# Subtitles **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** server-windows\ **Created:** [July 25, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076 "2025-07-25T21:12:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/1 "2025-07-25T21:12:20Z")
Server Version#:latest Player Version#:latest Having trouble getting subtitles to work correctly. I only want one thing to work. When watching a movie, I want to see forced subtitles, for instance in Sicario when Spanish is being spoken I want to see english subs. Just like when watching the disc. I do not ever want to see subtitles any other time. Is there a way to make this work? ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/2 "2025-07-25T21:49:45Z")
Go to your account settings and edit the audio & subtitle preferences: 1. Enable `Automatically select audio and subtitle tracks` 2. Select the audio and subtitle language preferences 3. Set `AUTO-SELECT SUBTITLE MODE` to `Show with Foreign Audio` Assuming your file has a corresponding forced subtitle track for this language, Plex will automatically enable that. Keep in mind that Plex prioritizes manually set tracks, so the auto-selection will only apply to movies where you didn’t manually set a track. ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/3 "2025-07-25T22:27:25Z")
THat does not seem to work. Only way I can get subtitles to work is to explicitly select them. Rather annoying to have to repeatedly enable/disable subtitles… ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/4 "2025-07-25T22:39:14Z")
Can you please explain “manually set a track”? ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/5 "2025-07-25T22:52:56Z")
Set the language selection for both subtitles and audio to English. Your forced subtitle must be tagged as “forced”, and its language must be tagged with English. If either your audio stream or your subtitle stream, or both appear as “unknown”, then it won’t work. ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/6 "2025-07-25T22:54:32Z")
… and as for explaining “manually setting a track”: When you select/change the audio or subtitle track in one of the apps, this will set it for good. So, you repeatedly enabling/disabling subtitles will do just that. ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/7 "2025-07-25T23:41:34Z")
How do I undo that? I have definitely done just that in order to get subs to display. ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 12:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/8 "2025-07-26T00:33:57Z")
You can’t undo this in the user interface. Plex considers you’re overruling any automatic assignment by manually selecting a subtitle. Technically it’s possible to edit the related information in the Plex Media Server‘s database, but that’s advanced stuff. ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 4:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/9 "2025-07-26T04:48:43Z")
So, uninstall Plex and reinstall, and reinstall client? Seems a bit extreme.. ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 5:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/10 "2025-07-26T05:03:28Z")
Does Jellyfin have same behavior? If I have to remove/reinstall, it would make sense to change to something that does not require this. ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/11 "2025-07-26T13:37:11Z")
You’ll probably need to ask in their forum ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/12 "2025-07-26T15:58:12Z")
I removed/reinstalled Plex server and it made no difference. Is this scenario actually supposed to work, or am I wasting my time? ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/13 "2025-07-26T19:04:46Z")
Uninstalling the server executable won’t touch the server data directory which contains the server‘s database etc. if you want to scrap all previous configuration incl. previous subtitle/audio track selection, you’ll need to remove that (while the server is stopped). [https://support.plex.tv/articles/201198426-restart-plex-media-server-setup-from-scratch/](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201198426-restart-plex-media-server-setup-from-scratch/) ---
**Author:** ![6dm9y](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/a88e4f/32.png) [@6dm9y](https://forums.plex.tv/u/6dm9y)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/14 "2025-07-26T21:41:43Z")
The problem was with MakeMKV. It identifies subtitles as “forced”, but does not actually write them to the output file that way. I had to use MKTool to mark the required sub as forced. ---
**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2025, 6:19am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/15 "2025-07-27T06:19:23Z")
Makemkv is notorious for not setting the “forced” flag properly. I recommend you to always remux any mkv file coming out of ffmpeg, handbrake, and other apps using e.g. mkvtoolnix. Check and adjust any flags and track titles while doing so. > **[MKVToolNix news – Matroska tools for Linux/Unix and Windows](https://mkvtoolnix.download/)** ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 6:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles/927076/16 "2025-10-25T06:20:14Z")
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