Error Messages

When something goes wrong, ChatCut shows a specific error message. Find yours below — each entry covers the cause, the fix, and whether credits were charged.

Why am I told a feature ‘requires ChatCut Pro’ when I try to use it, like Seedance 2.0 video gen or ProRes export?

Symptom: When you try to use a feature like Seedance 2.0 video generation or ProRes export, you see an error message: “This feature requires ChatCut Pro. Please upgrade to ChatCut Pro to continue.” For specific features, the message may say “Seedance 2.0 video generation requires ChatCut Pro. Please upgrade to ChatCut Pro to continue.” or “ProRes export requires ChatCut Pro. Please upgrade to ChatCut Pro to continue.”

Cause: The feature you are trying to use is only available on a ChatCut Pro subscription. Your current plan does not include access to it.

Fix:

1. Upgrade your plan to ChatCut Pro.
2. Once upgraded, return to the editor and retry the feature.

Credits: No credits are charged for this error. The feature gate blocks the action before any processing occurs.

Escalate if: You believe you already have a ChatCut Pro subscription but are still seeing this message — contact support with your account email and current plan details.

Why can’t I add any more reference files to my generation?

Symptom: You cannot add more reference files to your generation.

Cause: You have reached one of the reference-media count limits: 9 total references, 3 videos, or 3 audio files.

Fix:

1. Review your current reference files.
2. Remove 1 or more existing references to fall below the limit.
3. Try adding your new reference file.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: After removing references, you still cannot add new files.

Why is my reference file rejected for being too large?

Symptom: You see one of these error messages when uploading a reference file:

• “Audio must be smaller than 15 MB.”
• “Image must be smaller than 30 MB.”
• “Video must be smaller than 50 MB.”

Cause: Your uploaded reference file exceeds ChatCut’s per-type size limit. Reference audio is capped at 15 MB, images at 30 MB, and videos at 50 MB.

Fix:

1. Compress or resize the file below the limit for its type (15 MB for audio, 30 MB for images, 50 MB for videos).
2. Re-upload the file to your project.

For audio/video: try reducing the bitrate or trimming the duration. For images: reduce resolution or use a lossy format like JPEG.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: The error persists after confirming your file is below the size limit, or your file manager shows a file below the limit but the upload validation rejects it (this suggests a client-side measurement or format issue worth reporting).

Why can’t ChatCut decode my reference image, audio, or video file?

Symptom: You see one of these error messages when uploading a reference file:

• For images: “Unsupported format. Please use JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, or GIF.”
• For audio: “This audio file could not be decoded here. Use WAV or MP3 if it keeps failing.”
• For video: “This video file could not be decoded here. Use MP4 or MOV encoded as H.264 if it keeps failing.”

Cause: The file’s format or codec is not supported by ChatCut, or the file is corrupted and the browser cannot read its metadata.

Fix:

1. Convert the file to a supported format:
   • Images: Use JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, or GIF
   • Audio: Use WAV or MP3
   • Video: Use MP4 or MOV with H.264 video codec
2. Open the file in an online converter or desktop media tool (Handbrake for video, Audacity for audio, Preview or online tools for images)
3. Export/save the converted file with the correct format extension (.jpg, .png, .webp, .bmp, .tiff, .gif for images; .wav, .mp3 for audio; .mp4, .mov for video)
4. Re-upload the converted file to ChatCut

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: The error persists after converting to a supported format and re-uploading, or the file is already in one of the accepted formats (e.g., an MP4 file fails with the video decode error). This may indicate a file corruption issue or a browser compatibility problem that needs support review.

Why does ChatCut say my reference image or video is too small?

Symptom: You see one of these error messages when uploading a reference image or video:

• “Image too small. Width and height must be at least 300 px.”
• “Video too small. Width and height must be at least 300 px.”

Cause: Your reference media has at least one dimension below the minimum. ChatCut requires both the width and height of a reference image to be larger than 300 pixels (exactly 300 px is rejected), and both dimensions of a reference video to be at least 300 pixels.

Fix:

1. Check your file’s dimensions (right-click → Get Info on macOS, or Properties on Windows).
2. If either width or height is 300 px or smaller, resize the media using an image/video editor so both dimensions exceed 300 px.
3. Upload the resized media to ChatCut again.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: You are confident your media is already larger than 300x300 but still see the error — this may indicate a file metadata or detection issue worth reporting to support.

