Subtitles not downloading on new install of Emby

[ariffel 0]

Hey there..

Long time plex user and I got tired of dealing with subtitle download issues with plex. So I thought I'd give Emby a try and see how it functions. I followed all the subtitle setup guides I found out there from Emby. I am using OpenSubtitles and have configured my account as well as all my libraries to download subtitles (I have unselected require hash match) It does not appear to be pulling down subtitles for my movie Library. Here is the strange thing, if I manually go look for subtitles it will find them. If I then go to settings and run the download subtitles task it runs very quickly and does not download any subs. Then if I go and manually look for subs after running this task it will say no subs could be found. I restart the Emby server and manually check and they pop up, I then run the subs download task and they don't show up when manually checking. Anyhow I like the Emby interface but not real impressed with the subtitle downloading.. Anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Thanks!

[Abobader 3470]

Hello ariffel,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

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Emby Team

[Luke 42083]

Hi there, have you taken a look at our guide for this?

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001848854-automatic-subtitle-downloads

[Carlo 4561]

If you could run a scheduled subtitle download then post your server log we can take a look at it for any errors or things we might see.

[ariffel 0]

3 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, have you taken a look at our guide for this?

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001848854-automatic-subtitle-downloads

Yes this is the doc I followed when setting up\troubleshooting subtitle issues

 

[ariffel 0]

33 minutes ago, cayars said:

If you could run a scheduled subtitle download then post your server log we can take a look at it for any errors or things we might see.

I do see several errors in the log file pointing to this:

2021-09-15 12:07:11.282 Error SubtitleManager: Error downloading subtitles from Open Subtitles

Not a whole lot of information as to what is causing the failure. I also enabled the Debugging mode when gathering this log file. I shutdown the Emby server and started it backup. Manually checked for subtitles and it was successful in finding them. Then ran the task to download subtitles, it ran in like 30 seconds and did not find anything. Then went back and manually checked for subtitles again and it found nothing. So that's what this log file should capture hopefully.

embyserver.txt

[Carlo 4561]

I see this in your log:
MediaBrowser.Common.Extensions.RateLimitExceededException: MediaBrowser.Common.Extensions.RateLimitExceededException: OpenSubtitles rate limit reached

So that is saying you hit the limit for your account.

If you're a OpenSub VIP you get 1000 downloads per 24hrs.
The limit for non VIP users is lower but not sure what that number is.

I know if I rebuild my library and had to download subs again for all media files I'd be over 6 months with a single VIP account.

[ariffel 0]

5 minutes ago, cayars said:

I see this in your log:
MediaBrowser.Common.Extensions.RateLimitExceededException: MediaBrowser.Common.Extensions.RateLimitExceededException: OpenSubtitles rate limit reached

So that is saying you hit the limit for your account.

If you're a OpenSub VIP you get 1000 downloads per 24hrs.
The limit for non VIP users is lower but not sure what that number is.

I know if I rebuild my library and had to download subs again for all media files I'd be over 6 months with a single VIP account.

Well that is good news to know I did not know that was a limitation. Might be something worth mentioning in your subtitle document. So I was looking on my Apple TV Emby client and I am not seeing a on-demand option to download subtitles like Plex has is this an option? If I add different subtitle plugins can i get around the opensubtitle  limitations? I guess I am just not real sure how to proceed here to download subtitles for my media any suggestions would be helpful.. BTW nice profile pic ;>)

[Carlo 4561]

Yes we have on-demand or manual downloading.
https://emby.media/support/articles/Manual-Subtitle-Downloads.html

You can even download subtitles while playing back media on some clients as well.
The user needs to have allow subtitle download access (user-profile tab).

The best thing you can do is pick a single language you need most and configure downloading only for files without a language track in your language.  This will help to pull down subs for foreign languages only. Then each day when the task runs it will pull down a batch of subs.

Edited November 6, 2025 by GrimReaper
KB article link updated

[ariffel 0]

1 hour ago, cayars said:

Yes we have on-demand or manual downloading.
https://support.emby.media/a/solutions/articles/44001848856

You can even download subtitles while playing back media on some clients as well.
The user needs to have allow subtitle download access (user-profile tab).

The best thing you can do is pick a single language you need most and configure downloading only for files without a language track in your language.  This will help to pull down subs for foreign languages only. Then each day when the task runs it will pull down a batch of subs.

Yeah looking on my Apple TV there is no option to download subtitles while the movie is playing.. So that is kinda a deal killer for me. Back to Plex I guess as at least I can do that within plex..

Thanks!

[Carlo 4561]

Once you've download the subs you'll find you won't need to download them manually from playback or detail screen so that will mostly be a non issue.

How much media do you have that doesn't have language tracks you can listen to that need the subs?
Or do you need them for all media for hearing impairment reasons?

I ask because you could use a couple of VIP accounts and change it out daily to download subs twice as fast.