Plex doesn't choose subtitles itself anymore

[Mavi222]

I have my Plex set to Czech UI, I have the Audio set to prefer English, and I have my subtitles set to Shown with foreign audio. And my preferred subtitle language is set to Czech.

Right now it just plays the preferred language audio (English), without any subtitles.

I want to have English audio with Czech subtitles automatically selected. Right now I need to select the subtitles manually before every episode that I play.

(Sorry if this text doesn’t make sense, I am typing it on my mobile phone)

[OttoKerner]

@Mavi222

I have my subtitles set to Shown with foreign audio.

That’s where it fails. You cannot have forced subtitles auto-selected, if the language of these subtitles is different from the audio language.

[Mavi222]

But the subtitles aren’t forced, they are full subtitles that you use when the movie/tv series is in different language than your native one. Even in the MKV itself it is set as not forced.

I want to watch the movies in their original language with full subtitles on. There is no other option that would choose my preferred audio to English and my preferred subtitle language to Czech.

Before some update (read at the start of the thread) that option would set the languages just how I wanted to, but after the update it just doesn’t do it anymore.

[OttoKerner]

The only alternative is to set them to ‘Always enabled’, instead of ‘Shown with foreign audio’.

[Mavi222]

But that makes movies with Czech audio to have subtitles activated. So I would still need to manually fiddle with the subtitles before watching some of the movies.

And I can’t have the subtitles set to always enabled because then the Live TV shows the subtitles, which makes nearly all of the TV channels crashing (I have a thread about that on the forum, too)

[Mavi222]

So there isn’t a way to have automatically selected English audio and Czech subtitles? This is my only issue with Plex that I have.

[OttoKerner]

Unfortunately not.
(It’d require a more complex way to set language preferences, when it comes to more than one preferred language.)

[FIDO]

i have similar issue but not the exact one

for me audio tracks and subtitles are not automatically selected as i made in account/user settings

so any user other than Admin “main” it wont work

PREFERRED AUDIO LANGUAGE don’t work
simply it is selecting the first one all the time , and for subtitles it works like 50%

what is weird it works perfectly for main account but not for the other users , am playing with it for a while to figure out the reason behind this bug cant find it

[OttoKerner]

Sorry for asking, but you are aware that you have to set these preferences for each user account separately?

[FIDO]

ofc I did , that is a bug it is very old one , and trick around is to change other settings in the user that will force it to save the settings on the system , which then will take the update of the subtitles

and your question means u didn’t read this line :

@FIDO

so any user other than Admin “main” it won’t work

PREFERRED AUDIO LANGUAGE don’t work

choice of that user

[Geal-Roggeman]

I have the same problem. I have activated my OpenSubtitles agent and logged in with my credentials and choose my preferred language. After this I have installed my preferred language into the Plex application and I have enabled subtitle mode “Always enabled” but my subtitles won’t choose itself anymore. Any ideas on this?

[MichaelYo]

@foxfire_pt

I can confirm this, but i can not say when this problem started.
For me, the server owner, the subtitle is selected correctly.
But it doesn’t work for people i share my library with. They have to select the subtitle for each video the play. We tried several configuations in the web profile and the plex client without any sucess, subtitles are no longer loaded under no condition.
One more note if they select a subtitle and return to the same video the sected subtitle remains active.

I got the exact same problem with Hebrew subs.
For me (owner) they show up automatically, but for other users on my Plex server they don’t.
Same for audio language preference.

[JuiceWSA]

@MichaelYo

For me (owner) they show up automatically, but for other users on my Plex server they don’t.

Subs/Languages are ‘Account’ settings, unique for each Account.
Your Server Settings mean Jack and Squat to another Account Holder. They must make the same settings you did in their Account Settings.

[MichaelYo]

@JuiceWSA

Subs/Languages are ‘Account’ settings, unique for each Account.
Your Server Settings mean Jack and Squat to another Account Holder. They must make the same settings you did in their Account Settings.

To my understanding , the server setting should set the default language for other users too.
otherwise, what’s the use of it?

