How to Download YouTube Subtitles

Everyone wants convenience and the possibility of saving time with clever shortcuts. With YouTube being one of the world’s largest sharing platforms for video content, understanding how to download subtitles from YouTube videos is one of the clever shortcuts that can help speed up your workflow.

Whether you’re a content creator looking for an easier way to subtitle your work or someone who needs to understand what’s being said in a foreign language, downloading subtitles from YouTube might be just the trick you need. This article highlights how to download subtitles from YouTube videos in a few easy steps.

Why Use Subtitles?

Subtitles are essential to the video experience, enabling you to customize your experience and ensuring you don’t miss any dialog or sound effects. They also improve the accessibility of content to anyone with a hearing impairment while breaking down language barriers.

It’s not just a matter of convenience; captions help boost SEO and attract more video views. With subtitles, your content becomes available to all viewers, regardless of their location or language preferences.

Downloading Subtitles for a YouTube Video

When ready to download YouTube subtitles online, start by finding the subtitle file first. To do this, navigate to the video page on YouTube and look for the “Subtitles/CC” option on the right side of the screen and click on it. Clicking on it will open up a drop-down menu with various language options. Select your preferred language and click “Download” to download the subtitles (stored as “.sbv” files).

Once done, upload the .sbv file back onto YouTube. To do this, go back to the video page on YouTube and select “Upload a File” from the drop-down menu next to your chosen language. Then select your downloaded .sbv file from your stored files on your device and upload it directly onto YouTube. Voila! The YouTube download subtitles will be ready for use.

It’s important to note that YouTube already has a great feature that offers auto-generated captions that are easily downloadable. However, they don’t always have the highest accuracy. So if you’re looking for more precision, you may want to look into editing them after downloading.

Downloading Subtitles for a YouTube Video Online

Downloading subtitles from YouTube is relatively simple when you use the right tools. You can use YouTube subtitle file downloaders available online to grab the subtitles file from your favorite video, and below are the steps to follow.

• Start by selecting your video. Go to the YouTube page of the video whose subtitles you want to download, and copy its URL (address).

• Go to a YouTube subtitle file downloader service available on your browser. There are several services out there that do this job well. 

• Copy your subtitle file onto your device. Once you have generated the subtitle file from the website, you can download YouTube subtitles as text file formats. You can also choose .srt, .vtt, or .dfxp from the list provided.

You can now watch YouTube videos without struggling, and the best part is that you can still go ahead and translate your subtitles to your preferred language. Furthermore, if you want to share with others, you can do so easily.

Best Tools to Download Subtitles from YouTube

There are several online tools and apps that you can use to download subtitles. Some of the best tools are:

DownSub

DownSub is a free online tool that allows you to download YouTube subtitles in various formats, such as SRT, TXT, and VTT. The website interface is quite simple to navigate. All you have to do is copy the video link from YouTube and paste it onto the website’s ‘paste’ section. After that, select the file format and language you want to download your subtitles and click “Download.” Within seconds you’ll have your subtitle file.

4K Video Downloader

This desktop application can download subtitles from YouTube videos. To begin using 4K Video Downloader, download and install the app, go to YouTube, find the video you want to download subtitles from, and then copy the video URL.

After that, open 4K Video Downloader and click the paste link button. The app will detect the video and display the available subtitles. Choose the subtitle language you want to download and click on the Download button.

Editing Your Downloaded YouTube Subtitles

Now that the YouTube subtitles are downloaded and ready, you can customize them to your needs. Say you want to adjust the length of the subtitle lines or change their size or color. The steps below will help you edit your downloaded YouTube subtitles.

Open the file containing the downloaded subtitles in a text editor such as Subtitle Workshop or Subtitle Edit. This editor can format text styles such as font type, size, color, and outlines. Furthermore, you can adjust subtitle lengths by changing the ‘Start Time’ and ‘End Time’ values in each subtitle line to increase or decrease the number of times the words appear on the screen.

Once done, you can save the file as a .srt file, which is compatible with most video players. Finally, upload this file back onto YouTube for playback with subtitles added. There’s no limit to what you can do when customizing your YouTube subtitles, so have fun creating unique stuff for your viewers!

Converting YouTube Subtitles to TXT Files

The step-by-step guide below will help you convert YouTube subtitles into TXT files.

• Copy the URL of the video you downloaded subtitles for.

• Open a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit and paste the copied text. 

• Save the file with a .txt extension by clicking on “File” and then “Save As” and select “Text Document” or “Plain Text” as the file type. Your YouTube subtitles have now been converted to a TXT file.

Takeaway

Whether you’re looking for a way to watch a foreign language video or want to turn on subtitles to quickly understand a point, downloading subtitles from YouTube is a simple and effective solution. By understanding the few steps involved and some patience, you can have subtitles ready and running on all your favorite YouTube videos in no time.