How to Turn Off Subtitles on YouTube (Computer, App and TV)

Subtitles are brilliant when you're watching with the sound off in a waiting room, and a nuisance when they sit across the middle of a video you wanted to see cleanly. If they keep appearing, you're not imagining it. YouTube lets you turn captions on and off for each video, and there are separate controls for how they look. YouTube's help centre calls them captions, and uses subtitles and CC (closed captions) in its menus, so I'll use all three terms below.

Turn off YouTube subtitles on a computer with the CC button

This is the quickest route, and it's what YouTube's help article for computers describes:

1. Open the video you want to watch.
2. Look at the bottom-right corner of the video player for the captions icon.
3. Select the icon once to turn captions on, and select it again to turn them off.

According to the article, the icon only appears if the video has captions. If you can't see it at all, the video has none for you to turn off, so any text you see is probably burned into the picture itself, which a setting can't remove.

There's also a keyboard shortcut. YouTube's shortcuts page says the c key turns closed captions and subtitles on if they're available, and pressing it again hides them. On the newer computer layout, click the video player before you use the shortcut.

Switch off subtitles and CC from the YouTube settings menu

The player's settings menu also holds a Subtitles/CC entry. The help article for computers describes it as the place for caption style rather than the on/off switch:

1. Open the settings menu at the bottom-right of the video player.
2. Open the Subtitles/CC section.
3. Open the options panel to change how captions look.

From the options you can change the font, colour, opacity and size of the text, the background colour and opacity, the window colour and opacity, and the character edge style. YouTube says your changes become the default for future captions until you change them again, and there's a reset option to go back to the original defaults. That matters if the real problem isn't that captions appear but that they look huge, or have a distracting background.

Turn off YouTube captions in the phone app

The mobile menus change from time to time, so look for the closest match to the labels below. YouTube's help page about the Android app shows one route, which is written for people using a screen reader but names the controls: bring up the player controls, open More options at the top right, then select Captions (shown as Closed captions). Selecting that control again toggles them off.

If you see a captions button right on the player controls on your phone, tapping it does the same job. Try a single video first before you dig into any settings.

Turn off subtitles when you watch YouTube on a TV

YouTube's help centre has a separate article for TVs and game consoles. The steps it gives are:

1. Pause the video you're playing.
2. Select the Captions icon.
3. Select the language you want the captions in.
4. To restyle them, select Caption style and choose from the options for font, background and window.

The article notes that if a video doesn't offer captions, the icon may appear but you won't be able to select it, and if it doesn't appear at all the video has no captions. It doesn't spell out an Off choice in the language list, so look for one there. If you can't find it, the language list is the place to start looking. If you'd like to control the TV app from your phone, see my guide to casting YouTube to your TV.

Why YouTube subtitles keep turning back on

YouTube's help pages don't give a single explanation for captions returning, so treat the following as things to check, not official causes.

• Each video is separate. Turning captions off during one video doesn't promise they'll stay off in the next, so check the icon when a new video starts.
• Different devices keep their own settings. A phone, a TV and a browser may each behave differently.
• A device accessibility setting may be involved. On Android, YouTube's accessibility help says an X icon in the player usually means a device accessibility setting is on. You can switch it off in Android Settings under Accessibility, or in the YouTube app by tapping your profile picture, choosing Settings, then Accessibility and turning off Accessibility Player.
• A shared TV or tablet may have been set up by someone else who prefers captions.

Where YouTube's automatic captions come from

Not every caption has been typed by the video's owner. The help centre notes that a video may lack captions because the owner didn't provide them and YouTube didn't add automatic captions, which tells you automatic captions exist but aren't guaranteed on every video. If you're a creator and want viewers to have the choice, check that your own videos have captions. My guide to changing the YouTube language covers a related set of settings, and it's a useful read if captions are appearing in a language you didn't choose.

Subtitles on YouTube for your own business videos

If you publish videos, keep in mind that many viewers watch with the sound off, so captions help people follow along. Switching them off is the viewer's choice, and the button above gives them that choice. If you're watching a competitor's video for research, a captions-off view makes slides and screen recordings easier to read, and a captions-on view helps with fast speech. Slowing the video down helps too, and my guide to changing playback speed on YouTube has the steps.

When the YouTube subtitle settings won't change

If the captions button doesn't do anything, try the standard fixes YouTube lists for playback trouble: update the app or browser, close and reopen it, then restart the device. On a computer, trying an incognito window with extensions turned off can show whether an add-on is interfering. Menus vary by app version, so if a label on your screen differs from the ones here, look for the nearest equivalent.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn off subtitles on YouTube on a computer?

According to YouTube's help centre, select the captions icon at the bottom-right of the video player to turn captions on, and select it again to turn them off. The icon only shows if the video has captions.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to turn off YouTube captions?

Yes. YouTube's shortcuts page says the c key turns captions and subtitles on if available, and pressing it again hides them. On the newer layout, click the player first.

Why can't I see the CC button on YouTube?

YouTube's help centre says the captions icon appears only if the video has captions. A video may have none if the owner didn't provide them and YouTube didn't add automatic captions.

How do I change how YouTube captions look?

Open the settings menu at the bottom-right of the player, then Subtitles/CC and the options panel, according to YouTube's help centre. You can change font, colour, opacity, size and the background.

How do I turn off subtitles on YouTube on my TV?

YouTube's help centre says to pause the video, select the Captions icon, then choose the language. Caption style lets you change how they look.