If you find subtitles distracting, you can easily turn them off on Apple TV. You can also customize them by choosing a font, size, color, and opacity.
You can use your Apple TV remote or Siri remote to turn off subtitles on Apple TV. But first, you will first have to play a video and bring up the playback controls.
Here’s how you can disable closed captions and only remain with audio when watching content on Apple TV.
How to turn off subtitles on Apple TV
To turn off subtitles on Apple TV:
- Play a video.
- Press the Play/Pause button as the video continues. You can use the Siri Remote, Apple TV Remote, or any other working remote. However, the option must bring up the video timeline.
- Wait for the Playback control options will pop up.
- Use your Siri or Apple TV Remote to swipe up.
- Select the Subtitles button.
- Scroll down and select OFF.
After turning OFF subtitles, press play to continue watching the video.
How to turn off automatic subtitles on Apple TV
If a video has subtitles, the subs will play if you have the automatic subtitles settings on.
You can turn the option off through these steps:
- Use your remote to go to Settings.
- Select Video and Audio.
- Turn off Automatic Subtitles.
You will have to turn on the subtitles again if you wish to display them when you play a video.
How to turn off subtitles on Apple TV for Samsung
You can turn off subtitles on Apple TV for Samsung by doing the following:
- Go to Settings.
- Select General.
- Turn off Automatic Subtitles.
The subtitles will not display when playing a video.
How to permanently turn off subtitles on Apple TV
To disable the subtitles feature on Apple TV:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Accessibility.
- Under Hearing, select Subtitles and Captioning.
- Next, choose Closed Captions and SDH.
- Turn the toggle OFF if the default option is ON.
If necessary, you can also use the same steps to customize captions and subtitles.
How to turn closed captions off during video playback
You will see closed captions displayed in your video and no subtitles when your video plays. Generally, subtitles allow you to understand the video language, while closed captions are for people who cannot hear the video.
Although people confuse them as subtitles, you can turn them off during video playback.
- Play a video.
- Press the down button on your Smart TV or device remote.
- A Subtitles pane will appear.
- Select OFF to disable Closed Caption.
You can also use the same steps to change subtitles language or audio language.
Why subtitles are not working on Apple TV
You may have noticed that when you watch a movie on Apple TV or through the Apple TV app, the subtitles play for a few seconds and then disappear.
In other cases, the subtitles and even closed captions fail to play. So how do you fix it? Try the following:
- Exit the movie, open it again, and see if it works.
- Close the Apple TV app and open it again. Play the video and see whether it displays the subtitles.
- Update the Apple TV app to the latest version. You can find it on Apple’s website or through your TV’s app store.
- Disable the subtitles and enable them again.
- Turn closed captions from OFF to Auto.
- Ensure the language of the closed captions is in English.
- Update your device software.
Subtitles can also fail to play, depending on the video. For example, most people have complained that the subtitles display for a while when they play anime titles with Japanese-translated subs.
Checking accessibility features
You first need to determine whether the movie or TV show has accessibility features in the Apple TV app.
Do the following:
- Go to Settings on your Apple TV.
- Select General.
- Select Accessibility.
- Turn on Audio Descriptions.
- Open the Apple TV app.
- Search for a video.
- Go to the movie’s description page.
At this point, determine whether you can see CC (closed captions), SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of Hearing), or AD (audio descriptions).
If you do not see the features, the movie does not have accessibility features and will not play subtitles well.
Aside from determining whether the video has accessibility features, you can also check the languages available for those features. Then, using the above steps, go to the descriptions page and access the Languages and Accessibility section.
Another thing you can do is to change the subtitles language to English.
- Go to Settings.
- Select Video and Audio.
- Select Audio.
- Click Subtitle Language.
Choose English as your default language.
Switched off Apple TV subtitles?
Apple TV has many accessibility features that make it convenient for you to watch movies. In addition, features like subtitles, closed captioning, and SDH can come in handy, depending on the situation.
If you want to turn OFF subtitles on Apple TV, play a video, pause it to bring up the timeline, and go to the subtitles sections.
You can then turn off subtitles from this point. But if the subtitles are not working, you can try the basics to fix the issue by exiting the movie and opening it again.
Alternatively, you can exit the Apple TV app and open the video, disable subtitles and enable the feature, update the Apple TV app, and turn closed captions from OFF to Auto.