Crunchyroll Subtitles Not Working or Out of Sync? The Fixes

Crunchyroll subtitles go wrong in more ways than you'd expect from one menu. They don't show up. They show up three seconds late. They belong to last week's episode. They fill half the screen in fullscreen, or they won't go away at all.

Most advice online is a single checklist — clear the cache, turn off the VPN, reinstall the app — applied to every one of these. It fixes one of them. This guide sorts the problems by what actually causes them, starting with a one-minute test that tells you whether your settings are even involved.

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The one-minute test: you, the episode, or Crunchyroll?

Do these three checks in order before changing anything:

1. Open the subtitle menu of the episode itself — the gear icon in the player, then Subtitles/CC. If your language isn't in the list, no setting will add it: this episode doesn't have it in your region. That's a different problem, covered in which subtitle languages Crunchyroll has.
2. Open an older episode of a different show. If subtitles work there, the fault belongs to the first episode — its subtitle file — and not to your device.
3. Try another device or another browser. If subtitles are missing or wrong everywhere at once, on episodes that worked yesterday, the problem is on Crunchyroll's side.

The third case is more common than it sounds. In 2026 subtitles disappeared for large numbers of viewers at least twice — in early February and again on 4–5 August — each time on several kinds of devices at once, and came back by themselves within a day or two. On days like that no setting helps, and reinstalling the app only costs you your downloads.

Subtitles don't show at all

If the episode lists your language and other episodes work, go through these in order:

• Nothing is selected. New shows start from your account default: avatar → Settings → Preferences → Subtitles/CC Language. If that's set to None, every new show starts without subtitles.
• The C key. On the website, C turns subtitles on and off, and it's easy to press by accident.
• A VPN. Crunchyroll's own help notes that a VPN can make subtitles disappear, or make two sets overlap. Turn it off and reload the page.
• An extension. Ad blockers and other add-ons can break the player. Open the episode in an incognito window; if subtitles appear there, turn your extensions back on one at a time — ours included.
• An old browser. Crunchyroll supports Chrome, Firefox and Edge from version 117 and Safari from 16.1.
• A TV or console. The device's own caption settings take priority over the app on Roku, PlayStation and Apple TV, so check them first. On LG TVs Crunchyroll suggests clearing the app's cache and updating the TV's software.

Crunchyroll's own checklist for the website is on its help page Subtitles are not showing up on web.

Subtitles out of sync or delayed

"Out of sync" is three different problems, and only one of them is yours to fix.

• The whole episode is early or late by the same amount, on every device. That's the subtitle file itself, timed against a different cut of the episode. It shows up on particular episodes of particular shows — long-running series are reported most — and stays until Crunchyroll replaces the file. Report it: Crunchyroll's page There is an error in the subtitles sends you to support. Ask for an agent and give the show, season and episode.
• It lags only for you, on one device. Restart the video, then reload the page with Ctrl+F5 (Shift+Cmd+R on a Mac). Switching subtitles to None and back sometimes clears it. For TVs and consoles, Crunchyroll's page Why is the audio out of sync? lists the restart steps for each device.
• Only the on-screen text is late on a dub. On some dubbed episodes viewers report that the translations of signs and titles arrive late while the dialogue is fine. Switching the audio back to Japanese is the workaround until the file is fixed.

No tool can repair a subtitle file that's timed wrong, Linglass included — it shows Crunchyroll's own subtitles, so a late file is late there too. The one exception is the Japanese line Linglass adds to anime, since Crunchyroll has no Japanese subtitles: if that line is slightly early or late, you can nudge it by a tenth or half a second in the settings, and the correction is kept for the whole series.

Subtitles from the wrong episode

Sometimes the lines are perfectly timed and simply belong to another episode — usually the previous one, or the season's first. That's a mix-up on Crunchyroll's servers, and it has hit popular shows more than once. Nothing on your device can fix it: the same wrong file reaches every phone, TV and browser. Report the episode to support and watch something else in the meantime.

No subtitles on a dub

A dubbed episode is a separate version of the episode, with its own subtitle list — and usually a shorter one than the Japanese version:

• "English" on an English dub is often signs only — translations of on-screen text, not of the dialogue. That's why you can turn subtitles on and see almost nothing.
• "English [CC]" is the dialogue, transcribed from the dub for viewers who can't hear it. Crunchyroll's help admits that on dubs closed captions "aren't always available".
• The Japanese version's subtitles can't be shown over the dub. They translate the Japanese script, the dub has its own, and the two often say different things.

To get captions automatically wherever they exist, turn on Prefer Closed Captions in Settings → Preferences. Older guides call it "Show Closed Captions"; it has since been renamed. And if you're learning the language of the dub, the CC track is the one you want anyway: it matches what you hear, word for word.

Subtitles too big, too small or in the wrong place

Crunchyroll has one appearance page: Settings → Preferences → Change Captions Appearance, which opens Closed Captions Appearance with font, size (Small, Medium, Large), colour, opacity and edge style. Two catches:

• It works on the website only. Apps on TVs, consoles and phones follow the device's own accessibility caption settings.
• Viewers report it changes closed captions, not regular subtitles. A show's subtitle style is set in its subtitle file, which is why the size can jump from one show to the next.

Some titles on the website also play with the subtitles burned into the picture. Those can't be resized, restyled or turned off by any setting, Crunchyroll's or anyone else's.

On a computer, Linglass draws the subtitles itself instead of Crunchyroll's player. You set the size anywhere from 50% to 150%, and it scales with the player, so it doesn't balloon in fullscreen. You choose one of four styles — a dark backdrop, a thin outline, a heavy anime-style outline, or a backdrop behind each line — and a colour. You drag the line up or down with the mouse; a double-click puts it back. And it stays on screen in fullscreen. It's built for language learners, so it shows the language you're learning on top and your own language underneath; switch the second line off if you only want one.

