Issue on Youtube with their auto translate (to different languages) subtitles
I've been using Firefox since forever but over the last couple of months, the auto translate subtitles (to English) hasn't been working when watching Youtube videos. There's a thread on the Youtube support site with nearly 40,000 posts of people with the same issue and tonight I was trying to watch a video where the hosts talk in Italian, so I use auto translate to English subtitles but no subtitles appear. It will show Italian language subtitles.
I've gone back through this Youtube channel's history trying videos I've previously watched from months/years ago when auto translate used to work but even they're not working now.
I decided to try the video in Edge browser and to my surprise the auto translate to English worked there. They also work in Chrome.
So what could be causing this issue on Firefox, which started about August time?
This is quite bizarre as I assumed all the processing/translation was done by Google/Youtube so in what way can Firefox be part of this issue?
To be clear, subtitles in the (foreign) language the people are speaking, works. Subtitles translated from that language to English (or other languages) has stopped working. Subtitles translated from that language to English IS working on Edge and Chrome browser.
Chosen solution
I was going through the suggested troubleshooting and it turns out disabling the theme I was using and using the default system one has fixed this issue. What a bizarre thing to cause this problem. So, subtitles are working and Firefox looks like crap. Oh well.
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Chosen Solution
I was going through the suggested troubleshooting and it turns out disabling the theme I was using and using the default system one has fixed this issue. What a bizarre thing to cause this problem. So, subtitles are working and Firefox looks like crap. Oh well.
Hi Jota,
Thank you for sharing the solution here! Could you please tell what theme you used?
Denys said
Hi Jota, Thank you for sharing the solution here! Could you please tell what theme you used?
Hi Denys,
The theme is called Dark Space - the best dynamic theme. I tried some different themes and still had issues with the subtitles not auto translating until I went back to default.
Now I've no idea if this is what's affecting everyone who is having issues with this on Youtube, I don't even know if they all use Firefox or not. I first highlighted the issue on the Youtube support forums because I was thinking it was probably a Youtube problem and I noticed thousands over there with the same basic issue of auto translate no longer working.
Rather strangely, today I tried auto translate on an Italian channel I watch - Stepsover, and their latest video had no translated subtitles but at least previous videos (going back months) were working. Same with another Italian channel - Storie di Mannu, the latest video had no auto translate but the older one's were working again.
Maybe there's some issue with Youtube and Firefox, but I've no idea.
Meh, the issue is still there. The auto translate is working on Edge but not Firefox. It auto translates correctly in a private window so what would be the issue on a normal window?
I tried the same video with Firefox in safe mode and the auto translate does not work.
So, to summarise, Youtube autotranslate video subtitles is not working in normal Firefox. It's not working in Safe Mode Firefox but they are working in New Private Window in Firefox.
What on earth would cause that?
Auto Translate to English for that video works fine in Edge, Chrome, Opera and Safari.
Modified by Jota
That sounds weird... Could you please try the following (in your normal window):
- Please check if you have Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) enabled. You can do that by clicking the shield
icon at the left of the address bar.
- If ETP is enabled, try disabling it.
- If the problem is not fixed, try clearing Firefox cache.
- If it does not help, also try clearing cookies and data for YouTube (warning: you will be logged out on this website).
Did anything of the above help?
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