SOLVED: Auto external subtitles files pick

[Yorai1212]

Hey, I'm currently having an issue with Jellyfin and I've been trying to find a solution, but so far no luck.

In Jellyfin, I usually almost always have a subtitles file next to a video file and when I play the episode of a show or a movie, I want those subtitles files to be automatically chosen, over ANYTHING else.
So, my native language is Hebrew and so most of my external SRT files are in Hebrew. Some are in English, since I can't find Hebrew subtitles for those.
My goal here is to make Jellyfin ALWAYS pick the external subtitles file, over the internal subtitles track that are in the MP4/MKV files.

As I understand, in order to do that. I need to organize my folders correctly like this;


And the videos and subtitles files like this:

with the SRT format being show name (year).default.language.srt and video file being the same but without .default.language.
So I did that, for all of my shows.
And also similar thing to movies as well:

Occasionally I change it from hebrew to english, but.. same thing, you know..

Anyway, this still doesn't work. It sometimes does select the subtitles file, but also sometimes doesn't, I have to manually switch to the external subtitles file in Jellyfin on my TV when it doesn't. Any ideas on what to do?
I just want a simple way to make it always choose the external subtitles files, ALWAYS.

Also, this is my subtitles settings here if it matters:

[TheDreadPirate]

Try renaming the language from "Hebrew" to the ISO abbreviation "he". Jellyfin expects the ISO language tag. Otherwise it may not parse it correctly. Including whether it is the default track or not.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server...ming-flags

Any arbitrary text not parsable to a language or flag will be combined and used as the title of the stream (if there is not a stream title already embedded in the file metadata).

[Yorai1212]

Try renaming the language from "Hebrew" to the ISO abbreviation "he".  Jellyfin expects the ISO language tag.  Otherwise it may not parse it correctly.  Including whether it is the default track or not.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server...ming-flags

Any arbitrary text not parsable to a language or flag will be combined and used as the title of the stream (if there is not a stream title already embedded in the file metadata).

So changing it to "he" will potentially fix this? can't I actually just remove the .hebrew all together and just keep the default?
Doesn't "default" already makes the file the default file Jellyfin will use? as it, it will take that file and enable it over anything else.

I'm just extremely confused by the Jellyfin docs. I don't get exactly what to do in order to make a file the default selection.
There has to be an easier way, no?

[TheDreadPirate]

I'd recommend just changing the language tag to "he" so that if you or another user has a language preference set it will parse the language of the subtitle track correctly.

Code:

American Horror Stories (2021).S01E01.default.he.srt

Like that.

I THINK it will resolve the problem. I, personally, prefer to not have any automatic subtitles on so I've never experimented with this.

[Yorai1212]

I'd recommend just changing the language tag to "he" so that if you or another user has a language preference set it will parse the language of the subtitle track correctly.

Code:

American Horror Stories (2021).S01E01.default.he.srt

Like that.

I THINK it will resolve the problem.  I, personally, prefer to not have any automatic subtitles on so I've never experimented with this.

So if I understand this correctly, I was supposed to write "he" instead of "hebrew" and because I wrote "hebrew" it then completely ignored the "default" flag. Right? since it then thinks that that's just the file name and that there's no flags at all. Am I understanding this right?

And technically, no other user is using my server. I basically have no use for that language tag, at all. So my understanding is that writing ".default" only (for example:
American Horror Stories (2021).S01E01.default.srt)
should also make it default. I know you don't use this kind of thing, but from what you understand...?
The doc is so confusing to me for no reason... I apologize.

[TheDreadPirate]

I quoted from the doc that if Jellyfin doesn't recognize ANY of the tags it will treat the entire thing as a title string and not parse it at all for any other tags.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server...ming-flags

Any arbitrary text not parsable to a language or flag will be combined and used as the title of the stream (if there is not a stream title already embedded in the file metadata).

You can forego a language tag and just use default by itself.

[Yorai1212]

I quoted from the doc that if Jellyfin doesn't recognize ANY of the tags it will treat the entire thing as a title string and not parse it at all for any other tags.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server...ming-flags

Any arbitrary text not parsable to a language or flag will be combined and used as the title of the stream (if there is not a stream title already embedded in the file metadata).

You can forego a language tag and just use default by itself.

Yeap, I know you quoted. I just didn't exactly get that at first, English isn't my native language.
So I'll just use "default" from now on. Thank you very much for the help!
Do I mark the post as solved or should I test the files before and then?

[Yorai1212]

I apologize for opening this thread.
I'm stuck here with no solution.

It seems like sometimes Jellyfin doesn't pick up the external subtitles.
My setup is basically this: https://i.imgur.com/bFCKU13.png

Jellyin seems to select those subtitles like 90% of the time, I'd say. The other 10% of the time, it doesn't. I have to enable them manually.
Any tips?

Could this be a bug? should I report it? if so, where exactly?

[TheDreadPirate]

Make a backup of this folder. Once that is done, can you remove "(2015)" from the file names for everything and rescan??

[Yorai1212]

Make a backup of this folder.  Once that is done, can you remove "(2015)" from the file names for everything and rescan??

Can you explain the thought process behind this? as in, why you think this is maybe the issue? Since it only happens sometimes and not always.

Which brings me to another point, it only happens sometimes, so I can't exactly replicate it if that makes sense?..
I can't for sure, 100%, test it.

I will do what you said though, yeap. What next?