That would depend on the source of the title
That depends on the source of the movie. Movies recorded from regular tv or āother sourcesā often contain āburnedā/āhard codedā subtitles. But proper files from e.g. DVD or Bluray usually have āsoft subtitlesā, which are stored in separate streams and can be enabled/disabled by the user.
This allows you to have one video stream, but several audio streams in different languages. If they are accompanied by āforcedā subtitles in all those languages, you can serve the same source file to people with different language preferences.
In Plex the language prefs are individual for every user account. So I can watch my movies in the original english language, but my relatives will automatically get the dubbed audio in their native language (and appropriate forced subs).
Well hereās the deal, my workflow and use case:
Iām using subs more and more these days. I selected Always On because on my Roku itās āstupid-easyā to turn subs on or off. I do so as required, but if I do nothing, and a Forced Sub exists, it is selected - just like I would expect (and want).
If you get what you expect (you may not care), Iāll have to edit (almost) every full sub track or file to REMOVE the foreign language bits - then BURN those forced subs in on a Handbrake pass. I do that sometimes, but not always, as is the case with our ancient galactic explorer above.
Or
Iāll have to inspect for, then select, a forced sub track that isnāt auto selected for me - and I donāt have to go into detail about the PITA that would be.
I would care very deeply if the current behavior changed.
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God help us if Plex.inc decide to do a automated Netflix system of Dubbing
Nobody mentioned automated dubs. Iām referring to āproperly-doneā dubs with professional voice actors.
In my country these are pretty much required to get wide acceptance for a foreign movie.
Just a thought, but wouldnāt the āforcedā flag in an MKV file cause that subtitle to be enabled automatically, irregardless of the language it was in. That is, even if the sub-title language was in Chinese and your Plex preferences were all for English, the forced subtitle would still display. It is a forced subtitle, after all. 
Iām not sure how an external subtitle would work, because then itās a decision by the Plex server. Probably like Otto says itās supposed to work, And if itās an MP4, anything goes - Iām not sure you can set a āForcedā flag in those puppies. 
That would be even worse in any situation.
Donāt forget: their can be even several āforcedā subtitle tracks in a MKV container.
Nobody can really enjoy a 50s Japanese Monster Movie without the Dub Track. Itās more entertaining than the movie. If you want to watch the movie, the Japanese track and subs is the way to go.
I have seen some nice ones too. Theyāre nice.
I donāt either, but letās find outā¦
Yeah, I know you set as many āforcedā tracks as you want, but Iām not sure Iāve ever seen more than one forced subtitle on any DVDās or BluRays Iāve ripped. Maybe cause my native language is English, and the media was bought and produced for English speaking consumers.
But having several forced subtitles showing would definitely be worse, no matter what.
The same as an internal subtitle.
If you have both internal and external subs in the same language, the external ones get listed first. The thinking behind it is that
If the movie has internal subs there is no need for external ones, unless the internal one is in a wrong format or has errors.
I should have said āIf there are only external subtitlesā Thatās what I meant. 
Yeah, no difference.
Now, we both know.
Confirmed:
(starting to look like a Weasel Group Release, if none of the tracks were identified)
I see you have good taste 
Iāve been a Sci-Fi Fan since - WAY back:
But donāt let that fool ya - I have some exemplary crap too:
ā¦it only got 54% cause Dick Miller is in it - and I gotta get some subs for that thingā¦
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Love it.
Are your collections manually created?
āTrail of the Screaming Foreheadā 
What a waste of storage space, IMHO.
