Troubleshooting

Almost everything falls into one of two buckets: the song is not being detected, or the song is detected but has no lyrics. Telling them apart takes one look.

Which of the two is it?

Open Settings › General. Under Music player there is a line reporting what is being detected right now.

• It names your song — detection is fine. Skip to No lyrics for a song.
• It is empty — carry on here.

Nothing is detected

1. Press your keyboard's play/pause key. If it does not control the player, your operating system cannot see it either, and neither can 9xLyrics. That is a player or system setting, not a 9xLyrics one.
2. macOS: allow Automation. The first time 9xLyrics reads Music or Spotify, macOS asks. If you dismissed the prompt, the switch is in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation. Without it, macOS reports nothing.
3. Is something else winning? A paused browser tab can hold the media session. Pin the right app in Settings › General › Music player.
4. Just woke from sleep? Detection pauses while the machine sleeps and restarts a few seconds after it wakes.
5. Linux: the player must speak MPRIS. Nearly all do. A few niche ones do not, and cannot be detected at all.

More detail in Players and detection.

No lyrics for a song

The song is detected and the words never arrive.

• Not every song has synced lyrics. New releases, remixes, live versions, classical, instrumental and non-Latin catalogues are all thinner. 9xLyrics checks several sources; if none of them has it, nobody does.
• Search it yourself. Wrong lyrics? in the Lyrics Window searches all four and often finds something the automatic match missed — particularly if the title carries a (Remastered 2011) the sources do not use. Trimming the title and searching again is the single most effective fix. (Pro.)
• Use your own file. Put an .lrc beside your music and point Settings › Lyrics › Your own .lrc files at the folder. A local file beats every online source.
• Prefer synced lyrics is on. With it on, a plain-text version is used only when nothing synced exists. If you would rather see unsynced words than none, that is already the behaviour.

Lyrics are out of time

• The whole song is off, and so is every song — Settings › Lyrics › Global lyric delay.
• Only this song is off — the Offset field at the bottom of the Lyrics Window. It is remembered for that song alone.
• It drifts as the song goes on — the lyrics are for a different recording. Search for another match rather than chasing it with the offset.
• A Shazam match is slightly off — timing from a recognition is estimated. Listen again resyncs it.

The lyrics are for the wrong song

Live albums, remasters and covers all collide. Wrong lyrics? in the Lyrics Window searches every source; picking a result pins it to that song, so it is right on every future play too. It survives clearing the cache.

An overlay will not show

• A free account runs one overlay at a time. Turning on a second is what the upgrade prompt is about — see Free and Pro.
• Wrong screen? Settings › General › Show on display.
• Dragged off-screen? Each surface's page has a reset for its position.
• Hidden while paused? Several surfaces have Hide when paused. Press play.
• Full-screen apps and games can cover an always-on-top window. That is the operating system's decision, not a setting in 9xLyrics.

A shortcut does nothing

The system or another app already holds that combination. The row says so when it happens. Pick another — adding Shift usually clears it. Everything a shortcut does is also in the tray menu.

Nothing happens when I close the window

That is the design: closing Settings leaves 9xLyrics watching in the background. Tray › Quit 9xLyrics quits it.

Lock Screen shows nothing

It is macOS only and Pro. Check both, then that Settings › Lock Screen › Show on the lock screen is on. It rests on a private macOS interface, so a macOS upgrade can break it until a 9xLyrics update lands — see Lock Screen.

Still stuck

Support, with the details listed in Updates and versions.