Subtitle settings

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

When playing a movie which has some foreign language parts I do not get the subtitle. How can I get the subtitles to show automatically? Thanks.

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2

You need to have the necessary subtitle stream. This type of subtitle is rarely available for download, so you cannot acquire it automatically.
This stream must be tagged as “forced”.

Both the audio and the subtitle stream need to be properly tagged with their languages.

Then you activate the automatic stream selection in your Plex account, and set the subtitle selection mode to “with foreign audio”.

3

Ok so do I need to tag all my movies forced on my server? Also do I tag the language for audio and subtitle through plex? All my movies are .mkv
Thanks so much!

4

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5

You don’t tag the move as such. Only the subtitle stream.

But it must be a subtitle stream which only contains the foreign-language parts.
If you have a subtitle stream which contains all the dialog, then it is not a forced subtitle.

Get MKVtoolnixGUI to play around with the flags and the stream titles.

The results can look like this:

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6

“Auto-select subtitle mode” must be set to “Shown with foreign audio” if you want to have only the “forced” subtitles showing up automatically.

7

Ok so I think I would need to find the force subtitles and then add it to my movies with mkvtoolnix. Correct?

8

Ok so I downloaded foreign language only SRT file and uploaded it to this movie and change the subtitle setting to the file. Did I have to change that setting? Or would it use the uploaded file automatically?
Thanks

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9

Muxing them in with mkvtoolnix is optional, for the perfectionist :wink:
You can also mark a “sidecar” subtitle as “forced”. See the below link.

You will have to:

  1. switch the “Auto-select subtitle mode” to “Shown with foreign audio”
  2. rename the subtitle file you just downloaded. Add .eng.forced just before the file name extension .srt.
  3. Refresh Metadata of the movie, so it recognizes the changed subtitle file name

See: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200471133-adding-local-subtitles-to-your-media/

1 Like
10

Otto big help! Thank you! One last thing. Will this work for family. I Share my library with ?

11

As long as every user is doing the automatic stream selection settings in their own account, yes.

If they are members of your Plex Home, you can do it for them, by using the “Switch User” command.

Caveat: the automatic activation of the forced subtitles only works, as long as the user has not touched the subtitle selector manually. In other words: a manual selection will not be overridden by the automatic.

1 Like
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