Troubleshoot common AI issues in ATLAS.ti
Key takeaways
- Trial licenses include limited AI analysis capacity.
- AI coding works best with clearly structured text documents that contain full paragraphs.
- PDFs and heavily formatted documents can cause AI coding errors or poor results.
- Every eligible Desktop license includes one hour of free transcription credit per seat.
- Poor audio quality is one of the most common causes of transcription problems.
- Running AI tools on too many documents at once may slow down or interrupt processing.
Who this article is for
This article is for ATLAS.ti Windows, Mac, and Web users experiencing issues with:
- AI coding
- Intentional AI coding
- Conversational AI
- AI summaries
- Auto transcription
General AI feature issues
Free trial limitations
- With a free trial, you have access to AI features such as AI coding, intentional AI coding, conversational AI, and AI summaries.
- Word limit: Please note that there is a word limit for AI analysis during the trial period.
- You can analyze documents containing between 6,000 and 12,000 words using AI coding.
- To get the best results during the trial, we recommend working with documents under 500 words.
Paid license recommendations
- With a paid license, you have full access to all AI features in the software.
- For faster and more reliable results, select a reasonable number of documents at a time.
- We recommend dividing documents into smaller groups and running analyses sequentially to avoid overloading the service.
- ATLAS.ti will display a warning message if too many documents are selected at once.
AI tools returns no results
- AI tools like AI Coding process documents paragraph by paragraph, skipping any paragraphs that are too short.
- If your document consists mostly of short lines, headings, bullet points, or one-line exchanges, ATLAS.ti may filter out all content, leaving nothing available for these tools.
- To check whether this is the case:
- Open your document in ATLAS.ti
- Review the paragraph numbers in the left margin
- If you see a new paragraph on nearly every line, your text is too fragmented
- Solution: Combine short lines into fuller paragraphs, each containing a substantive block of text, then run AI Coding again.
Receiving an error while using AI tools
If you encounter an error while using AI tools like AI Coding, there are several possible underlying causes. The following steps resolve the issue in most cases:
1. Confirm your document format
AI coding works best with text documents such as Word documents (.docx) and Plain text files (.txt). Although PDFs are supported, they often lack reliable paragraph structure, which can reduce AI coding quality. If possible:
- convert PDFs to text documents
- or copy and paste the text into a new text document in ATLAS.ti
2. Check paragraph structure
For best results:
- interview questions should be separated into their own paragraphs
- participant names should appear in separate paragraphs
- long responses should remain grouped together
You can verify paragraph separation using the paragraph numbers shown in the left margin of the document editor.
3. Identify the problematic document
If an AI tool fails across multiple documents:
- Run it on each document individually to identify which one triggers the error
- Once identified, ensure the document is text-based with clearly defined paragraphs, and remove any embedded images or figures
- If the document is a PDF, try copying and pasting the text into a plain text document
- You can also try removing all formatting (see the next step).
4. Remove formatting from the document
Sometimes hidden formatting causes AI processing problems.
To remove formatting:
- Open the document in ATLAS.ti.
- Click Edit text.
- Select all text.
- Copy and paste the content without formatting.
Keyboard shortcuts:
Windows - Ctrl + A - Ctrl + C - Ctrl + Shift + V (or Ctrl + Alt + V)
Mac - Cmd + A - Cmd + C - Cmd + Option + Shift + V
Auto transcription issues
Transcription credits
- Every ATLAS.ti license includes one hour of free transcription per seat.
- For multi-user and campus licenses, up to 50 seats each receive one hour of free transcription.
- Trial and Web-only licenses are excluded from this benefit.
- The software displays your remaining credit information each time you attempt to transcribe a document.
Poor audio quality
- The quality of your multimedia content directly affects transcription accuracy.
- The service may fail if the recording contains excessive background noise, echo or reverb, very low volume, or distorted speech.
- For best results, use recordings with clean, clear speech and minimal background noise.
Supported languages
- Auto transcription supports more than 30 languages and dialects, including bilingual English and Spanish audio
- While ATLAS.ti can detect the language automatically, manually selecting the language typically produces better results.
- See the current list of supported languages here.
When to contact support
If you've followed these steps and are still experiencing issues, please contact our support team:
- ATLAS.ti Windows: windows@support.atlasti.com
- ATLAS.ti Mac: mac@support.atlasti.com
- ATLAS.ti Web: cloud@support.atlasti.com
To help us assist you efficiently, include a brief description of the issue and a screenshot of any warning or error messages.