Plex disregards MKV track settings

General Discussions
, , ,
1

Hi,

Plex very often ignores the very track settings embedded in my MKV files. It ends up forcing the first audio track (the second has the default bit on). It ends up forcing the first subtitle track (the fourth has the default bit on).

For the audio tracks, I’ve gone so far as to alter the language metadata marker from English to German, and blank out the track name, in case Plex language preference logic may be interfering. Regardless, Plex stubbornly selects the first track, not the first track with the default bit set.

When I test my videos with VLC, then all my track metadata correctly activates. So the problem is specifically Plex.

For audio, this results in English, or other random languages, speaking.

For subtitles, this results in useless sign post translations writing, without any of the dialog.

Anyone who prefers subs to dubs is screwed.

When this happens for an entire TV series, it’s quite onerous to configure Plex to apply the correct tracks for every season, every episode.

2

You can set subtitle preference for an entire show in the advanced options as long as it’s a language selection option (which means it has to be tagged in the file). You don’t have to go episode by episode anymore as long as the tracks are labelled well.

Here’s an example where there is an “honorifics included” subtitle option that was tagged well in the files and I can set this at the show level to apply this subtitle option to every episode:

Screenshot 2026-10-16 at 09.53.03
Screenshot 2026-10-16 at 09.53.031514×1042 150 KB

That will stick across clients and when I come back to it again.

Plex handles forced flags well when your language preferences are set and the files are tagged well, but I think a lot of players struggle with managing language and default flags and I believe the default flag itself is a bit odd in it’s present use too.

Plus trying to accommodate multiple languages gets even more tricky. If you speak English and French and have content in both native languages and want them in the native language you’re kinda stuck because you can’t have 2 defaults (this is true of pretty much every player trying to automatically select language tracks so isn’t strictly a Plex thing). Solutions to this type of situation can be complicated.

MKVToolnix can be really helpful in editing\fixing bad tags. It’s free and there’s a bunch of tutorials out there for these types of quick fixes.

If you can provide a media-info example of something that isn’t working as expected, and detail what you want or expect to happen, that might help find ways to manage it or see how to fix the tags to work the way you want it to work.

3

You might appreciate PASTA.

Is Plex ignoring your user-language selections, or behaving differently than documented? https://support.plex.tv/articles/204985278-account-audio-subtitle-language-settings/

4

Huh. That’s neat!

5

I should have included the blurb:

What is PASTA?

Do you watch TV Shows with multiple languages and subtitles and wish you could change them for the entire show, rather than needing to do it for every. single. episode? Or maybe you aren’t sure what the difference is between those 2 English (SRT) and English (SRT) subtitle files. Then PASTA is for you!
PASTA allows you to connect to your Plex server and view more details about the audio tracks and subtitles, as well as set the tracks and subtitles for entire shows, or single episodes very quickly.

6

Not asking for per-show workarounds.

Not asking for third party workarounds.

The Plex platform should generally respect MKV metadata out of the box.

7

Plex generally has per-user language behavior instead of per-file language behavior.

I can’t tell if you’re reporting that Plex doesn’t work as documented, or if you don’t like the way it behaves.

8

There’s not really a universal rule there honestly. There’s best practices and some of that includes how language preferences work with the default, forced and SDH flags.

My experience - even with anime dubs\subs - is that it does what I expect it to do. If you’re getting the “sign translations” that’s the forced sub kicking in correctly to translate on-screen foreign language because your default language is set to english. That is Plex working as expected based on the language settings and the flags on the file. VLC and Infuse and Emby Kodi and Jellyfin would all do the same thing (generally).

