How to Turn Off Subtitles on a Roku Device

Roku is an amazing streaming device and it definitely can be one of your favorite things to do on a lazy Sunday. Whether for binge watching TV shows or enjoying some oldie but goldies, this little device can help you relax and recharge your batteries for the following week.

But then, you already know all of that. You might’ve gotten sick of subtitles on your Roku or accidentally turned them on, or was it someone else who turned them on and left them on?

If it’s the latter, you certainly wouldn’t want to call that person and give him or her the pleasure of knowing that you don’t know how to work the subtitles, right? You don’t have to. Here’s how!

Turning Off the Subtitles

Just like enabling subtitles, you have two ways to disable them. Both are extremely simple as long as you know the way.

You can turn them off by:

1. Pressing the Home button, which is on your Roku’s remote control.
2. Pressing the arrows to navigate and find Settings in the menu.
3. Finding Accessibility (or Captions if you’re using an older version of Roku) and opening it with the right arrow.
4. Choosing Captions mode from the menu.
5. Turning off the subtitles.

This will apply to everything you watch in the future. If, however, you’d like to turn off the captions for a particular program without applying it to all programs, you can disable the captions in the middle of watching a show.

If you press an arrow button or the Play/Pause button while the show is on, you will see a small icon – which should be orange if your subtitles are on. It’s located in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you deactivate the captions, it should become white. In the event that there are no available subtitles for this show at all, the icon is grey.

The quicker way to turn off the captions on your Roku device is to press the star button (*) on your remote control.

When a pop-up window shows up on your screen, use the arrows to navigate and open the Closed Captions option. Set the subtitles to Off and press the star button again to close the menu and continue watching.

Note that you don’t have to leave the show or stop watching to turn off the captions – the pop-up window allows you to make this change while the show is playing.

Changing the Subtitle Language on Roku

There may be times when you find changing the language or the style of the subtitles more suitable than turning them off completely. English is the default language for most devices, but you can choose another language or, if the subtitles are not in English, change them back.

The simplest way to change the language back to English is to reset your device to factory settings by holding the side button on your Roku remote for up to 30 seconds.

If you want your subtitle language to be other than English, try this.

1. Press the Home button on your Roku stick.
2. Use arrows to navigate and open Settings, go down the page.
3. Choose Accessibility from the menu.
4. Select Captions preferred language and then your language of choice from the list.

After you close the menu, your subtitles should appear in the chosen language.

Some other apps or streaming services will require you to change the language in a different way. For example, here’s how to change it on Viki Channel.

1. Open the Main Menu on the homepage of your Roku and select Settings then System.
2. Now select Language.
3. Scroll through the languages to find the one you’d like for the subtitles.

Other Options for Personalizing Your Roku

Setting the wallpaper is among the first things we do with a new device. It’s out of a love for making our devices look like they belong to us. That’s why besides changing the language or disabling the subtitles, you may want to try out other options to make your Roku experience more personalized.

As you can imagine, they’re all under Settings. For example, you can change your Roku’s interface by selecting a theme. Press the Home button and do as follows: Settings>Themes>My themes>pick a theme from the list and press OK to save your choice.

You can even rename your Roku device. Sign in to your account and find the My linked devices tab. If you haven’t changed its name before, your device is simply known as its serial number. Select the Rename option under your device’s current name and confirm once you’re done.

Doing this from the Roku app may be even easier. Just open the app and tap the Settings icon. When it’s open, tap the device you want to rename and then choose Device Name and Location. Delete the current name. After you type in the new name, tap Done.

Enjoy Your Roku to the Max

Roku is mostly user-friendly so it’s not difficult to find all the necessary options to make yours work in the best way possible. If the subtitles are no longer your thing, or if they show up for no reason, it’s so simple to turn them off!

Have you disabled the subtitles on your Roku? Tell us in the comments below!