Have you ever thought about how you get automatic subtitles on YouTube? Or will YouTube automatically add subtitles to the videos that you upload? Well, YouTube does have a feature that automatically detects the audio in the videos and generates and adds subtitles to it. However, you must tell the portal to do so either when uploading the clip or after it is published.
Furthermore, although YouTube automatic subtitles are available for most languages, the videos that have the audio in an unsupported language remain unrecognizable by the portal. Nevertheless, YouTube auto-generated subtitle saves you several hours of manual work.
In this article
How to Generate YouTube Automatic Subtitles & Captions
As explained earlier, YouTube automatic captions are available for most, if not all languages. However, YouTube automatic captions can only be added when you select the correct language while or after uploading the video.
Anyhow, adding YouTube auto caption is extremely simple and requires merely a few mouse clicks. The process of getting the job done is explained in detail below:
Step1 Upload a Video
Launch your favorite web browser, go to YouTube, click the Camcorder icon from the upper-right area of the webpage, and click Upload video from the list that appears next. When the Upload videos box appears, either drag and drop the video files into the box or click SELECT FILES and locate and select the video from your PC to upload.
Step2 Define Video Details and Preferences
On the next box, define the video's title, add a description, set a thumbnail, choose your preferred playlist where the clip should go, and specify age restrictions. Next, click SHOW MORE from the bottom, and choose the correct audio language and an appropriate caption certification (if necessary) from their corresponding lists under the Language and caption certification section. Click NEXT to continue and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uploading process.
Step3 Add Automatic Subtitles
After the video is uploaded and you are on the Channel content page of YouTube Studio, click Subtitles from the navigation bar on the left. On the Channel subtitles page, click the video under the Languages column to expand the details, and review and confirm if the caption preferences are correct.
You can either wait while YouTube automatic subtitles are generated, or get back to the Subtitles option, click ADD from under the Subtitles column on the right, and manually type or upload an existing caption file.
Pro-Tip
- How to Remove YouTube Automatic Captions?
Technically speaking, you don't have an option to delete the auto-generated subtitles YouTube produces. However, there is a workaround. You can replace those YouTube automatic subtitles with your custom captions by uploading an already created *.srt file or typing them manually. To do this, you can go to YouTube Studio, select Subtitles from the navigation bar on the left, expand the video, and click ADD from under the Subtitles column. You can then use the options available in the left pane of the next page to type or upload the captions as required.
- How to Download YouTube Auto-Generated Subtitles?
After YouTube automatic subtitles are generated, you can get back to the YouTube Studio, click Subtitles from the left pane, and expand the Languages column of the video. Now, click the Options icon next to the DUPLICATE AND EDIT option under the Subtitles column, click Download from the list, choose your preferred format for the subtitles file, and pick a location on your PC to download YouTube auto-generated subtitles.
An Easy Way to Generate Automatic Subtitles for YouTube Videos
Although YouTube can automatically generate the subtitles for the uploaded videos, it's only available while you upload a video. Therefore, you may need a convenient tool if you want to get the auto-generate subtitle videos locally. Consequently, it is always a good idea to use a dedicated program that has been designed and developed specifically for the purpose. One such application that Wondershare has produced is DemoCreator.
Wondershare DemoCreator is a full-fledged media creation and post-production software that enables you to record your computer screen and edit the already recorded videos that you can import from the PC. One of the best features that DemoCreator now has is automatically generating captions with the maximum level of accuracy.
You can learn how to use Wondershare DemoCreator to auto-generate subtitles YouTube can accept by following the instructions that are explained below:
Step1 Sign in to Your Wondershare ID
After installing DemoCreator on your computer, launch the program and click Edit Video from the first screen that appears. When the main interface comes up, click Sign In from the top-right area. On the Login to your Wondershare ID box, populate the available fields with the relevant information and sign in.
Step2 Upload the Source Video and Add It to Timeline
Back on the main interface, double-click anywhere inside the Library box in the upper-left area, and locate and import the source video from your PC to DemoCreator. After this, drag the clip's thumbnail from the Library box itself to the Timeline at the bottom.
Step3 Automatically Generate Captions
Click Caption from the toolbar at the top, then find Auto-Caption from the left pane. Next, click "Start to Recognize", choose the audio language of the video from the drop-down list of the next box, and click OK to allow DemoCreator to scan the video and auto-generate subtitles YouTube video can have.
After the subtitles are generated, optionally, you can also use the tools and buttons in the right panel to format and customize the text of the captions as needed.
Step4 Export the Video
Once everything is configured according to your preferences, click Export from the upper-right area of the interface. On the Export box, choose YouTube from the left pane, define output preferences, and click Publish from the bottom-right corner to bypass the YouTube automatic captions creation process. Instead, use the subtitles created by DemoCreator instead of publishing the video directly on YouTube.
YouTube Automatic Captions Troubleshooting
1. YouTube Automatic Captions Wrong Language
Issue:
There are several instances where YouTube automatic captions are generated in the wrong language. The reasons behind this include:
- Unrecognizable or unsupported accent
- Background noise
- People talking in the background during the audio recording, etc.
Solution:
This problem can be fixed by going to the 'Video subtitles' page of the clip, clicking 'ADD' from under the 'Subtitles' column on the right, and then clicking 'Auto-translate' from the box that opens up next.
2. YouTube Automatic Captions Not Available
Issue:
Sometimes, YouTube automatic subtitles are not generated. The most common reasons behind this behavior are:
- Unsupported audio language
- Background noise
- Long gaps between dialogs, etc.
Solution:
To fix this problem, you may want to check if YouTube supports the audio language that the video has and choose it correctly when uploading the video or from the 'Video subtitles' page. On the other hand, if the language is not supported, you must upload the subtitles file manually and then use YouTube's 'Auto-translate' feature to translate the captions into other languages as needed and wait while YouTube automatic subtitles are generated.
