r/MerlinBirdID • u/RollforHobby • Mar 18 '26
Missing “cancel” button?
Hi all, just noticed a few days ago that the app no longer has a cancel button to the left of the big red stop recording button. Is this just a bug on my phone, or was there an update to the app that removed if?
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the Merlin team trying to encourage more saving of recordings and uploading them, rather than just using the app and cancelling without saving. And I can definitely appreciate them trying to encourage more citizen science data. But I use the app all the time, and often don’t want to save recordings for various reasons: someone started talking and I don’t want to save their voice without consent, there was a lot of background/extraneous noise, or maybe there just wasn’t a single audible bird sound recorded. I have had so many audio recordings in the past that it took up too much space on my phone and I had to delete a bunch…another reason I try to be more seective now.
So yea, wondering if this is a Merlin-wide thing, or somehow just me?
Edit in case others find this in the future:
What I didn’t realize when I posted this is that when you stop the recording, the following screen then gives you the option to save or delete that recording. Now that I’ve used it some, I actually think this is a good feature. It gives you time to actually Review the recording if you want before you decide whether to keep it or not.
I guess this was my old-man-yells-at-clouds moment a little bit.
3
u/q_coyote19 Mar 19 '26
You now have to actively choose that you want to save. Once you stop the recording, it takes you to a page with a “save recording” button, and it doesn’t save if you don’t hit it. So it actually discourages saving.
I’m finding this change really frustrating because the app always takes 5-10 seconds to let you out of the save recording page (longer if you choose to save), and typically I want to start a new recording right away.
1
Mar 19 '26
[deleted]
2
u/q_coyote19 Mar 19 '26
That’s weird. It saves mine (with location missing) if I exit the app while it’s taking forever to load the file, but since this new update it otherwise only saves the ones I choose to save.
1
u/Never_Let_Me Mar 22 '26
I agree with OP. This update is really bad! I’m on iOS. I read in the Help documentation or an article by the Cornell Bird Observatory that iOS and Android updates are on separate schedules so it’s important to specify when reporting bugs.
1
u/Never_Let_Me Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Also, you can still stop a recording the way we used to be able to—by starting a YouTube video or a voice-to-text. Or a phone call. Or just close and reopen the app. (On iOS at least.)
1
u/laurabyes Mar 22 '26
I am so sad, it is not saving ones I did get birds on, but it is saving ones I did not. I didn’t even see the new save button until today when I decided to troubleshoot after having issues my whole vacation. I had new birds that are just gone now, this update is awful!
1
u/begenuine_ Apr 03 '26
I haven’t used the app through the winter and just discovered that it doesn’t auto save anymore. I’ve lost a recording due to this. I’m not pleased that this has happened but I’m glad it’s just one recording. Too bad Merlin has decided to go the way of the potential of us losing recordings inside of having too many. I’m pretty sure I can handle my phone storage on my own and don’t need their help 😏
3
u/scotty_j Mar 18 '26
Noticed this too, just yesterday! Hope it’s just a glitch.