Anyway, I did also set the subtitle settings (under account settings) for some of my users after seeing the server setting doesn’t work, it still didn’t work (and yes, I did make sure that the checkbox is checked and that the configuration is correct).

[JuiceWSA]

@MichaelYo

Anyway, I did also set the subtitle settings (under account settings) for some of my users after seeing the server setting doesn’t work, it still didn’t work (and yes, I did make sure that the checkbox is checked and that the configuration is correct).

You can’t make those settings for your users (I’m pretty sure) - they have to make them in their Accounts at Plex.tv.

The reason is simple - here’s an example:
I have a friend or two around the world. One of them lives in The Outback (the orange desert on a world map). Most of the stuff we’re watching is made by other Roo Eaters, so he may want the subs off, while I can’t understand anybody except the Aboriginal People, so I want 'em on. Go Figure.

[MichaelYo]

@JuiceWSA

You can’t make those settings for your users (I’m pretty sure) - they have to make them in their Accounts at Plex.tv.

I meant that I changed these settings on their computers while logged in to their account, not mine.
They still get no subtitles by default while I do (I’m the owner), even though I’ve set their settings to the exact same settings I have.

@JuiceWSA

The reason is simple - here’s an example:
I have a friend or two around the world. One of them lives in The Outback (the orange desert on a world map). Most of the stuff we’re watching is made by other Roo Eaters, so he may want the subs off, while I can’t understand anybody except the Aboriginal People, so I want 'em on. Go Figure.

I get that people want different subs, but if the server setting doesn’t set a default one for users and it’s a 100% user setting, then what do the server subtitles preference settings do? nothing?

[JuiceWSA]

@MichaelYo

I meant that I changed these settings on their computers while logged in to their account, not mine.

That is odd.
Try an item that you KNOW has never been fiddled with - subs turned on or off in the player at ANY time - as Plex will remember these settings. Fortunately/Unfortunately. Also if there are any ‘unique’ player settings that might sweep far and wide (don’t know what those might be) - check for those, if any.

@MichaelYo

I get that people want different subs, but if the server setting doesn’t set a default one for users and it’s a 100% user setting, then what do the server subtitles preference settings do? nothing?

I guess that is a little confusing (read: a lot). Those server settings you access in your Plexweb are your account settings and effect no-one else. I recently found out myself when I had the same questions you have. <—it does make more sense now… a little.

[MichaelYo]

@JuiceWSA

That is odd.
Try an item that you KNOW has never been fiddled with - subs turned on or off in the player at ANY time - as Plex will remember these settings. Fortunately/Unfortunately.

I did try adding content after changing the setting (I also added a lot since then anyway, it’s been a few weeks since I tried fixing this problem), still picks no subtitles.

Same problem occurs for dubbed animated movies I have for kids, it picks English audio by default even though it should set to Hebrew audio tracks by default when they’re available.
I tried it on both the web client and a Windows 10 client (although I believe they are the same).

[JuiceWSA]

Well - this thread is solved, so you may want to open a new one.

We’ll want to see those account settings and MediaInfo/XML data for the files in question. File names and structures need to be shown for all files.

Also be prepared to provide some logs by making sure DEBUG is enabled and VERBOSE is disabled at Server/Settings/General. If required, someone will ask you for them.

I can’t find any misbehavior of Plex as far as subtitles go providing all my tracks/files are identified correctly, but I also only one one audio language track (mostly) to deal with at any one time.

[Mavi222]

@JuiceWSA

Well - this thread is solved, so you may want to open a new one.

This thread is not solved, people overtook this thread and made it about a new problem (admin subtitle choosing vs client subtitle choosing) …

I still can’t use the Plex properly. If I have set the audio language to English, and subtitle language to Czech, it just doesn’t set the subtitles to Czech and Audio to English, if there is English audio available.

People who want to watch the movies in their original audio languages can’t (at least not comfortably) , because it doesn’t automatically choose their subtitles, if the audio language they set is available…