Why is my reference image or video rejected as too large in dimensions?

Symptom: You see one of these error messages:

• “Image too large. Width and height must be under 6000 px.”
• “Video too large. Width and height must not exceed 6000 px.”

Cause: Your reference image has a width or height of 6000 px or more, or your reference video has a width or height over 6000 px. ChatCut rejects media with dimensions past those limits.

Fix:

1. Download or export your reference image or video at a smaller size.
2. Ensure both width and height are under 6000 px (e.g., 5000×3000 is fine; a 6000×6000 image is rejected).
3. Re-upload the resized file and resubmit your generation.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: The error persists after you have confirmed the image/video dimensions are under 6000 px on both axes. This would indicate a validation bug.

Why does ChatCut reject my reference image or video for its aspect ratio?

Symptom: Your reference image or video is rejected with one of these messages:

• “Aspect ratio out of range. Width/height must be between 0.4 and 2.5.” (image)
• “Video aspect ratio out of range. Width/height must be between 0.4 and 2.5.” (video)

Cause: The width-to-height ratio of your reference media falls outside ChatCut’s accepted range. A ratio of 0.4 means the image is at most 2.5 times taller than it is wide (roughly a 2:5 portrait); a ratio of 2.5 means it can be up to 2.5 times wider than it is tall (roughly a 5:2 landscape). Extreme ratios outside this band are not supported.

Fix:

1. Open your reference image or video in an editor or viewer.
2. Crop it to a less extreme aspect ratio — aim for something between a 2:5 portrait and a 5:2 landscape. For example, 9:16, 1:1, 16:9, or 3:2 all fall within the range.
3. Save the cropped version and re-upload it to ChatCut.

Credits: No credits were charged. The rejection happened before generation started.

Escalate if: You believe your media’s aspect ratio falls within the 0.4–2.5 range but ChatCut still rejects it, or you need help calculating aspect ratios for your specific dimensions.

Why is my reference audio or video clip rejected for being too short or too long?

Symptom: You see one of these error messages:

• “Audio duration must be between 2 and 15 seconds.”
• “Video duration must be between 2 and 15 seconds.”

Cause: A single reference audio or video clip you uploaded is shorter than 2 seconds or longer than 15 seconds. Each reference file must fall within the 2–15 second range.

Fix:

1. Remove the out-of-range clip from your reference media.
2. If you want to use that clip, trim or pad it to 2–15 seconds:
   • For audio: use an audio editor (Audacity, GarageBand, etc.) to trim or loop-pad your clip.
   • For video: use a video editor (DaVinci Resolve, iMovie, CapCut, etc.) to trim or add silent frames/black frames to reach 2–15 seconds.
3. Re-upload the adjusted clip and retry your generation.

Credits: No credits were charged — the clip is rejected when you add it, before any generation is submitted.

Escalate if: The error persists after trimming/padding to 2–15 seconds, or if you believe the duration is within range but the validator rejects it (may indicate a bug; provide the exact clip duration and format).

Why does ChatCut reject a reference clip even though it’s under 15 seconds on its own?

Symptom: You see “Total audio duration must not exceed 15 seconds.” or “Total video duration must not exceed 15 seconds.” when trying to add a reference audio or video clip, even though the individual clip is within the 2–15 second limit.

Cause: ChatCut limits the combined duration of all reference-media files (audio or video) to 15 seconds total. Your new clip is valid on its own, but adding it would push the total across all existing reference clips above 15 seconds.

Fix:

1. Count the total duration of all your current reference audio clips (or video clips, depending on which error you got).
2. Remove one or more existing reference clips to reduce the total below 15 seconds.
3. Alternatively, trim one or more existing reference clips to make room for the new one.
4. Try uploading the new reference clip again.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: You believe you have only a single reference clip and are still seeing this error (which would indicate a product bug), or if the combined duration is genuinely under 15 seconds but the upload still fails.

Why is my reference video rejected for resolution even though its width and height look fine?

Symptom: Video resolution out of range. Total pixels must be between 409,600 and 927,408.

Cause: The total pixel count (width × height) falls outside the acceptable range. A video’s individual width and height dimensions can both look fine, but their product must land between 409,600 and 927,408 pixels. For example, a 640 × 640 video has exactly 409,600 pixels (the floor), and content up to roughly 832 × 1114 (≈927,408 pixels) is accepted. If the product falls outside this band, the upload is rejected even if each dimension individually seems valid.

