Transcribe on Word Online web app

Question

Transcribe on Word Online web app

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K

Using Firefox on Mac. Constantly receiving this message: Unable to authenticate. Please try again later.

Can anyone provide insight on this?

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Answer accepted by question author

John Jefferson Doyon 88,610 Independent Advisor

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Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points

2026-06-21T03:40:15.2533333+00:00

Yes, John – Word Online... I use a Mac which doesn't have the feature in the desktop software.

Apparently there was a modification to the service which results in Transcribe being supported only by Edge & Chrome. I use neither but I find that it does work in those browsers, When the change occurred I don't know because I really don't use the feature. I was investigating for another user. I believe it did work in Firefox once upon a time but I can't be sure.

Thanks for your reply.

1 additional answer

Your answer

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points

2026-06-21T03:40:15.2533333+00:00

Yes, John – Word Online... I use a Mac which doesn't have the feature in the desktop software.

Apparently there was a modification to the service which results in Transcribe being supported only by Edge & Chrome. I use neither but I find that it does work in those browsers, When the change occurred I don't know because I really don't use the feature. I was investigating for another user. I believe it did work in Firefox once upon a time but I can't be sure.

Thanks for your reply.

Answer 1

The Transcribe feature in Word for the web relies on Office Intelligent Services and Microsoft 365 cloud authentication. The error “Unable to authenticate. Please try again later.” in Firefox on Mac is typically caused by browser or account limitations rather than the feature itself.

From the available information:

Transcribe is supported in Word for the web and is one of the Office Intelligent Services. Audio is sent to Microsoft and processed in the cloud, so successful sign‑in and connectivity to Microsoft 365 services are required.
Transcribing is available for Microsoft 365 business accounts, and the feature is documented and tested specifically with Microsoft Edge and Chrome. The documentation notes that “Transcribing only works on the new Microsoft Edge and Chrome.”

Given this, the most relevant and actionable steps are:

Try a supported browser
Use Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome on the Mac, sign in to Word for the web, and try Transcribe again. This aligns with the documented support and is the primary way to rule out a Firefox‑specific issue.
Confirm account eligibility
Ensure the signed‑in account is a Microsoft 365 subscription account that includes Transcribe (for business accounts). Non‑eligible accounts may not be able to use the service reliably.
Check that Office Intelligent Services / connected experiences are allowed
Transcribe depends on Office Intelligent Services/connected experiences. If these are disabled at the tenant or account level, authentication for the service can fail. An admin may need to verify that connected experiences are enabled according to the guidance in the linked “Connected experiences in Microsoft 365” documentation.

If Transcribe works in Edge or Chrome with the same account, the issue is almost certainly due to Firefox not being a supported browser for this feature.

References: