5 Fixes for Closed Captions Not Working on YouTube

Pankil is a Civil Engineer turned freelance writer. Since his arrival at Guiding Tech in 2021, he delves into the world of how-tos, and troubleshooting guides for Android, iOS, and Windows. Besides his new-found love for mechanical keyboards, he’s a disciplined footfall fan and loves international travel with his wife.

Fix 1: Check Captions Font and Style Settings

YouTube provides several options for customizing caption colors, styles, sizes, and more. If these options are not set up correctly, you may have trouble seeing captions. For instance, if the font is too small or the font color is too similar to the color of the video’s background, you may have trouble reading captions. Here’s how to fix that.

On Desktop

Step 1:Play any YouTube video in your browser, click thegear-shaped iconat the bottom, and click onSubtitles/CC.

Step 2:Click onOptions.

Step 3:Scroll down and click onReset.

On Android

Step 1:Open the YouTube app, tap yourprofile iconat the top right corner, and selectSettings. Then, scroll down to tap onCaptions.

Step 2:Tap onCaption size and style. Then, set the text size toNormaland the caption style toDefault.

On iPhone

Step 1:Open theSettingsapp and scroll down to tap onAccessibility. Then, tap onSubtitles & Captioning.

Step 2:Tap onStyleand selectClassicfrom the following menu.

Fix 2: Set the Playback Speed to Normal

Changing the playback speed of a YouTube videocan also prevent captions from working or getting out of sync. To avoid this, try setting the video playback speed to normal and see if that works.

On Desktop

Step 1:Open YouTube in your browser and play any video. Click thegear iconat the bottom of the video player and selectPlayback speed.

Step 2:Select theNormaloption.

On Mobile

Step 1:Play any video on the YouTube app. Tap thecog-shaped iconat the top > selectPlayback speedfrom the menu that appears.

Step 2:SelectNormal.

Fix 3: Turn off Extensions (Desktop)

Third-party browser extensions can sometimes cause problems and interfere with YouTube’s ability to display closed captions. To check for this possibility, temporarily disable any extensions on your browser and see if that works.

Typechrome://extensions(Chrome) oredge://extensions(Edge) in the address bar and pressEnter. Then, turn off the toggles for your extensions.

After this, restart your browser and check if YouTube closed captions work as expected. If they do, re-enable your extensions one by one until the issue occurs again. Once you find the problematic extension, consider removing it.

Fix 4: Clear Browser Data (Desktop)

Your browser’s existing cache and cookies may have become corrupted, which is why you are experiencing problems. If that’s the case, you must clear the existing browser cache to fix the issue.

If you use Chrome or Edge, pressCtrl + Shift + Deletekeyboard shortcut to open the Clear browsing data panel. SelectAll timein the Time Range option > check the box forCached images and files> hitClear data.

Fix 5: Clear App Cache (Android)

Clearing cache data can help resolve all kinds of issues with the YouTube app. Doing so will clear any temporary YouTube app files that may have been preventing closed captions from working.

Step 1:Long-press on theYouTube app iconand tap theinfo iconfrom the menu.

Step 2:Go toStorage> tapClear cache.

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Last updated on 01 May, 2024

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