# Improve Follow reliability Test the score map, the audio input, and the turn settings separately, then rehearse and perform with the right session mode and a manual fallback. > Type: How-to · Status: Beta · Platforms: iPadOS 17+ · Last reviewed: 2026-07-18 A Follow session depends on three things agreeing: the score map, the audio input, and the turn settings. Each can be tested separately, and the tests below run cheapest first — two of them need no microphone at all. A session is ready for a performance when a full rehearsal passes on the same score version, device position, and room you will use later. ## Confirm the preparation 1. Open the score and select `Trainer` (dumbbell icon) in the reader toolbar. 2. Check the three status chips: `SmartScore`, `Takes`, and `Calibrated`. A missing chip is the prerequisite to finish — see [Prepare a score for Follow](/docs/follow/prepare). 3. Confirm that the active score version is the one you will actually play from. Calibrations belong to a layout; a different edition, crop, or page order needs its own check. Conversion mistakes look like tracking mistakes. If notes, measures, or repeats are wrong in the Smart Score itself, use [Fix a conversion](/docs/smart-score/fix-conversion) before touching any Follow setting. ## Rehearse with a replayed take Replaying a calibrated take exercises the whole tracking path — score map, calibration, and page-turn points — without a microphone, so any error it shows is in the preparation, not in your playing or the room. 1. In the reader toolbar, select `Calibrate` (slider icon) to open the Follow settings pane. 2. Under `WHAT PLAYS`, select `Replay a take`. 3. Under `ON-SCREEN`, select `Blue band` so wrong positions are visible. 4. Select `Play` and let the take run. 5. Watch every page boundary, repeat, and jump. Note each place where the band lands wrong or a turn fires early, late, or not at all. If the replay is wrong, fix it in `Trainer` — recalibrate or adjust the score map ([Prepare a score for Follow](/docs/follow/prepare)). Do not compensate for a bad map with the sliders below; that trades one failure for another. ## Isolate audio problems with the keyboard test The settings pane's `KEYBOARD TOOL` section has a second microphone-free test: `Test live tracking with our integrated keyboard` opens an on-screen keyboard, moves the cursor as you play it, and reports `Matched … of … notes`. It runs without a microphone or a server connection. - Poor matching here means a score problem — the notes you play are not the notes the map expects. Go back to the Smart Score. - Good matching here but poor live tracking means an audio problem — continue below. ## Rehearse live on the real setup 1. Place the iPad where the microphone picks up the instrument more strongly than room noise, speakers, or other players. 2. Close other workflows that use audio input or playback, including Recording Studio and take playback. 3. Confirm the network connection: live Follow streams audio to the alignment service. If the connection drops mid-session, the app restarts the session on its own with the same settings, up to two attempts in a row. Tracking pauses during a restart, so expect a short gap before the cursor moves again. Only after both attempts fail does Follow stop and raise its single alert, `Follow can't start`, whose message begins with `Follow stopped:` and names the reported cause; the pill then reads `Retry`. 4. Under `WHAT PLAYS`, select `Follow me live`, then select `Follow`. 5. Play the material most likely to fail: quiet openings, repeats, jumps, long rests, and the end of every page. If the session refuses to start, the same `Follow can't start` alert names the cause — address it instead of retrying. See [Run a live session](/docs/follow/live-session). ## Tune `Turn at` and `Confidence` Both gauges live in the same settings pane. Change one control at a time, then repeat the same passage — a change you cannot retest is a guess. - `Turn at` sets how far into the last system of a page the turn fires, from 50% to 100%; the default is 75%. Earlier turns risk firing before you reach the boundary; later turns risk holding while you play on. This is the same value as the calibrator's `Turn at` slider — changing it in either place changes both. - `Confidence` sets how sure the tracker must be before it acts. Raising it produces fewer wrong moves but more held pages; lowering it produces the opposite. > **Limit** A setting proven on one score, instrument, and room is not proof for another. Retest after changing any of the three. ## Rehearse in `Practice`, perform in `Concert` The `PAGE TURN` section of the settings pane has two session modes: - `Practice` re-anchors freely and shows hints. Use it for every rehearsal pass — it recovers from mistakes and shows you what the tracker is doing. - `Concert` only turns on a clean, confident read. Use it for the performance itself, where a wrong turn costs more than a held page. Run at least one complete pass in `Concert` before relying on it: because it is more conservative, it can hold pages that `Practice` would have turned, and you want to find those places in rehearsal. ## Correct drift without masking a fault - The anchor control (hand-drawn anchor glyph, no text label) corrects the tracker: tap it, then tap the position you are actually playing. Hold it to keep it armed — every following tap re-anchors, and you turn pages with the on-screen arrows. Use this armed mode when a passage needs repeated correction. - The pin control (`mappin.and.ellipse` icon) repositions the marker for a deliberate jump to another passage. Use the pin for a jump, the anchor for a correction. Repeated correction at the same passage is a finding, not a fix: it usually points to the score map, conversion, or calibration. Go back to [the replayed-take test](#rehearse-with-a-replayed-take) and fix the source. > **Important** Keep a manual page-turn path ready in every session. Edge taps, swipes, the reader page controls, and a [Bluetooth page pedal](/docs/accessibility/hands-free) keep working while Follow runs — and they are the only path if the tracker holds, loses position, or stops after a dropped connection exhausts its automatic restarts. If behaviour is still inconsistent after this checklist, work through [Troubleshoot Follow](/docs/troubleshooting/follow), and capture the score version, device model, system version, passage, settings, and exact error state before contacting [Support](/docs/support).