How to Add and Enable Subtitles in Kodi v17 Krypton

At a first glance, Kodi is just a free, simple, open-source media player. But Kodi is capable of playing most of the formats you can throw at it, which makes it really reliable. Furthermore, what makes it really appealing for users around the world is the plethora of add-ons and builds that can be installed over the base version. By the way, all of those are free. Kodi has long crossed the PC borders and is now available on everything from Android to Fire TV Stick.

Using the right builds, you can use Kodi to stream TV shows, movies, and other multimedia. Furthermore, some add-ons will allow you to watch live TV, listen to the radio and even play games.

Given how powerful Kodi is, it should come as no surprise that its capable of displaying subtitles for your media content. As you can expect from an open source project, there are several ways of adding subtitles on Kodi.

Follow the guide below to find out how to download subtitles add-ons and configure them on Kodi. As a bonus, we also added a guide on enabling automatic subtitles for certain languages.

The steps below are structured in a practical way. To avoid any confusion, please follow them in order. Let’s begin!

Part 1: Installing Subtitles Add-ons on Kodi 17 Krypton

Now before we get to the actual guide, you should be aware that Kodi is still highly fragmented. Since there are a lot of different builds, the skins can be different from version to version. If you don’t see the same screens as the screenshots below, make sure you set the Kodi screen to Estuary.

Please make sure that you have the official Kodi Add-on Repository set as the main repository. But if you didn’t set 3rd party repositories on your Kodi build, that shouldn’t be the case.

Once you are ready, here’s what you need to do:

1. Open Kodi and make you’re way to the home screen. Once you’re there, click on Add-ons.
   
2. Immediately after you click on Add-ons, you should see an add-on icon in the top-left corner of the screen. Tap on it.
   
3. Once you’re in the Add-on browser screen, click on Install from repository.
   
4. Scroll all the way down to Subtitles.
   
5. Install a few options from the list. OpenSubtitles.org is a has a good collection of subs in all languages. Subscene.com is also great if you prefer watching with English subtitles. 
   
6. It’s recommended to install at least 3 subtitles addons. To install one simply click on an entry and hit Install.
   
7. Keep in mind that OpenSubtitles for Kodi will require you to create an account. You can do that easily by clicking on this link. However, the account won’t be activated until you verify your email address.
8. Once the account is created, return to the home screen and go to Add-ons > My add-ons > Subtitles and tap on OpenSubtitles.org.
9. Click on Configure and enter the credentials associated to the OpenSubtitles account you’ve just registered.
   

Part 2: Setting the Subtitle Language in Kodi 17 Krypton

Now that you installed a series of subtitle add-ons, it’s time to put them to good use. The next step is to set the right languages for our subtitles. Follow the steps below to do just that:

1. While on the home screen, click on the Settings icon (top-left corner of the screen).
   
2. Tap on the Player settings tab.
   
3. From there, go to Language and tap on Languages to download subtitles for.
   
4. Once you see the newly appeared menu, you can begin the selection of languages. You can select multiple languages, not just one. Hit the OK button when you’re satisfied with the languages lineup.
   
5. Not go back to the root directory of Settings again. From there, click on Default TV show service. Select a subtitle add-on from the line-up you installed in Part 1.
   
6. Go back to the root directory of Settings, but this time click on Default movie service. Select a subtitle service for this also and click OK to save.
   

Part 3: Displaying the Subtitles in TV Shows and Movies 

Now the subtitles are fully configured and ready to display. You’ll just need to enable them whenever you open a new video. Here’s how:

1. Open up any TV show, movie or other video content and click on the Subtitles icon. It’s located in the lower-right section of the screen.
   
2. From the newly appeared subtitle menu, click on Download.
   
3. After a short while, you should see a list of the available subtitles. Just pick one from the list by clicking on it.
4. If the synchronization is off, tweak the Subtitle offset until you get it right.

Bonus: Enabling automatic subtitles

Now that you have enabled subtitles on your Kodi application, you might feel content enough to skip this step altogether. But if you binge a lot of TV shows, it can become annoying to navigate to Subtitles > Download and select the appropriate subtitles every time a new episode starts.

Luckily, Kodi has a way to make things more comfortable. It’s entirely possible to streamline the whole subtitle process by installing a service called Autosubs. Follow the steps below to learn how to configure automatic subtitles with Autosubs. Here’s how:

1. While on your home screen, click on Add-ons.
   
2. Now click on the newly appeared Addon Browser (top-left section of the screen).
   
3. Click on Install from repository.
   Note: In order for this to work, you need to have the official Kodi Add-on repository set as the default choice.
4. Select Services from the newly appeared list.
   
5. Now look for an AutoSubs entry and tap on it.
   
6.  Hit Install and wait for the process to complete.
   
7. Once the Autosubs service is installed, a subtitle dialog will open every time you start a video.

Bonus 2: Installing the new official OpenSubtitles addon

Just to simplify thing even further, I thought I should mention that OpenSubtitles.org has recently launched an official add-on for Kodi. This addon will not require you to authenticate or create a new account. Even more, you can combine that with a Context Menu addon that will enable you to search for subtitles before playing a video. Here’s how:

Note: It would be a good idea to remove the old OpenSubtitles addon if you already installed on your Kodi build. Since the old version requires authentication, it can cause conflicts with the new one.

1. Download the official OpenSubtitles addon from this GitHub page and paste it in a familiar location.
2. Open Kodi and go to Add-ons > Add-on Browser (top-left corner of the screen).
   
3. Click on Install from zip file.
4. Navigate to the location where you downloaded the OpenSubtitles addon and select it to install.
5. Download the Context Menu addon from here and store it in a familiar location.
6. Return to Add-ons > Add-on Browser (top-left corner of the screen).
7. Click on Install from zip file and navigate to the location of the Context Menu.

This will allow you to prepare the subtitles in advance so you don’t have to get up from the couch ever again.

Wrap Up

That’s about it. You have all the knowledge you need to enable and configure subtitles on Kodi 17 Krypton. Depending on the build you’re on, some settings might be a little different than here. Anyways, feel free to experiment with the various Kodi add-ons and let us know if you discover a better method of enabling subtitles.