Server Version#: 1.43.0.10492
Player Version#: 2026.1.0, 2026.2.0, 2026.3.0, 2026.4.0 (1613)
Device Info: iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 26.3.1.
Hello, I’ve been having a fairly consistent issue with the Plex iOS player. From my testing (using varying versions on TestFlight), the issue starts on 2026.1.0 (1525). 2026.0.0 (1500) does not exhibit this issue. This issue remains in all subsequent versions, including 2026.4.0 (1613).
Specifically for downloaded videos, subtitles do not always show up. I would have to stop and restart playback (sometimes upwards of 5 times) to get the subtitles to show. This happens regardless of network connection status (offline, remote, local). Most of these files are mkv containers with ASS subtitles. Is anyone else having this issue? If this post is in the wrong location, please let me know, so I can change/repost this information. I have also attached the logs of the Plex Player from the device. I can provide server logs at a later time, but I find it extremely unlikely that the server is the issue.
At around the same time, starting video playback in portrait mode will result in the video playback being landscape, despite the app running in portrait mode (it is being forced to landscape despite the setting being turned off). It would be much appreciated if these issues were looked at.
plex-log-2026-03-12T15_51_11.494Z.zip (389.7 KB)
I can confirm that all the issues in the original post are still present in 2026.4.1 (1631).
2026.5.0 (1635) and 2026.7.0 (1646) also exhibit the same broken behavior. I am more inclined to believe that this issue occurs more frequently when network connectivity is disconnected or limited in speed. If that is the case, then the app is still attempting to perform tasks that could potentially break subtitles on playback.
Edit: This still must be player/download related. Although less frequent, a local, high-speed connection to the server still can result in subtitles not loading for downloaded media.
Thank you for making a post. This is not a new issue with downloads on iOS, subtitles have always been an issue since a major update a few years ago. I made a post about it in 2025.
What steps have you found to work to finally get the subtitles to display? I have found that restarting, toggling subtitles, and toggling burn subtitles, all need to be spammed until something works. Nothing is 100% reliable every time.
New features being prioritized over basic functionality like subtitles, is slowly driving me away from Plex.
Honestly, I haven’t found anything that is 100% reliable, just like you’ve said. There clearly are oversights with the downloads part of the app, especially so on the redesign of the application. I will typically restart playback/app until it works. This can sometimes take over a minute for a specific video to start showing subtitles. The app further inconveniences the user by losing the progress in that specific video (when playback is restarted), forcing me to remember the timestamp I was at to “resume” playback with subtitles.
In addition, with the release of the “new” player within the redesign (which drops the ability to go to the next episode with a skip button), the downloads portion of the app still does not use the “new” player. It’s almost as if the player for the downloads portion of the app is completely disconnected from the typical experience. I also regularly get increased battery drain when using the downloads portion of the app, which I know has been reported before.
Ultimately, one of my primary use cases of Plex has become such a large inconvenience to navigate and use. Like you, I am heavily considering looking at other alternatives.
2026.8.0 (1671) was released today on TestFlight for me. Downloads player seems to have changed (skip buttons are not present, so I assume something was updated), and in my short time of using it, it seems like subtitles and progress saving is working as intended. I will update this post as I use this version more.
My overall impression so far is that the subtitle issue (and timestamps being saved) is resolved with the new player. To clarify, the new player is referring to the “modernized” player UI introduced in 2026.5.0.
I have one major complaint regarding this new player. This would be the chapter selection menu (the menu opened by swiping up on the screen when a video is playing). This menu is unnecessarily obstructive, and soft locks the player unless dismissed. This menu is also too easy to bring up, even with slight movement of touch bringing it up. Most of my media doesn’t have any chapters assigned, so this menu appears as a slightly opaque black layer on the bottom half of the screen.
This issue worsens if viewing media in portrait mode, in which you don’t see the chapter menu overlay at all, leaving the user confused as to why the player is not responding to touch controls. This is because typical media aspect ratios leaves the bottom of the screen black in portrait mode, obscuring the chapter menu overlay. This chapter select menu needs to be dismissible via a single touch rather than swiping down on the screen (seems to be preferring swipes that are closer to the bottom of the screen).
I also do believe that the 30/10 second skip buttons should be present, rather than forcing a double tap gesture on the player. At the very least, subtitles are consistently showing up.