Fix:

1. Calculate your video’s total pixel count: width × height.
2. If below 409,600 pixels, re-encode to a higher resolution (e.g., scale up to at least 640 × 640).
3. If above 927,408 pixels, downscale the video so the total pixel count lands in range (e.g., 832 × 1114 is near the ceiling).
4. Re-upload the re-encoded video.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: The rejection persists after re-encoding to a resolution within the stated pixel range, or if you believe your resolution is correct but cannot identify the issue — contact ChatCut support with your video’s exact dimensions (width × height and calculated pixel count).

Why did my reference with a real person get rejected, with no error toast shown?

Symptom: A Seedance 2.0 generation using a reference that contains a real person failed. No error notification (toast) appeared — the message shows only on the failed card in the asset bin: “Seedance 2.0 does not support videos containing real people (model limitation). No credits charged. Try a different video.” (or the same wording for images).

Cause: Reference videos containing real people are not supported — they always fail with this message. Reference images containing real people ARE supported: ChatCut automatically resubmits them through a supported path, so an image-based failure is rare — it means that automatic retry itself could not complete. These errors intentionally skip the popup toast, which is why you may have missed the message.

Fix:

1. Check the failed generation card in the asset bin for the exact message.
2. If a video reference was rejected: replace it with still images of the person — real-person images are supported.
3. If an image reference was rejected: resubmit the generation once; if it fails again the same way, contact support.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: A real-person image reference is rejected repeatedly — that suggests the automatic fallback path isn’t working and should be checked by the team.

Why did Seedance 2.0 flag my prompt, image, audio, or video as sensitive or policy-violating content?

Symptom: Seedance 2.0 rejected your generation with one of these messages:

• “Seedance 2.0 flagged the audio as sensitive content (model limitation). No credits charged. Try different audio.”
• “Seedance 2.0 flagged the image as a policy violation (model limitation). No credits charged. Try a different image.”
• “Seedance 2.0 flagged the image as sensitive content (model limitation). No credits charged. Try a different image.”
• “Seedance 2.0 flagged the prompt as sensitive content (model limitation). No credits charged. Try rephrasing.”
• “Seedance 2.0 rejected the prompt due to policy violation (model limitation). No credits charged. Try a different prompt.”
• “Seedance 2.0 flagged the prompt as violent content (model limitation). No credits charged. Try rephrasing.”
• “Seedance 2.0 flagged the video as sensitive content (model limitation). No credits charged. Try a different video.”

Cause: The text prompt, reference image, audio, or video you submitted did not pass Seedance 2.0’s content-safety filter. The provider flags submissions that contain content classified as sensitive, violent, or in violation of platform policy.

Fix:

1. Identify which input (prompt text, reference image, audio, or video) triggered the flag — Seedance 2.0 specifies which in the error message.
2. Rephrase the prompt (remove sensitive or violent wording) or swap in different reference media (a different image, audio clip, or video).
3. Resubmit the generation with the revised input.

Credits: No credits were charged.

Escalate if: You receive this error consistently on inputs you believe are appropriate and non-sensitive, or if a policy classification seems clearly incorrect. Contact ChatCut support with a description of the input and the exact error message.

Why did Seedance 2.0 generate my video, image, or audio and then still fail with a safety-review message?

Symptom: Seedance 2.0 completes generation but then displays one of these messages:

• “Seedance 2.0 output failed safety review (model limitation). No credits charged. Try adjusting the input.” (for audio or text output)
• “Seedance 2.0 generated the image but it failed safety review (model limitation). No credits charged. Try adjusting the input.” (for images)
• “Seedance 2.0 generated the video but it failed safety review (model limitation). No credits charged. Try adjusting the prompt.” (for videos)

Cause: The model ran and completed generation, but the resulting output (video, image, or audio) tripped a post-generation content-safety filter. The generation itself succeeded, but the output contains content the safety system flagged as sensitive or risky.

Fix:

1. Review your prompt and reference media for content that may have triggered the safety filter.
2. Adjust your input: rephrase the prompt, replace reference media with different materials, or remove sensitive details.
3. Resubmit the generation with the modified input.
4. If the issue persists, try a substantively different input rather than minor rewording.

Credits: No credits were charged despite the model having run.

Escalate if: The same content keeps failing safety review across multiple attempts, or you believe the filter is incorrectly flagging benign content. Provide your generation request details to support.

