# External subtitles not showing

**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667
**Category:** General Discussions
**Tags:** subtitles
**Created:** [April 21, 2019, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667 "2019-04-21T10:12:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/1 "2019-04-21T10:12:42Z")

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I’ve recently added Game of Thrones to my library. I have the files on my laptop with subtitles. However the subtitles are not showing in the Plex Media Player. I have ordered the files as following:

TV Shows

> Game of Thrones  
> Season 01  
> Game of Thrones - s01e01 - Winter is Coming  
> Game of Thrones - s01e01.eng.srt

I have Local Media Assets for TV first and the box is checked for all agents.

Thank you in advance.

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### Author: ![dane22](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dane22/32/4389_2.png) [@dane22](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dane22)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 10:15am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/2 "2019-04-21T10:15:34Z")

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> [@jonass](#):
>
> Game of Thrones - s01e01 - Winter is Coming  
> Game of Thrones - s01e01.eng.srt

Rename srt file as:  
`Game of Thrones - s01e01 - Winter is Coming.eng.srt`

Then do the [Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/t/the-plex-dance/197064)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 10:36am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/3 "2019-04-21T10:36:55Z")

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Thank you for your quick response, however it did not work. I have renamed the files and did the plex dance but still nothing.

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/4 "2019-04-21T10:59:07Z")

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Check the file name of the subtitle again. It must be absolutely identical to the file name of the video file. Up to the upper- and lower-case spelling.

Also, if you are using Windows, you won’t see the file name extensions. So if the file name of the video looks to you like  
`Game of Thrones - s01e01 - Winter is Coming` (notice the absence of `.mkv` or `.mp4` at the end)  
then the subtitle should look like  
`Game of Thrones - s01e01 - Winter is Coming.eng` because the real file name extension of `.srt` will be hidden by Windows. Unless you slowly click 2 times onto the file name, which activates the renaming mode.

Btw. the position of the local media assets agent doesn’t matter, as long as it’s activated at all.

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### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:09am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/5 "2019-04-21T11:09:48Z")

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![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/a/b/ab9b85c1119c792435b0a4b11f5bacdd4dec3454.png)  
This is what my files look like. I removed the .srt extension from the first file (look at the image), but now the file type has changed to “eng” which is nothing.

Also now Plex Media Player does not recognize the serie and does not provide any banners, posters or information after I tried fixing it the first time.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dane22](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dane22/32/4389_2.png) [@dane22](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dane22)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/6 "2019-04-21T11:13:58Z")

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Switch Explore to show file ext.

Then match srt file to the mkv file, and the only difference in their name must be the ext.

[https://www.howtohaven.com/system/show-file-extensions-in-windows-explorer.shtml](https://www.howtohaven.com/system/show-file-extensions-in-windows-explorer.shtml)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/7 "2019-04-21T11:16:01Z")

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Ok, this means that .srt is not a “known” file name extension to Windows.  
Change the file name of the subtitle back.

Normally, you should not need to perform a Plex Dance for Plex to recognize the subtitles.  
‘Analyze’ and ‘Refresh Metadata’ should be enough.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/8 "2019-04-21T11:16:36Z")

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![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/f/a/fac287cf8097fb06997fbcf1179c5b5c162296f0.png) this is what it looks like now

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/9 "2019-04-21T11:18:58Z")

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It worked! Thank you :). My last question is how do I get plex to recognize the series and provide the posters etc.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/10 "2019-04-21T11:19:54Z")

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You are using a lower-case `c` in “coming” in the subtitle file, but an upper-case `C` in the file name of the video.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 11:23am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/11 "2019-04-21T11:23:38Z")

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Wait a few minutes. This should work automatically.  
The files have perfect naming, I see no reason why it shouldn’t work.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/12 "2019-04-21T15:56:16Z")

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I’ve waited a couple hours but it still doesn’t work. It also doesn’t show the episode names. On some it just says “episode X” for example and on other it says “2019-04-20”.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/13 "2019-04-21T17:49:01Z")

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Please post the content of the [Plex XML info](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201998867-Investigate-Media-Information-and-Formats "Plex XML info") of such an episode.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/14 "2019-04-21T18:05:44Z")

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```auto
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="3" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="21f36134-8697-430c-95af-c7a612c62f73"mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1554328016">
  <Video ratingKey="405" key="/library/metadata/405" parentRatingKey="404" grandparentRatingKey="403" guid="com.plexapp.agents.none://403/1/1?lang=xn" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="3"librarySectionKey="/library/sections/3" type="episode" title="2019-04-20" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/403" parentKey="/library/metadata/404" grandparentTitle="Game of Thrones" parentTitle="Seizoen 1"summary="" index="1" parentIndex="1" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1555843153" year="2019" thumb="/library/metadata/405/thumb/1555869587" duration="3697075" originallyAvailableAt="2019-04-20" addedAt="1555842736"updatedAt="1555869587" createdAtAccuracy="epoch" createdAtTZOffset="7200">
    <Media id="371" duration="3697075" bitrate="1806" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p"audioProfile="lc" videoProfile="high">
      <Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="391" key="/library/parts/391/1555761709/file.mkv" duration="3697075" file="D:\TV Shows\Game of Thrones\Season 01\Game of Thrones - s01e01 - Winter is Coming.mkv"size="834834452" audioProfile="lc" container="mkv" videoProfile="high">
        <Stream id="829" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="1806" language="English" languageCode="eng" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="bt709"colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="41" profile="high" refFrames="4" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)"/>
        <Stream id="830" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="6" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1" profile="lc" samplingRate="48000"displayTitle="English (AAC 5.1)"/>
        <Stream id="831" key="/library/streams/831" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="srt" language="English" languageCode="eng" format="srt" displayTitle="English (SRT Extern)"/>
      </Part>
    </Media>
    <Extras size="0"> </Extras>
  </Video>
</MediaContainer>

```

This is the XML info of the very first episode which appears as “2019-04-20”

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/15 "2019-04-21T18:11:19Z")

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This show is ‘unmatched’. If it is not matched, it won’t download any metadata. Simply because it doesn’t know _which_ metadata to load.

[Edit your library](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200289266-editing-libraries/ "Edit your library"),  
go to the ‘Advanced’ tab  
check what is selected as ‘Agent’  
(it should be TheTVDB by default)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jonass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jonass](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jonass)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/16 "2019-04-21T18:13:55Z")

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It is already set as “TheTVDB”. All of the boxes are checked.

Edit: It is fixed. I used the “match” option and then selected “Game of Thrones”. It then updated and all of the banners, posters, episode names etc. are here. Thank you for helping!

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/external-subtitles-not-showing/402667/17 "2019-07-20T18:14:00Z")

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