AI interview not working: fix it, then email the right person

In this order. Stop as soon as the interview loads.

1. Reload once. Once, not five times: where a platform counts attempts, repeated reloads can spend them.
2. Open the link in a browser, not inside your email app. Sapia's article on a link that will not open says to open it in a browser rather than within an email app, clear the cache, and try an incognito window (Sapia).
3. Set Camera and Microphone to Allow from the lock icon in the address bar. The most common cause of all.
4. Quit everything else using the camera or microphone: Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, your camera app, a second tab of the same interview.
5. Move to the latest Chrome, on a laptop.
6. VPN off, then another network. micro1's guide is exactly that: press "Try again", then force reload, a private window, another browser, another network, VPN off (micro1).
7. Email the employer and the vendor, before the deadline. Wording is below.

Every vendor page cited here was opened on 30 September 2026.

• You are not in a browser. Email apps open links in a cut-down viewer that often cannot reach a camera at all. Paste the address into Chrome.
• The link is single-use or time-boxed. Invitations are usually tied to your email address and to a window the employer set, so only whoever issued it can issue another. That is why the email below goes to the employer first.
• A stale session. An incognito window clears an old login and cookie at once.
• An unsupported browser. Mercor is blunt: "Recommended: Google Chrome (latest version)", "Supported: Microsoft Edge (latest version), Safari", "Not supported: Firefox, mobile browsers" (Mercor).

"Expired" is not a rejection and neither is a broken link. Nobody has assessed you. This is an administrative problem with a named owner.

Permission is granted in two separate places, and fixing one does nothing while the other is shut.

The browser

Chrome and Edge: click the lock icon, set Camera and Microphone to Allow, reload. Mercor gives that verbatim: "In Google Chrome, select the lock icon located in the address bar. Under Permissions, set the Camera and Microphone settings to 'Allow.'"

Sapia adds the Apple rule: "If you are taking this assessment on an Apple mobile device, you must use the Safari browser" (Mercor, Sapia). In desktop Safari, permission sits in Safari's settings for that site, not in the pop-up you dismissed.

The operating system

This catches people who swear they clicked Allow. On Windows, open privacy settings and check Microphone access and Camera access are on and that your browser is listed and switched on.

On macOS, the same under Privacy and Security. A browser blocked here never gets to ask you.

The hardware

A headset mute switch, a camera shutter, a headset paired to your phone. Unplug, replug, pick the input by name.

Apriora's FAQ ends where you should: "Ensure that your device's camera and microphone work. If they do not, move to a different device."

What each platform publishes for candidates, read 30 September 2026. HireVue's and Spark Hire's help centres refused our request that day, so those rows quote only their public pages.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Why the phone is often the wrong choice. Spark Hire and Willo say a phone is fine. Mercor says mobile browsers are not supported, so on a phone it fails however often you retry.

Where it does work, a laptop still gives you the address-bar lock icon where every permission fix lives, and no incoming call mid-answer.

The platform decides, not you, and only these three publish what happens.

• HireVue: "If you do lose connection in the middle of your assessment, you'll be able to pick up where you left off with the same link you used to begin the interview previously" (FAQ).
• Mercor: reopen the Assessments tab and try again; three retakes are available, and once those are used a one-time retake can be requested by email, which is not automatic and needs "a screenshot or screen recording demonstrating the technical issue" (support).
• Apriora: "you are able to restart a paused interview", and a technical problem that makes you miss a slot still lets you "take the interview at another time", on the same link (FAQ).

Where a platform publishes nothing, assume nothing. Do not open a second account and do not apply again: a duplicate looks worse than an honest email.

Screenshot the error, note the clock time, send it. What was captured before the drop is usually kept: what happens to your AI interview recording.

It ended early. On recorded-answer platforms each question has its own timer and its own number of retakes, and the employer sets both. Willo's article on changing the number of retakes is addressed to the employer, not the candidate: "You can change the number of retakes at any time, even after you have started receiving responses" (Willo).

Sapia tells candidates who have run out: "You'll only have five attempts at each question" (Sapia). So "it cut me off" is often the timer, and the employer can extend it.

Your audio is silent or missing. Almost always the wrong input: it took the built-in microphone while you spoke into a headset, or the reverse. Before the next attempt, choose the microphone by name, say a sentence, watch the level meter move.

A live conversation fails differently from a recorded answer: what to expect in an AI interview.

The employer first. They chose the platform and set the deadline, so they are normally the only party who can reissue a link or extend a window. Reply to the invitation, or to the recruiter.

HireVue sends candidates to its Candidate Help Center for technical support, and to "the recruiter you've been in contact with or check the application page on that company's website" for what the company controls (FAQ).

Then the vendor, for the software fault. Published addresses: support@micro1.ai (micro1), support@mercor.com (Mercor), support@alex.com (Apriora). HireVue, Sapia and Spark Hire use help centres instead.

The template. Subject: "Technical problem with the AI interview for [job title]". Then six facts and one request.

1. Platform and role. "An AI interview for [job title] on [platform]."
2. What happened, in one sentence. "The link returned an error page." "The session dropped after question two."
3. When, with the time zone. "At 21:40 BST on 30 September."
4. Browser, device, operating system. "Chrome on Windows 11, laptop."
5. What you tried. Reload, incognito, another browser, permissions on, apps closed, VPN off.
6. Evidence. "Screenshot attached."
7. The one thing you want. A reissued link, a new window until a stated date, or confirmation the partial attempt arrived. Add when you can sit it again.

micro1's guide puts it plainly: "We'd rather hear from you early than have you miss the slot", and adds that if the interview time is close, saying so can get it rescheduled (micro1).

Write while the window is still open. The same email the next morning reads as an excuse.

Then expect silence, and do not read it as an answer: reply times are in heard nothing after an AI interview. One polite follow-up a few days later is reasonable; a third is not.

Career1 runs a voice interview of about eight minutes, in English, and the interviewer is instructed never to exceed ten. Two kinds, failing differently.

Practice. Microphone only, no camera, nothing recorded. It is private, never shown to any company, carries no score, and is available once a week.

If the audio drops, the room says the transcript so far is saved and to reload, then resumes the same practice rather than counting a new one. A failed practice costs you nothing, which is the point of rehearsing on an AI mock interview first.

The vetting interview. Camera and microphone, recorded, one attempt per person with no retakes. It allows a handful of reconnections so a drop and a reload do not lose it, then asks you to contact us rather than cutting you off quietly.

That single attempt is why the equipment check matters: run the practice on the laptop and browser you will actually use, and find the dead microphone on the run that does not count.

Either room reports its errors with a code: send the code. It all starts at Career1 for job seekers, and signup takes an email address at talent signup.