Subtitles in the wrong language

• Set the default in Settings → Preferences → Subtitles/CC Language, and if a show still opens in another language, pick yours in the player's Subtitles/CC menu.
• A language you normally see is missing. Subtitle licences are regional, so the episode may not have it in your country, and when you travel you see the set for the country you're in.
• Every episode suddenly shows a language you never picked. Check another show. On one outage day in 2026 many viewers got Indonesian instead of English, and no setting on their side was involved.

With Linglass you pick your two languages once — the one you're learning and your own — and every episode opens with them. When an episode doesn't have your language, Linglass adds a machine-translated line in it under the subtitles Crunchyroll does have, for free.

Subtitles you can't turn off

Crunchyroll says it plainly: in some regions "some anime with Japanese audio requires subtitles to always be displayed", for licensing reasons (its help page). On those titles the player has no Off option, and setting your default to None changes nothing.

Two other things look exactly the same: subtitles burned into the picture, and captions switched on in your TV's or console's accessibility settings, which the app can't turn off — only the device can.

If you're learning a language and want the line out of the way to train your ear, Linglass on a computer has a listening mode: it covers the line until you hover over it or pause, so the words are there when you need them and hidden when you don't. Burned-in subtitles are the exception: nothing can hide those.

On a TV, console or phone

The fixes that only exist on devices:

• Turn off the device's own captions. On Roku, PlayStation and Apple TV, captions set in the system's accessibility settings override the Crunchyroll app.
• Clear the app's cache. On LG TVs: Settings → Apps → Crunchyroll → Clear cache, then update the TV's software. On Fire TV the cache is under Settings → Applications → Manage installed applications → Crunchyroll.
• Subtitles cut off at the bottom of a TV usually mean the TV is zooming the picture. Set the picture size to Just Scan or Full.
• Restart, don't reinstall. A full restart of the TV or console clears most one-off glitches; reinstalling only makes sense when nothing else has worked for days.

Browser extensions, Linglass included, don't run in any of these apps — only in a browser on a computer.

What Linglass fixes, and what it doesn't

Linglass is a free browser extension for learning languages on Crunchyroll, YouTube, Netflix and other streaming services. On Crunchyroll it can fix:

• Size, style and position of the subtitle line, including in fullscreen.
• The language problem: your two languages on every episode, and a line in your language when Crunchyroll doesn't have it.
• Two lines at once: the language you're learning on top, yours underneath, with every word clickable for its meaning.
• Japanese subtitles on anime, which Crunchyroll doesn't offer, with a timing nudge per series.

It can't fix:

• A subtitle file that's late, early or from the wrong episode. Linglass shows Crunchyroll's own subtitles, so a bad file is bad on both.
• Outage days. When Crunchyroll doesn't deliver subtitles, there's nothing to show.
• Titles with burned-in subtitles. The burned-in line stays in the picture, and you'd see it alongside ours.
• Apps on phones, TVs and consoles. It works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Yandex Browser on a computer.

Frequently asked questions

Why are my Crunchyroll subtitles not working?

Start with three checks. Is your language in the episode's Subtitles/CC menu? Do subtitles work on an older episode of another show? Do they work on another device? A missing language is a licensing gap, a problem on one episode is its subtitle file, and a problem everywhere at once is Crunchyroll's own outage. Only the remaining case — one device — is fixed by settings, a VPN or extensions.

Why are Crunchyroll subtitles out of sync or delayed?

If the whole episode is off by the same amount on every device, the subtitle file was timed against a different cut, and only Crunchyroll can replace it — report it to support with the show and episode. If it lags only on one device, restart the video and reload the page with Ctrl+F5. On some dubs only the signs arrive late; switching to the Japanese audio is the workaround.

Why are there no subtitles on the English dub?

A dub is a separate version with its own tracks. "English" there is often signs only, while the dialogue is in "English [CC]", which not every dub has. The Japanese version's subtitles can't be shown over a dub because they translate a different script. Turning on Prefer Closed Captions in Settings → Preferences shows captions automatically where they exist.

How do I make Crunchyroll subtitles smaller or bigger?

On the website, go to Settings → Preferences → Change Captions Appearance and pick Small, Medium or Large; it works on the web only and, by viewers' reports, on closed captions rather than regular subtitles. On TVs and consoles use the device's accessibility caption settings. In a desktop browser, Linglass draws the line itself with a size from 50% to 150% that holds in fullscreen.

Why can't I turn off subtitles on Crunchyroll?

In some regions Crunchyroll is required to always show subtitles on certain anime with Japanese audio, so those titles have no Off option. The same symptom comes from subtitles burned into the picture and from captions switched on in a TV's or console's accessibility settings, which only the device can turn off.

Why are my Crunchyroll subtitles from a different episode?

Because the wrong subtitle file is attached to the episode on Crunchyroll's servers. It reaches every device the same way, so no setting, reinstall or extension can fix it. Report the episode to Crunchyroll support and give the show, season and episode number; it stays wrong until they replace the file.

Quick recap

• Run the one-minute test first: the episode's menu, an older episode of another show, another device. It tells you whether settings are even involved.
• Missing everywhere at once is Crunchyroll's outage. Wait it out; don't reinstall.
• Late or wrong-episode subtitles on every device are a bad file. Report it; nothing local fixes it.
• Dubs carry their own, shorter subtitle list: dialogue lives in the [CC] track.
• Size and style settings cover closed captions on the website only. In a desktop browser, Linglass gives you a line you can resize, restyle and move, in fullscreen too.