Default flags aren’t specifically “play this track as default”; it works together with the language flags on the tracks. This way you can set a default ENG subtitle track for the conversation subtitles while still having an ENG subtitle track for, say, the director’s commentary that is manually selected but still flagged as English. Or in my example, a regular english subtitles track and a “weeb” english subtitles track. The regular track is set as default and the “weeb” track isn’t. On those same example files, every language subtitle is marked “default” because it’s the default track for that language. So saying Plex should ‘respect’ the default flag - which one is the right one? See what I mean about “default” maybe not meaning what you expected it to mean? MKV files are not blurays - blurays have additional proprietary functionality built into them that a simple MKV file cannot replicate … you’d need an ISO file and emulate a bluray player. These rips are the closest we can get to that same functionality and it’s just not “perfect”. If you watched the same anime on a bluray or dvd you’d have had to pick your language preferences and tracks the same way.

There isn’t a good way to automatically manage this scenario without it being treated as an exception to every other media content language someone would want to watch so it has to have a manual component to it. This is what I meant by it being tricky. You want the japanese language and the english subs - on a file with english dub included - while every other content you watch defaults to english audio with english subs for foreign language parts (to respect the “forced” flag in the MKV - which is another flag that works in combination with the language flags on the track). This is a very common annoyance for anime fans and it’s just one of those things - like watching anime has been forever - that you just kinda have to make the extra effort.
I, for example, sometimes want the dub and sometimes want the sub. If I want the dub, I just make sure the tags are setup right for language and forced tracks (and pull from groups that are reliable for it). There are two solutions I use for when I want the japanese audio and english sub instead. The first is I’ll pull files that don’t have an english dub track - either by picking a group that doesn’t ever include those (like subsplease) or limiting my pulls to the single language release and avoid the dub release (skipping dual\multi-audio releases - often are separate releases for some shows). The second way is I’ll go into that setting for the show in Plex and flip the preferred audio manually to Japanese for that show, when I add it and setup the art and such initially, and then I don’t have to worry about it anymore because it’ll automatically be set as an exception to my default language preference for all episodes - now and added later. AND it lets my other users pick their own sub\dub preference for that show as well.
I guess the 3rd way I have gone is to use MKVToolnix and pull the tracks I don’t want outta the files myself and then it can only play the tracks I do want, but I don’t do that as much anymore now I can just set audio\sub at a show level.

So I still suggest that you provide some media-info examples and what is\isn’t working as expected to see if it’s a file issue, a plex bug, or a feature enhancement that would help get you out.

This isn’t defending Plex, just trying to work with the platform features and functions available.

As far as:

You did say:

So I provided you with a feature function you - and others - might not have been aware of that removes that particular hassle. It wasn’t a workaround.
It used to be SUPER annoying to have to go episode by episode to flip audio\sub settings (particularly from a TV client) but this recent feature change a few years ago was really beneficial - particularly for us anime fans who like subs.

Having multiple language preferences is just tricky to manage well - ask any of the folks using Plex in a non-english speaking country. None of the platforms - not even VLC or MPC - handles it well for everyone’s preferences so there’s always fiddling for those of us doing stuff a little outside the typical use - and anime fansubs have always been outside typical use :).

Edit: Sorry for the wall of text… it’s not a harangue or lecture or anything, just something that I’ve managed\dealt with for decades and just wanted to be complete about it. :slight_smile:

9

Please let me know exactly what you have set for several things.

  • Account language preferences: Click your account profile, click Account Settings. Here, scroll down to Settings and tell me what you have set for Audio & Subtitle Settings > Track Selection. Here is where you specify, on this account only, the behavior for your tracks.

    language
    language1453×773 92.9 KB

  • File track settings and languages. I believe Plex ignores the actual “track title” where you might have additional info about a track, such as “English E-AC3 5.1 Surround”. Instead, tell me what the tracks’ language is set to, as well as if there are any “Forced” or “Default”.

    mkv
    mkv1137×749 52.4 KB

Files that have the proper tracks tagged, and the appropriate language options in your account, will play exactly as you predict in the future.

