File Recovery
Every recording is saved on your device first, so a crash, a dead battery, or a bad connection doesn't cost you the audio.
Wave writes audio to your device as you record, and only uploads it after you finish. If the app crashed, your battery died, or the upload failed, the recording is still on the device — Wave keeps retrying on its own, and there's a screen where you can retry by hand.
Looking for something you deleted on purpose? See Recently Deleted.
Wave retries on its own first
You usually don't have to do anything. On phones, Wave checks for unfinished uploads every time you open the app or your connection comes back, as long as you're signed in and online. A recording whose upload was cut short is first retried as a normal upload. If that still hasn't worked after 6 tries or 48 hours, Wave hands the file to file recovery, described below.
On desktop, a recording that failed to upload after you stopped it retries in the background on its own: after about a minute, then at growing intervals, up to once an hour, until it goes through.
Recovering a recording by hand
When Wave spots audio it hasn't uploaded, the session shows a Recording Saved on Device banner with the message "Wave found audio that still needs to be recovered." Tap Recover to upload it. When it works you'll see "Wave recovered the saved recording from your device." If it still can't go through, you'll see "Wave could not recover the saved recording yet."
If an upload failed outright, the session screen shows Recording Needs Recovery instead. When the failure looks network-related, Wave tells you exactly what to try: "Wave saved this recording on your device, but upload could not finish. Try disabling your VPN or switching networks, then tap Recover below."
To see everything waiting for recovery in one place:
If nothing is stuck you'll see All clear: "No failed recordings found. Everything is processing normally." Tap Check again to rescan.
Retries aren't unlimited. On phones, file recovery makes up to 5 automatic attempts per app launch and 8 attempts total for any single file before it stops trying and marks it Recovery failed. If a recording has been stuck for days, don't keep tapping retry — contact support and mention the date and time of the recording.
When you'd use this
- The app closed or crashed during (or right after) a recording.
- Your phone or laptop ran out of battery while recording.
- You lost connection before the upload finished.
- A recording seems stuck, or never showed up in your library at all.
While files are uploading, keep Wave open and stay on a stable connection.
Still can't find a recording?
- Check whether it's still processing — see What Happens After You Record.
- If your whole library looks empty, you may be signed in to a different account. See New Phone, Lost All Recordings?.
- If the recording was cut short rather than lost, see Handling Audio Interruptions During Recordings.
Was this article helpful?
Still need help?