When the recording won't start

Two different things can stop a recording before it begins, and Ruxpin says which one it is. One is a permission you can change. The other is usually over in a second.

"Microphone is off"

Ruxpin has never been allowed to use the microphone, or the permission was turned off later. Nothing you do on the capture screen will start a recording until that changes.

Open Settings on that screen takes you straight to Ruxpin's own settings page, where Microphone is a switch. Turn it on, come back, and record as usual. If you turned Ruxpin down the first time it asked, iOS will not ask again, so this is the only way back.

"That did not start"

The microphone is allowed and something else on your phone had it: a call, Siri, a podcast, a voice memo in another app. Ruxpin quietly tries a second time before it says anything, so if you are seeing this message the first retry did not help either.

Try again is the whole fix, and it usually works right away. If it keeps happening, end the call or close the other app that is using audio, then try once more.

Either way, the thought still lands

Write it instead is on both screens. It opens the same capture in Write mode, and a written thought is filed, analyzed and searchable exactly like a spoken one. If you already recorded the thought somewhere else, Upload on the capture screen brings that file in.