I’ve added some additional info on my post as well for people using Plex in a docker setup as well, mainly what folders you need to mount into the container.
For the lazy, you’ll want to add these volumes to your docker container:
- /usr/share/fonts:/usr/share/fonts:ro
- /usr/share/fontconfig:/usr/share/fontconfig:ro
- /var/cache/fontconfig:/var/cache/fontconfig:ro
- /etc/fonts:/etc/fonts:ro
This workaround also works for me for now. Thanks!
This didn’t fix the issue for me on Fedora 38; if I’m having the same issue I assume I’m probably missing whatever fonts it is looking for on my host packages.
That’ll probably be the case.
Easy way to check if you have the font locally is to run fc-list and grep the output for the font name that’s in the ASS file’s subtitle style that isn’t displaying correctly.
Example might be:
fc-list | grep Arial
And to double check, using -v option will display the full pattern match for the fonts:
fc-list -v | grep Arial
Hi! is there news on when this will be fixed on a new release?
I’m having the exact same issue (PMS docker on an unraid install, so i don’t have the fonts folders to pass through to the docker image).
I can’t see the subtitles properly on the webplayer nor the WebOS players. (english is not my main language, so 98% of my media has subtitles and since handbrake automatically converts to .ass formats, this affects almost all my media).
Hey @chrisallen Has there been any update regrading this bug getting looked at? I still have my docker container pinned @ 1.31.3.6868 to prevent this from happening. There should be plenty of information/reproductions/logs in this thread, but if you need anything else for it to get looked into I can get it for you. Thanks!
I am also running into this issue with Plex on Synology NAS. It’s tedious to always have to set “burn in” to “never”, its yet another thing I need to enable when I watch a new episode (along with changing subtitle/audio track). On some Plex players, like PS4, I can’t even adjust this setting so anything with subtitles is completely unwatchable.
Watching Anime on Plex is such a poor user experience. I wish I could just apply settings to an entire season/show (disable burn in, change audio track, enable subtitle track). But it’s just constant clicking through menus for every dang episode.
Same issue here for me.
Plex Web 4.109.2
Plex server 1.32.3.7192
Server runs on a Debian Linux box with official .deb packages (no docker, please) and MS fonts are also installed via apt.
If I set the subtitles options on Auto or Always in the web player settings, there are some videos with ASS subtitles that show in a kind of Courier without space and very, very tiny punctuation.
If I set the option to Only image formats, the problem looks fixed.
(The Plex app on Windows and the app on my Android TV don’t show this issue.)
for those running the server in a container, you can mount the host’s /usr/share/fonts (or whatever font dir you want) as a subfolder of /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Fonts without having to modify or override the built-in fonts.conf since this dir is already configured in the file. if you need more advanced font configuration though, Sn0wCrack’s method is the way to go
Update:
Plex Server 1.32.5.7210 (docker inside unraid)
Plex Web 4.108.0 (notebooks accesing plex trough chrome via IP address).
Plex for LG 4.29.9 (LG 49UF6400-SA, bedroom TV).
Setting the burn subtitles to “only image formats” only fixes the problem while using Plex Web, on Plex for LG the issue persists.
Adding the path’s according to Sn0wCrack’s method did nothing for me:
It’s really bothering me that no Plex staff is even starting to look at this issue that several Plex Pass members are reporting while my only temporarily solution is to use Jellyfin for any content that has .ASS subtitles.
Further Update:
Following @bsdf suggestions, by adding each of the 4 folders suggested by @Sn0wCrack on it’s own subfolder inside of the Resources/Fonts folder worked for me:
Tested on:
Plex for LG 4.29.9 (LG 49UF6400-SA, bedroom TV)
Plex for LG 5.63.0 (webOS 4.4.0) (LG OLED55B8SSC, livingroom TV)
It’s really bothering me that no Plex staff is even starting to look at this issue that several Plex Pass members are reporting while my only temporarily solution is to use Jellyfin for any content that has .ASS subtitles.
Several Plex Pass members have reported it here, but don’t forget all the others that may not have seen this post and posted their own, only to have it closed and them redirected here.
I don’t use a docker and I don’t know how to do all those code tricks people mentioned. Most of what I watch uses ASS subs, so thanks for the reminder about Jellyfin. This has been a nuisance for months, and it doesn’t seem like it is getting fixed any time soon.
Over on the thread I had started I was told this was going to be marked as a Priority 1, but after some initial back and forth it hasn’t seemingly progressed (unless it has, there is literally no way of me knowing)
I’d say one truly annoying thing with Plex has been the less than stellar bug reporting experience we have as (paying in my and many other’s case) users.
Unlike the majority of open source projects, or heck even a lot of closed source projects, there’s no real streamlined way to report bugs with Plex, other than posting to the forum and praying for some kind of response.
Obviously in my thread there’s some fault of my own for not looking up the bug reporting guidelines, getting my debug logs, checking last working version, how to submit a proper sample in the delay of getting things done.
But I would be remiss not to say that it would make life easier if that information was presented to me up front rather than having to play this game of back and forth to figure out out what I needed to provide in the first place.
This has been the second bug I’ve been involved in a bug report with on the forums and both, the first one never received any staff intervention and this one has been annoying to say the least of it.
It just seems absolutely ridiculous to me how this still isn’t fixed after over three months at this point…
Plex Server Version: 1.32.5.7210
Plex for LG Version 5.63.0
Yeah this is quite annoying that this is not fixed yet. Especially when you consider that Anime (something that a lot of people use Plex for) is mostly .ASS subs.
Currently still pinned @ 1.31.3.6868 to keep this from happening, but it kills me doing so as someone who works in infosec.
I also still have the issue, but I wanted to give an update.
Bottom line, I trust Plex to prioritize making the product as good for as many people as possible, and appreciate any time that they may have already invested in this issue, and am grateful in advance for the fix when it arrives.
Keep up the great work, Plex staff.
Recently noticed this happening for me. Setting to subtitle option on web player to Only image formats fixed the issue. But Auto should not break .ass subtitles. Please fix soon.
Plex server version: 1.32.4.7195
Plex web player: 4.110.1
Wanted to say I’m having the same issue, but was able to “bandaid” fix it with the copying of /etc/fonts/fonts.conf to /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Fonts/fonts.conf.
OS Version: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS
Plex Server: 1.32.4.7195
I do hope this will get a fix soon, just encountered this problem. It’s fairly annoying to not be able to watch a show that I was able to watch perfectly fine last year (burn in fix causes other problems for this particular one, so can’t use that).
I tried the subtitle volume mount fixes and none of them seemed to work for me. The burn in setting to image only works, but looks terrible on some shows.
I downgraded to this container: binhex/arch-plexpass:1.31.3.6868-1-01 and everything is working again.
I will probably just keep myself on that version until I see that there is a fix here.