The Nitty Gritty:
Plex will check your account settings to see what you prefer. In my example above, I prefer English audio and English subtitles. With both of these settings, It should choose the first track IN THAT LANGUAGE that EDIT Plex finds. If your file has multiple language tracks, the proper use according to the MKV specification is to set one of each unique language to default. Plex, however, ignores this, so just re-arrange your similar-language track types to set your “default” that Plex chooses. Note: There is an exception to this for FORCED subtitles. See below. END EDIT

The big difference here is the third setting in my language option, Auto-select subtitle mode. This, I set to “Shown with foreign audio”, which means it will not show ANY subtitle unless the audio track is of a language other than my preferred. Thus, if I watch an anime with Japanese language, it would then show me the first NON-FORCED subtitle in my language. If there is none set to default, it should choose the first NON-FORCED track in my language it finds.

-About the Forced flag-
Notice the “NON-FORCED” bits up above? That is a special case around the “Forced” track tag, which I believe Plex only cares about when it comes to subtitles. “Forced”, in movie-speak, doesn’t mean “Force the player to use this track”. Instead, it is used to designate text that you would usually display on-screen even if you choose to show no subtitles. Think of the elves speaking in the Lord of the Rings movies. Even without subtitles, you ought to be able to understand them, so the movie shows on-screen text for what they are saying. Back in the olden-days, this used to be burnt in to video files, but with digital files that can have multiple language audio tracks, it makes more sense to separate out this subtitle into a separate track, and thus the “Forced” track flag was created.

So, Plex only cares about the “Forced” flag for subtitles, and it only uses this when you are not otherwise showing subtitles (such as in my personal case). If you have no non-forced subtitle to display, or set subtitles to “Foreign-only”, then Plex will look for a “Forced” subtitle track in the same language as the audio track and will use that instead of nothing.

10

Not true.
Plex is disregarding the “default” flag completely. It doesn’t matter the slightest, whether it’s present or not.
The only thing that matters is the “language” tag.
If there is more than one audio track tagged with the same language, the first one “wins”.

11

I didn’t want to say it explicitly in my post, but the default flag is kinda non-functional; almost all players and rip software ignore it. Track order and language setting has always been more functional for default tracks than that default flag - in my experience.

Forced flag is the only one I’ve had to fiddle with to assure proper playback.

12

Huh. Sorry about that. I coulda sworn I’d heard that about the default track. Maybe it was an assumption from what the MKV specification says the default flag is for.

I have since edited my post to correctly specify that - while you should set the flag with default - Plex ignores it, and the way to set “Default” is to rearrange the tracks. It seems I have been doing this automatically myself already. I always rearrange my subtitle tracks to place “Forced” tracks first, followed by any regular subtitles, mostly because I want forced subs over regular, and don’t trust the player to choose “Forced” over regular kinds. I believe in Plex’s case I don’t need to do this, but VLC seems to just pick the first track no matter what, and there doesn’t seem to be a “language” or “forced” preference.

13

I think that’s pretty common for all of us… that flag has always felt weird. :slight_smile:

14

Plex follows the “forced” vs. “not forced” thing pretty well. It’s just the “default” it doesn’t read. You can have the forced track first, or later, just keep in mind Plex will be auto-selecting the first track that meets that specification (so don’t list commentary subs before the correct default track).

Tools → Preferences. Choose Simple settings in the bottom left. Then select the Audio tab. In the preferred language box type in “eng”. Then select the Subtitles tab, and once again type in “eng” into the preferred language box.

VLC started supporting the Forced flag correctly a couple years ago. I just tested this with a fresh install of VLC and a file with the English audio as the second audio track and the English Forced subs as the fourth track. It selected the second audio and fourth subs on its own.

If you were using mpv as the player you would edit your mpv.conf and add this to it:

alang=eng
slang=eng
subs-with-matching-audio=yes
15

I have already disabled both flag-forced and flag-default on all of the audio and subtitle tracks that I am not interested in using.

The current Plex design fails to respect MKV track settings. This is an open, unresolved issue mentioned elsewhere in the forum, I forget the link at the moment.

Unlike subtitles, there doesn’t seem to be an audio equivalent to Auto-select subtitle mode / Shown with foreign audio to express the anime subs notion of preferring foreign audio for foreign language media.

