Subtitle - A better understanding?

[bobaldis 24]

Hi,

I've got a Subtitle issue, but just may be my (mis)understanding of how it all works under Emby, so at this point just after a little better understanding.

Background:

Subtitles appear to be working OK generally, have Open Subtitles set-up to automatically download them, but have a series I'm watching Invasion S01, where I'm having to manually download them for each episode, there is nothing on the episode main screen regarding subtiles, where as on other series I see either the Subtitle to play or actually "Off" (not sure why it is off but it does show it), but there is literally no "subtitle" text or info at all on the invasion episodes!

Surmising/Thoughts:

So with the Open Subtitles Task running in the logs I see GETs answered with 200 responses so believe everything that side is working well, but when I look in the folders for some series that show they have subtitles there are no SRT files:

Is this because they are embeded and Emby recognises that so doesn't need to download them?

Invasion does not follow the system settings and download subtites automatically, although there when I manually search

What is likely to cause this behaviour?
(I noticed it had a Subs subfolder which I've deleted in case it affected it, I've rescanned and refreshed metadata but no change.)

How do I change this for the series so don't have to manually download them?

Any help/Clarification on the process would be apprecited, I have tried searching and AI neither shed much light unfortuately.

Thanks in anticipation

Bob

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Is this because they are embeded and Emby recognises that so doesn't need to download them?

It could be. But it also could be due to the configured location for the subtitle downloads. How did you configure the automatic downloading?

[bobaldis 24]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

It could be. But it also could be due to the configured location for the subtitle downloads. How did you configure the automatic downloading?

Hi Luke,
Thanks, please see my subtitle settings below, but would ask if possible to answer my questions above to help give me a little better understanding of the overall process 

[bobaldis 24]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone else has a good working idea of the Subtitle Process they can share until Luke gets a chance to get back to me?

Bob 

[Luke 42077]

HI, you have the hash match option enabled, so the automatic download is probably just not finding any matches.

[bobaldis 24]

On 24/09/2025 at 21:38, Luke said:

HI, you have the hash match option enabled, so the automatic download is probably just not finding any matches.

Hi Luke,

Thanks, I don't think that's the issue, I turned off Hash match and it made no difference, it seemed to be disabled for this seasons downloads and not even looking for subtitles, that's why I'm trying to understand the process and what could cause that.

As mentioned it initially it had a folder called Subs and within that folders with the same name as the episode filenames and within them multiple SRT files named with the languages EN, FR etc. but also as I mentioned I deleted these, but is it possible although Emby couldn't use them it set a flag or something that it had subtitles and therefore not to download any, again my lack of understanding of how it all hangs together is frustrating when trying to understand remedy the situation.

I've finished watching that season now but had to manually download them each time, I'm hoping you/someone can shed some light so if this happens again I'll know what to do  

Thanks,

Bob

[Luke 42077]

If you think it's not downloading in some case when it should be then we'll need to look at a specific example. Thanks.

[bobaldis 24]

23 hours ago, Luke said:

If you think it's not downloading in some case when it should be then we'll need to look at a specific example. Thanks.

Hi Luke,

Sorry that's exactly what I'm try to understand, when should it download and when shouldn't it ie what circumstances would prevent it, say a sub folder called subs for example there must be a logic it follows that you can share?

Bob

[Luke 42077]

2 minutes ago, bobaldis said:

Hi Luke,

Sorry that's exactly what I'm try to understand, when should it download and when shouldn't it ie what circumstances would prevent it, say a sub folder called subs for example there must be a logic it follows that you can share?

Bob

When the media is scanned and also during the subtitle download scheduled task. What would prevent it is if there are already subtitles as well as the other automatic download options.

[bobaldis 24]

13 minutes ago, Luke said:

When the media is scanned and also during the subtitle download scheduled task. What would prevent it is if there are already subtitles as well as the other automatic download options.

Thanks Luke,

So as I mentioned there was a sub "subs" folder, with further subfolders names as the media file and within that various country based SRTs.

1) Would these be counted as already having subtitles when searching, but not be available when playing the media?

2) Is this re-evaluated each scan or does the epsiode gets permantly flagged, as even when I deleted deleted and rescanned there was no automatic subtitles downloaded?

3) Is there a way to tell if the subtitles presented when manually searching are a Hash match or not?

I'm UK based so off to bed now, I'll check for any responses tomorrow, have a good day/evening/night depending on your Timezone

Bob

[Luke 42077]

Yes to all three. There is an indicator when searching.

[bobaldis 24]

20 hours ago, Luke said:

Yes to all three. There is an indicator when searching.

Hi Luke,

Thanks, but I don't believe these are all yes/no answers, especially question 2 which is one or the other?

Bob

[Luke 42077]

The scan only re-evaluates when it detects something has changed. The scheduled task task though will reevaluate every time.

[bobaldis 24]

Thanks Luke,

Anyway to see which media had a subtitle hash match and downloaded the subtitles automatically, I see the subtitle Hashs in the log but I'm not sure how I can relate that to an actual file, just trying to learn/understand it a little better?

Bob

[Luke 42077]

I'm not sure what you're asking, but I would check this out:

Automatic Subtitle Downloads

It has steps to take when you're not seeing automatic downloads that you're expecting to happen.

[bobaldis 24]

On 29/09/2025 at 23:50, Luke said:

I'm not sure what you're asking, but I would check this out:

Automatic Subtitle Downloads

It has steps to take when you're not seeing automatic downloads that you're expecting to happen.

Thanks Luke,

I looked here already but there was nothing to answer my questions, if there's nothing else you can share, I'll leave it there.

Cheers,

Bob

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Anyway to see which media had a subtitle hash match and downloaded the subtitles automatically,

Sorry, I misunderstood the question. For automatic downloads, the answer is no, not currently. But that would be a good thing to add somewhere.