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Just ran into this bug. went to upload Overboard 2018 and added the Forced English Subtitle file which adds the english subtitles when the dialogue is in Spanish. I play the file outside of PLEX using VLC and when selecting this Forced Sub it plays fine, when uploaded it refuses to recognize or play this Sub.
How do you have the movie and subtitle file named? Plex sometimes has trouble if you stray too far from the recommended naming convention.
/Overboard (2018)
Overboard (2018).mkv
Overboard (2018).eng.forced.srt
(adjust file extensions - mkv/mp4, srt/ass/etc - as needed)
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Just so I am understanding you, I can just rename the file extension? The original is a .sub file.
No. It has to be in a supported format (SRT, SSA/ASS, SMI, WebVTT). Plex does not support .sub (I don’t see it listed in the docs).
See Adding Local Subtitles to your Media.
Check out Subtitle Edit, https://www.nikse.dk/, for converting between formats.
Edit: In the Tools menu there is a batch convert option. Might try that first (I’ve used it for other formats, but never tried with .sub).
Edit 2: The Media Preparation Guidelines have the details on naming & organizing media, adding subtitles, etc. The “Adding Local Subtitles…” doc I referenced is part of the guidelines.
One thing not mentioned is that Plex ignores text inside square brackets. So, for example, if you wanted to denote a file as 720p you could name it something like Movie (Year) [720p].mkv.
The “.sub” might be part of the VobSub format (usually DVD) If there’s also a “.idx” file, you could try renaming both. Some, maybe most apps, don’t support vobsub subtitles natively, so they may require transcoding so they are burned in.
There is a subtitle format with just the “sub” extension, but I’ve never actuallyl seen it used anywhere. SubtitleEdit tells me it can can convert those to regular srt files.
Good catch. Don’t believe I’ve seen VOBSUB as an external subtitle, just as part of a MKV container.
Subtitle Edit can definitely convert VOBSUB and PGS (Blu-ray) subtitles to SRT or other text formats.
That’s exactly what was given in a separate .rar file, .sub and .idx files.
where can I get this SubtitleEdit program?
Subtitle Edit, https://www.nikse.dk/
I would try renaming the subtitle files to:
Overboard (2018).eng.forced.idx
Overboard (2018).eng.forced.sub
VobSub subtitles can contain multiple tracks, (a full English, and a forced English for example). Sorry. Not exactly sure what naming should be used if the first doesn’t work. In any event, you need both files (the idx and the sub), one doesn’t work without the other, and they need to be in the same folder as the movie, not in a subfolder named “subs”. 
Thanks, I think you guys have me on the right track. I wondered why the subtitle files were sent in a separate file as this was a blue ray movie.
Thanks for the great help!!!
Ran a quick test. Downloaded a .sub file. Subtitle Edit converted it w/o problem using Tools -> Batch Convert. Drag .sub file into window, select desired output format & options, hit convert. Done.
Also, opened the .sub file in a text editor. It is a text format, not an image format like VOBSUB. So, Subtitle Edit will have no problem with conversion.
That did the trick! Put the movie in a folder with both the .idx and the .sub files and renamed all three exactly the same. After pasting it into PLEX the new subtitle showed up just as an english.forced I selected and test ran the movie, works flawlessly This movie has long sequences of dialogue in Spanish and the “forced” subtitle only displays the sub when the Spanish runs.
Thank you FordGuy61 and leelynds for the super help!
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