I am looking for a subtitles setting where only forced subtitles are auto selected (in the corresponding language if possible).
In my library there are only mkv files with embedded subtitles, correct language is set and forced subtitles flag is set correctly.
As I can see, there are no possible settings bringing me to my desired behavior. I mean, is it that uncommon that someone just wants to see forced subs that match the audio lang if possible? That is actually the standard intended behavior of forced subs?!
So I have selected auto select subtitle mode âalways enableâ and âonly show forced subtitlesâ.
Testing with a movie having 4 subtitles: english, german, english forced, german forced; its selecting english forced when I choose audio lang german and when I switch to audio lang english it selects subtitle english. Just english, although I have set âonly show forced subtitlesâ.
So I dont know if I am again just too stupid to get the point of plex settings layout, if it is just totally unintuitive or just not working. I just want it to selected a forced subtitle or none.
By the way, I am not sure if I have already bypassed the auto select bahavior by touching the subtitle setting of the movie directly and I am wondering how that could be reset.
canât help with the basic problem, but I do know that once you have manually selected a subtitle or audio track, that Plex will remember that selection forever and a day and use it for all devices.
There is no way to reset it to the default⊠So once you have manually selected anything, you are stuck with that choice (or forced to make another manual selection) no matter what your settings are for audio or subtitles.
I made a feature request a couple of years ago here:
for that problem, but it isnât too high on the list of priorities for many people.
The Plex Dance will do that.
But of course it is often not desirable to make the item appear as ânewly addedâ in the Plex library.
The auto-selection of forced subtitles in Plex is working very reliably in the basic situation, where a user only understands one language.
Example:
You have a MKV file with audio tracks in English and German
You also have Full subtitle tracks in English and German and Forced subtitle tracks in English and German.
I am assuming that all the tracks are properly tagged with language and âforcedâ tags. (writing the words âenglishâ and/or âforcedâ into the track title is not proper tagging!)
I canât imagine a scenario where I would want to have any movie or TV show classified as âNewly Addedâ just because I chose to listen to the âDirectorâs Commentsâ audio one time, or use subtitles for some reason when I generally donât. The Plex dance would be a work-around, not a solution in my opinion. But thatâs a discussion for another thread.
Auto selection of subs works fine (occasionally) for me because, as Otto eludes to, I am the guy Plex designed this for.
I speak English (and Redneck English), all my material is tagged properly, so Plex knows if the audio language isnât English Iâm gonna need some subs and if the audio language is English Iâm gonna need those Forced subs.
I always have just one audio track and never more than two sub tracks (or files) - both English.
Iâm watching a whole lot of material with subs these days. If my media falls outside the parameters of the design (like the creator of this thread - or any of the thousands wondering the same thing he is) - I have to select them every time - unless:
I turn subs on always, and Iâm trying that 'cause itâs becoming less likely Iâd turn them off and more likely Iâd turn them on (and if theyâre on I can turn them off in 3 clicks on my Roku - try that on a FireTV). I assume in this case Forced subs will still be selected first (they are). If this does work for me (it does) - itâs still going to be lacking for the folks in this thread hunting the âwork-aroundâ.
My tags are set correctly. Just writing forced into the title would not even be visible in Plex since the title is not displayed anywhere. Whats actually another annoying thing since I can not even select commented versions properly. But ok, another topic.
Lets talk about your options. Why should forced subs actually be selected then? You setup âShown with foreign languageâ. That means it should only show subtitles at all if a foreign language is selected, right? But as you described, German is not an foreign language, so no subtitle should be selected then. Not even the forced one.
Funny thing. For me it is actually not working at all. I have created a new managed testUser. Selected the options as given in your post. Going to a movie having audio, subs and forced subs all english and german. Player selects English and English Forced subs now. English. But I selected german. Ok I dont know why it is not even selecting the correct language at all anymore. But nevertheless, why is it selecting forced subs now? The behavior is totally different from what you have setup.
EDIT:
Ok language seems to be a problem of Managed Users. Next weird behavior here. -.-
Using the primary user I changed my settings according to yours @OttoKerner. And yes, going to the movie it selects German and german forced subtitles. But what happens if I change the language to English? It selects german full subs. But that is not me desired behavior. I want it to select english forced subs then. So sorry but you are simply wrong. It is just not working properly. If I setup no subtitle, not even forced, unless it is a foreign language. It should actually do exactly that.
EDIT2: Sorry for being a bit upset. No offence. Just annoyed.
If the audio language is German and identified as such, but there are bits of Russian Dialog - âForcedâ subs contain those Russian lines only (in German, of course) and are selected to display automatically. Thatâs where Forced subs begin and end.
You canât make this work-around with multiple audio and sub tracks of different languages - and apparently neither can Plex.
No, that is only one part of desired behavior. The full element descriptions is:
âForced displayâ flag
Type: Boolean
Description: Set if that track MUST be used during playback. There can be many forced track for a kind (audio, video or subs). The player should select the one whose language matches the user preference or the default + forced track.
So the standards default forced flag behavior is exaclty what I am looking for and there is simply no way to let Plex do this. Regardless of the unclear designation of the settings Plex offers.
Edit: What do U mean by selecting English and German at the same time? I just want to setup Plex to only select forced subs according to the selected Language. If I watch a movie in english, I want the english forced subs to be selected per default. And if I watch in German, the german forced subs should be selected per default. That is exactly the basic idea of forced subs at all.
Itâs the same discussion that has been happening for years. Itâs either harder to fix than it seems to mere peasants, or the desire hasnât manifested itself in all these years.
It is definetely not hard. The problem is the philosophy of throwing new features over new features while giving a â â â â about caring for reliable basic ones. That is so annoyingâŠ
When you get Plex to fix this âlittle thingâ for us, you can come to work for me getting them to fix Local Media Assets in the top slot - with the most priority - for Shows and Movies, and that little annoyance of having to Plex Dance anything youâd like to Refresh Metadata on.
Maybe weâve been going about this all wrong⊠for the last 2000 YearsâŠlol
Epilogue:
I think for âMostâ people the feature works as designed and Plex doesnât really think it needs a re-design - or itâs harder than it seems.
As an engineer with software development experience (In other fields, but ok) I know there are cases where changing features can be a mess. But what I mean by âit is definetely not hardâ is that programming a basic functionality where a forced sub is primarily selected according to the current language, is not hard. If you offer fancy auto selection features while the basic behavior is simply not working correctly, things getting hard to manage, yeah. And whatâs more, the settings themselves are not even clear. But what you see is Plex getting more and more features on top of not fully working ones. In some aspects Plex is great, but in others things are really deteriorating.
Have to agree. They work perfectly for me, until one of bilingual grandkids or daughter-in-law watches something at my house, and chooses some combination of audio and/or subtitle that strays from default. And that forces a manual selection in Plex from that point forward, without doing the âPlex Danceâ work-around
Dunno about the server setting⊠I just assumed it was a the quick and easy version for the settings you get to when you go to âAccountâ in Plex web.
Did some further testing. Selected German, German, on foreign language and prefer forced subtitles.
What it selects? Language German, English forced subtitle (there is also german forced available)
When I switch language to english, it selects english full subtitle.
Guess you are right. Feature is working very well. lol.
So sorry but you are simply wrong. It is just not working properly. If I setup no subtitle, not even forced, unless it is a foreign language. It should actually do exactly that.