Why did my Seedance 2.0 generation fail, time out, or say the operation or prompt-and-media size isn’t supported?

Symptom: Your Seedance 2.0 generation attempt failed with one of these messages:

• “Seedance 2.0 does not support this operation (model limitation). No credits charged. Please try again later.”
• “Seedance 2.0 could not complete this generation (model limitation). No credits charged. Please try again.”
• “Seedance 2.0 timed out (model limitation). No credits charged. Please try again.”
• “The prompt and media are too large for Seedance 2.0 (model limitation). No credits charged. Try shortening the prompt.”

Cause: The generation hit a model-side constraint: the operation is unsupported, the job couldn’t complete for an internal reason, processing ran out of time due to provider load or prompt complexity, or your combined prompt text and reference media exceeded the model’s context window.

Fix:

1. Retry the generation.
2. If the error persists, simplify the prompt (use fewer or shorter instructions) and reduce reference media (remove files, choose smaller clips, or reduce the count).
3. Resubmit the generation.

Credits: No credits were charged for the failed attempt.

Escalate if: The error continues after retrying with a simpler prompt and reduced reference media. This may indicate a ChatCut integration issue rather than a user input problem.

Why did my Seedance 2.0 generation say it ‘was interrupted’?

Symptom: Your generation failed with the message “Seedance 2.0 generation was interrupted. No credits charged. Please try again.”

Cause: The in-flight generation was cancelled. This occurs when you navigate away from the editor, your browser session drops, or you manually abort the job before completion.

Fix:

1. Resubmit the generation with the same settings — the job will restart from scratch.

Credits: No credits were charged for the interrupted generation.

Escalate if: If generations continue to be interrupted despite a stable session and deliberate submission, contact ChatCut support to check for provider-side instability.

Why does Seedance 2.0 reject my request for ‘invalid settings,’ ‘duplicate settings,’ or ‘missing or invalid input’?

Symptom: Seedance 2.0 rejects your request with one of these messages:

• “Seedance 2.0 rejected the request due to invalid settings (model limitation). No credits charged. Please adjust and try again.”
• “Seedance 2.0 rejected the request due to duplicate settings. No credits charged. Please adjust and try again.”
• “Seedance 2.0 rejected the request due to missing or invalid input. No credits charged. Please check and try again.”

Cause:

• Invalid settings: your generation parameters (duration, resolution, reference-media count) or cached instruction set fall outside what Seedance 2.0 accepts.
• Duplicate settings: a tag or parameter key appears more than once in your request payload.
• Missing or invalid input: a required field is empty or malformed — for example, an empty image URL, a malformed reference image, a pixel-limit violation, or a missing required parameter.

Fix:

1. For invalid settings: adjust your generation options (try a different duration, lower resolution, or fewer reference files) and resubmit.
2. For duplicate settings: review your input fields for any repeated settings or parameter keys and remove the duplicate.
3. For missing or invalid input: check that all required fields are filled (prompt, reference image/video) and that your reference media meets the pixel-size limits: reference images must be over 300 px and under 6000 px on each side; reference videos must have a total pixel count (width × height) between 409,600 and 927,408.

Credits: No credits were charged. The request was rejected during validation before generation started.

Escalate if: The error persists after adjusting your inputs and resubmitting. If you are unable to identify the cause or the same parameters worked in an earlier generation, report the exact steps and error message to support — it may indicate a client-side payload bug or transient service issue.

Why does Seedance 2.0 say it’s ‘overloaded’ or ‘temporarily unavailable’ due to quota?

Symptom: You see one of these error messages:

• “Seedance 2.0 is currently overloaded. No credits charged. Please try again in a few minutes.”
• “Seedance 2.0 is temporarily unavailable. No credits charged. Please try again later.”

Cause: Seedance 2.0 hit a capacity or quota ceiling on the provider side. This can happen for two reasons: (1) a sudden spike in generation requests exceeded the provider’s rate-limit or concurrency capacity, or (2) the provider-level free-trial quota was exhausted — a ChatCut-account-level limit with the provider, not your personal ChatCut credits.

Fix:

1. Wait, then submit the generation again — the error message itself asks you to “try again in a few minutes” or “try again later.”
2. If retrying works, you’re done.
3. If the error persists across repeated retries and across sessions, move to Escalate.

Credits: No credits were charged for the failed attempt.

