps App by following the steps below. Please note that StoryCorps does not provide support on editing at this time, and editing happens outside of the scope of the StoryCorps platform.

If you kept your interview private and only saved it to your device, you can follow these steps to export your interview audio file from your device to a desktop or laptop computer.

If you published your interview online, you can follow these steps:

Log into your account at archive.storycorps.org from your desktop or laptop computer, click on your username, and select “My Interviews & Profile” in the drop-down menu.

Scroll down to the interview you would like to edit.

Click the image of the interview to open it.

Click the share icon (the icon of three connected dots that appears on the right side of the play bar), and select the download option.

Now that you have downloaded the audio file, you can edit your interview using your editing software.

Upload the edited audio file to your profile on archive.storycorps.org by clicking the "Add a New Interview" button and following the prompts.

*Please note that this only changes the uploaded audio file and not your image or other interview data like keywords, location, etc.

There are a number of possible reasons you might not have had success publishing your interview to the archive via the app, such as poor Wi-Fi connection, overloaded server (i.e., high volume upload time on our end), etc.

Generally speaking, the upload can take a few minutes; it depends on both the strength of your Wi-Fi and the length of your interview.

If you’re having difficulty, try the tips below:

Wi-Fi

To ensure success, you’ll need a strong, reliable network connection. While we recommend setting your phone to airplane mode during the interview (to eliminate distractions such as incoming texts, phone calls, and interruptions to the mic), you’ll want to be sure to turn the Wi-Fi back ON when it comes time to publish.

High-traffic times

Although we encourage and accept app interviews all year long, there is one time during the year when there is a big push for participants: The Great Thanksgiving Listen. This app-centric campaign occurs around Thanksgiving. We might also have other topic-specific campaigns during the year, which would also impact upload and processing times.

Any interview with an upload marked as “syncing” for longer than one or two days is cause for concern. We suggest exporting your interview from your device and uploading via our web form as an alternative.

Alternative upload method

If the above does not help and your upload problem persists, there are alternative ways to upload your interview to the archive. We suggest exporting the interview to a computer and then uploading directly to archive.storycorps.org.

You can find instruction for how to export your interview from your device here:

Export an interview from my device

To try publishing via our web form:

Log in to archive.storycorps.org > Click your profile photo (upper right) > Add a New Interview

This will take you to our web upload form, where you’ll need to fill out the required* fields, and click Save & Archive to complete the process.

You can find more detailed instructions for uploading your audio to archive.storycorps.org here.

Yes! The StoryCorps Archive has interviews in over 50 languages. While StoryCorps does not offer translation services, participants can record their story in any language. Many of our facilitators are fluent in Spanish, and our interview paperwork is available in Braille, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

If you delete the app from your device, you will permanently lose any interviews that have been saved only to your device and have not been published to the archive.storycorps.org website. If you’ve uploaded your interviews to the StoryCorps Archive website, those interviews will not be deleted when you uninstall the app.

On most devices, uninstalling or logging out of an app clears your account data and files. This means that logging out of the StoryCorps App will delete any unpublished interviews stored on your device.

We suggest that you log into your account at archive.storycorps.org to confirm your interviews are saved there. We also highly recommend that you back up your interviews to your desktop or laptop computer (please follow these instructions) before deleting the app.

To update your credit card information, please call us at 646.723.7020 Ext. 39.

To update your contact information, email us at [email protected].