When the Source Video Changes: Keeping Every Translation in Step

Why translated videos go out of date silently

Text pages announce their age: someone notices a wrong price on the German pricing page and reports it. Videos do not. A narrated sentence about an old feature in a Japanese dub can stay live for a year because nobody on the core team watches the Japanese version, and viewers who notice rarely report it.

So the update process cannot depend on someone spotting the error. It has to start from the source: every time the original video is edited, the translations are presumed out of date until checked. This article covers that process for any video. Product demos that change with every software release have their own rhythm, covered in localizing product demo videos.

Keep a change log for every source edit

The decision about each language depends on knowing precisely what changed. A useful change log entry records:

• The video's stable ID and the new source version number or date.
• Each change with its start and end timestamps in the new source, for example "2:10 to 2:45: new pricing sentence".
• The type of change: wording only, new section, removed section, new on-screen content, or audio fix with no wording change.
• Whether the change affects facts that carry risk: prices, dates, safety steps, legal statements.
• Which language versions exist and their current status.

Timestamps matter more than descriptions. A reviewer for each language can jump straight to the right place in the translated version, and whoever produces the update knows how much material is involved.

Change type

Usual effect on translations

Wording change in narration

Translated voice and subtitles are wrong for that section

Section added or removed

Timing shifts for everything after it

On-screen change only

Voice and subtitles may still be right; check references to the screen

Audio clean-up, same words

Translations are still accurate; re-run only if you want the cleaner source

Risky fact changed

Every language is wrong in a way that matters; act immediately

Three options: re-run, patch or withdraw

For each language, choose one of three responses.

Re-run means producing the whole translated version again from the new source. It gives a clean, consistent result with correct timing throughout, and with automated tools the processing cost of a short video is small. Its cost is review: the reviewer must check the whole video again, or at least compare the new transcript with the old one.

Patching means producing a translation of only the changed section and splicing it into the existing translated video, subtitle file or transcript. It saves review time on long videos, but it needs editing skill, and the join must be checked carefully for timing, voice and volume consistency.

Withdrawing means removing the translated version, or replacing it with the source-language video and subtitles, until a corrected version is ready. It is the right choice when the outdated version is harmful, when the language is low priority, or when no reviewer is available soon.

How to choose between them

A few questions settle most cases:

1. Is anything in the old version now wrong in a risky way? If yes, withdraw immediately, then decide how to replace it.
2. How long is the video? Under about ten minutes, re-running is usually simpler than patching, because reviewing a short video in full is quick.
3. How much changed? A single sentence in a 40-minute webinar is a good patch candidate; changes scattered across the video are not.
4. Did timing shift? If a section was added or removed, every subtitle cue after it moves. Patching then means re-timing the rest of the file, and a re-run is often cleaner.
5. How much is the language version worth? Low-traffic versions may be better withdrawn and redirected than maintained.

Patching subtitles, transcripts and dubbed audio

Each output type patches differently.

Subtitles are the easiest. Translate the changed section, then edit the existing SRT or VTT file: replace the affected cues, renumber them, and shift the timestamps of later cues if the section length changed. A clip translated on its own will have timestamps starting at zero, so add the clip's start time to every cue before pasting them in. The basics of doing this by hand are in how to edit an SRT file.

Transcripts are straightforward too, as long as you keep the timestamp labels consistent with the new source.

Dubbed audio is the hardest. A patched section must use the same voice as the rest of the track, start and end at natural pauses, and match the surrounding volume and room tone. Cut at a pause between sentences, not mid-sentence, and listen to each join on headphones. If the voice sounds noticeably different in pace or level across the join, a full re-run will usually sound better than more editing. The article on editing dubbed audio in a video editor covers the practical steps.

Keep every language version aligned

The usual failure is not one bad update but versions drifting apart: English is on version 4, German on version 3 and Japanese on version 2, each with different content.

Rules that keep them in step:

• Update all active languages in the same cycle, even if some are withdrawn temporarily.
• Record the source version number on every translated file and on the page where it is published.
• Never edit a translation to fix something without checking whether the source has the same problem.
• When a section is cut from the source, cut it from every language, even if the translation was good.
• Re-check subtitles and transcripts alongside the dubbed audio, because they are easy to forget once the video itself is fixed.

Telling viewers what changed

Viewers who watched an earlier version, or who see different content in two languages, deserve a short explanation. Options include:

• A "last updated" date and source version in the video description or on the page, in each language.
• A one-line note in the description when a significant correction was made, such as a corrected price or a changed safety step.
• A pinned comment on platforms that allow it, translated into the language of that version.
• For withdrawn versions, a note on the page saying the translated video is being updated, with a link to the current source-language version and its subtitles.

Avoid silently replacing a video when the change matters to people who already acted on the old one. For training and safety content, notify the people who completed it.

Mistakes and risks when updating

• Fixing the source and assuming translations will be updated "next time", which in practice means never.
• Patching dubbed audio mid-sentence, so the join is obvious.
• Forgetting that a removed section shifts every later subtitle timestamp.
• Re-running a video with a different voice from the original translation, so a series no longer sounds consistent.
• Leaving withdrawn versions linked from playlists, emails or help articles.
• Updating the video but not the translated title, description or transcript on the page.

Updating translations with mydubly

mydubly works from files on your device, so an update starts with the corrected source file or a clip cut from it. It has no SRT or VTT import, so you cannot upload an edited subtitle file and have it re-voiced; the dub is always generated from the audio you upload. It also does not keep earlier jobs: results are deleted within 30 minutes of a job finishing, so save the files you need and keep your own version record.

Re-running is cheap in processing terms. Dubbing a 12-minute video costs 600 credits (60¢) per language, so three languages cost 1,800 credits ($1.80). Patching a clip has minimums to remember: a dub is billed for at least two minutes, so a 90-second clip costs 100 credits (10¢) per language, and a transcript or subtitle job costs at least 5 credits (0.5¢). Choose the same stock voice you used originally to keep a series consistent; the voice is chosen per job and applies to the whole clip. A dubbed result keeps the music under the source, lowered while the new voice speaks, so check that the music level matches on both sides of each join. The video translator page shows the dubbing options, and the video localization page covers the wider workflow.

Next step: build the habit into editing

Add one line to your video editing checklist: "Log changes with timestamps and mark all translations as needing update." Then go through your translated library once and record the source version each translation was made from. That single column turns future updates from detective work into a filter. For the subtitle side of updates, the guide to adding subtitles to a video is a useful refresher on attaching the corrected file.