Escalate if: The error repeats during normal usage, or it occurs during a planned product launch. This indicates the provider needs its throughput limits or free-trial quota provisioned higher — contact ChatCut support with the timestamp and the exact error message so ops can coordinate with the provider.

Why is my Seedance 2.0 error message showing up in English instead of my language?

Symptom: You see Seedance 2.0 error messages in English even though your ChatCut interface is set to another language (e.g., French, German, Japanese, Portuguese). For example: “Seedance 2.0 is temporarily unavailable. No credits charged. Please try again later.”

Cause: Seedance 2.0 error messages are localized only to Chinese and Spanish. All other languages fall back to English.

Fix:

1. This is expected behavior and not a settings issue.
2. Read the English error message carefully to understand the problem.
3. Follow the recommended action in the message (e.g., “try again later” means wait before retrying).
4. Contact support if you need help interpreting a specific error.

Credits: No credits were charged for the example error above; the message itself states “No credits charged.”

Escalate if: An error message is unclear after reading it, or the same error persists across multiple retries.

Why did my generation fail immediately at submission with a checkpoint-lost type error?

Symptom: Your generation fails immediately at submission with a checkpoint-lost error (error code PROVIDER_SUBMIT_CHECKPOINT_LOST). The job appears to fail right after you hit submit.

Cause: ChatCut lost track of whether the provider actually accepted your generation job. This is an internal reconciliation issue between ChatCut and the provider’s system, not caused by your input or settings.

Fix:

1. Submit the generation again with the same settings.
2. If the error persists after retrying, proceed to Escalate if (below).

Credits: If credits were deducted for the failed submission, include that in your support ticket so it can be reviewed.

Escalate if: The checkpoint-lost error repeats consistently on multiple separate generations, or the job appears to have actually submitted to the provider but ChatCut still shows the error. Open a support ticket with the generation ID and timestamps so ChatCut operations can verify the provider’s logs.

Why did my generation finish but then fail while downloading the result?

Symptom: Your generation completed successfully on ChatCut’s servers, but the result download failed with an error indicating a timeout, network failure, or HTTP error from the provider’s CDN.

Cause: ChatCut submitted your job to the provider and the generation completed, but when fetching the finished asset from the provider’s CDN, one of three failures occurred: the download exceeded the timeout limit, the CDN returned a non-2xx HTTP status (4xx or 5xx), or a network-level error occurred (connection drop, DNS failure, or TLS issue).

Fix:

1. Retry the generation — for a timeout (“download timed out after Ns”) this is a transient fetch failure on ChatCut’s side, not a problem with your input.
2. If it keeps failing, submit a fresh generation so a new result asset is produced.

Credits: The error message does not state whether this failure charged credits. If you were charged for a result you never received, contact ChatCut support with the timestamp — do not assume either way.

Escalate if: The failure repeats after 2 retries. Download-phase failures are ChatCut/provider infrastructure issues, never caused by your media or settings.

Why does a ChatCut share link show an error or keep loading?

Symptom: Opening a ChatCut video share link (a /v/… URL) either gets stuck on a loading screen that never finishes, or shows “This share link was revoked by its owner.” This is about video share links specifically — invite links (/share-claim/…) that add someone as a project editor behave differently and aren’t covered here.

Cause: A share link is a view-only link to one exported video, and no ChatCut account or login is needed to open it — so the problem is always with the link or the export behind it, never with your account. Share links stay valid until they’re revoked, so a link that stops working was either revoked or was never a valid link to begin with:

1. The export is still rendering, so the video isn’t ready yet — the page keeps loading until it is.
2. The link is broken: mistyped, cut off when copied, or pointing to a project that no longer exists.
3. The link was revoked. Either the owner revoked it deliberately, or the export behind it failed to render, which ChatCut revokes automatically — the render-failure case is the one that shows the “revoked by its owner” message.

Fix:

1. Re-copy and re-open the full URL, in case it was mistyped or cut off when copied.
2. If the owner just shared it and the export was still running, wait for the export to finish, then reload the page.
3. If it still won’t load, or it shows the revoked message, ask the project owner to export the video again and share the new link.

Credits: None. Viewing a share link needs no ChatCut account or login, so nothing is charged to the viewer.

Escalate if: The owner just shared a freshly completed export and the link still won’t load or immediately shows revoked — that points to a ChatCut-side issue, not a bad copy/paste or an in-progress render.