How to Fix Out-of-Sync Lyrics in 5 Minutes

Why lyrics drift in the first place

Two causes account for nearly all drift. The first is a wrong offset: every line is off by the same amount because the file's timing was built for a slightly different version of the song. The second is variable-bitrate (VBR) audio, where the file's internal clock drifts relative to real time, so lyrics start correct and slip further out of sync as the song goes on.

Fix 1: nudge the offending lines

If only a line or two is off, don't touch the rest. Select the line and shift it in 50 ms steps until it lands. In Lyricron, [ and ] shift the active line earlier or later, and Ctrl/⌘ + [ / ] do the same for whichever line is highlighted.

Fix 2: shift-all for consistent drift

If every line is early or late by the same amount, you have an offset problem, not a line problem. Move all timestamps together in one step (Lyricron's shift-all), and the whole file snaps back into place. This is the manual equivalent of the [offset:] metadata tag, which does the same shift inside the file itself.

Fix 3: bulk retiming for a section

When a whole verse or chorus is off but the rest is fine, select that run of lines and act on them together. Shift the block, or realign it to the playhead: put the playhead where the first line of the block should start and snap the selection to it. See the bulk-actions section of the guide for the full workflow.

Fix 4: the [offset:] tag

If you want the correction to live in the file rather than in your session, add an [offset:] line near the top. A positive value shifts lyrics earlier, a negative value shifts them later. Just remember it moves everything uniformly, so it's only correct for consistent drift, not VBR drift.

For a step-by-step on the retiming tools themselves, see how to sync lyrics to a song.