With Automatically select audio and subtitle tracks disabled, Plex often disregards MKV metadata and selects either NO subtitles, or signpost & song subtitles, not sure which.

By the way, WebOS Plex seems to omit the name field of audio and/or subtitle tracks, only the language field. This field is essential for disambiguating the different types of tracks for a lot of animated content (e.g., 2-4 different types and/or formats of English subtitle tracks).

With Automatically select audio and subtitle tracks enabled, Plex often disregards MKV metadata, forcing the first audio track, and the first subtitle track. Where, anime uploaders tend to place useless signpost descriptions. English subtitles are very often the second subtitle track, sometimes the fourth.

It’s been a game of whack-a-mole working around Plex glitches. It’s bad enough that I’ve had to fake metadata for English audio on foreign language media, to stop dubs from automatically activating.

I really don’t want to rewrite all my video files to remove English audio or non-English subtitles. Or burn in hard subs and delete all soft subs. Such are kludges. Either way, I’d have to wait for Plex analysis to slowly plod through the libraries all over again. I like knowing that the original tracks remain in my files, for the sake of my friends who may know other languages.

The default behavior should have been to follow followed by flag-default, followed by language preferences, followed by selecting the first available (audio) track, followed by no audio, followed by superceding with any applicable flag-forced track(s). With a similar, intuitive logic for subtitles. If we need a new, account level configuration section to express these behaviors, so be it.

16

Currently for audio, Plex supports Language Preference (first track that matches your language), followed by first audio track, followed by no audio. Default and Forced are not honored by Plex. Forced makes no sense in this context (it’s used in subtitles), but not honoring “Default” is a surprise. However, just re-arranging your tracks (if multiple in the same language) will fix this.
Currently for auto-select subtitles, Plex supports 2 modes, depending on which you choose (“Shown with Foreign Audio” or “Always Enabled”)

  • Shown with Foreign Audio: If the audio track is not your preferred language, Plex will auto-select the first non-forced track in your language preference. If the audio track IS your preferred language, it will select the first FORCED track in your language preference.
  • Always Enabled: Plex will always select the first non-forced track in your language preference. At this point, I do not know what happens, but I would ASSUME that if there is not a non-forced track in your language, Plex will pick the first forced track in your language, then none at all.

If you pick to NOT have Plex automatically select tracks by language, I assume Plex will simply pick the first audio track, and the first subtitle track, regardless of “default” or “Forced” flags in the file.

In my experience, anime almost always tends to place forced subtitles AFTER regular subtitles, and I re-arrange them to be forced-first in my files.

17

Yes, because Plex doesn’t understand the concept of people preferring a language that is not their native language. If there was an option to support the Original Language (either through metadata or the Original Language flag) that would fix that. Or even just being able to set default language options library-wide.

That’s a feature they have continued to (not) implement but “should” be coming to the New Experience interface app when it lands on LG WebOS.

  1. Flag your tracks correctly for identification. The “default” and “forced” flags are not about user preference, which is what people commonly misunderstand. The flags exist only to identify the track type for the player. Decisions about what get played are decided by the player’s language prefs and the order the tracks are in if there are multiple of a specific language/type.
  2. If you really don’t want to have to change your settings at all for anime, set your account language prefs exactly like this:

image
image390×295 7.01 KB

Remember that if you manually change the settings on an item it will break the link to Plex’s auto-set settings.

Because that’s the correct order. :wink: Japanese audio should be listed over English as Japanese is the original language, and the subtitles would be ordered to follow the audio tracks. Forced Subs would be utilized with the English audio, which is second, so they get listed below the full subs. You don’t need to rearrange them if they are flagged correctly and your language prefs are set for English audio.

18

The default behavior should have been …

This is not the behavior many people want for non-Anime content.

Don’t forget that Plex’s language-preference system predates MKV’s popularity, and other container formats have differing track flagging capabilities.

Did you check if there’s a feature request that matches what you’re describing?