How to turn subtitles on and off on Roku (2025 Guide)

Ever wish you could understand something else while enjoying your favorite shows on Roku? On-screen captions are your lifesaver and they're here to help.

In this guide, I will provide you with the knowledge you need to enable closed captions on your Roku device using your remote control.

We will explore two methods: enabling closed captions through the Roku settings and using the shortcut button on the remote control during playback.

Subtitles on Roku

When closed captioning is enabled on Roku, the spoken content, background noises and sound effects of a series, program or movie are presented in text form on the TV screen.

These subtitles are not only very valuable for people with some kind of disability or hearing difficulty, but also if the dialogues are difficult to understand, or if you want to watch the programming in silent mode. If you are interested, here you can read more about the benefits of using subtitles.

How to enable and disable subtitles on Roku?

Now that you know how important subtitles are, we tell you how you can enable and disable them on your Roku. There are two possible ways to do it, here the step by step in each of them.

Method 1: Activating Captions from Roku Settings

1. Homeward Bound: Press the Home button on your Roku remote.
2. Navigating the Maze: Navigate to Settings using the directional arrows on your remote.
3. Accessibility Avenue: Select Accessibility (or Captions if available).
4. Captioning Capers: Choose Captions mode.
5. Pick Your Flavor: Select your preferred captioning option:

• On Always: Captions will appear automatically for all content
• On During Description: Captions will appear only during audio descriptions.
• Off: Captions will be disabled.

Method 2: Shortcut Savior: Enabling Captions During Playback

1. Let the Show Begin: Start watching your desired content on Roku.
2. Shortcut Star: Press the Star (*) button on your Roku remote. This button often has an asterisk symbol.
3. Caption Command Center: A menu with various options will appear.
4. Caption Crusade: Navigate to Closed captioning using the directional arrows.
5. Subtitle Selection: Choose your preferred captioning option as mentioned in Method 1 (On Always, On During Description, Off).

How to customize subtitles on Roku?

With your Roku device you can customize three subtitle style elements: text, background and window, here are the steps to achieve this:

1. Press the "Home" button on the Roku remote.
2. Scroll down or up and select "Settings".
3. To open the style menu, select "Accessibility" and then "Subtitle Style". On some devices the available option is "Subtitles".
4. You will now be able to adjust each of the style elements we discussed. A preview appears with an example of the changes:

• Text: font style / border effect / size / color / opacity.
• Background: color / opacity.
• Window: color / opacity.

With these same steps you can change the subtitle language, in a box next to "Subtitle style". English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German are supported.

Bonus Tip:

While these methods work for most Roku devices, the exact button layout or menu structure might slightly differ depending on your specific Roku model. If you encounter any variations, don't hesitate to consult your Roku device manual or explore the on-screen menus for similar options related to captions.

Conclusions

As we have shown you, it is that easy and quick to enable and disable subtitles on Roku. In case the subtitles are enabled and do not appear on the screen, you can try to solve the problem by restarting your Roku device.

If the difficulty persists or if you have other problems that you cannot solve, you can contact Roku Technical Support team.