How to Sync Subtitles in VLC on Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android Mobiles

With over 3 billion downloads since its launch, VLC is quite possibly the most popular media player. There’s a good reason for this. It is open source and available for free. Additionally, VLC has apps for a variety of platforms and devices, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Apple TV, Android, Android TV, Xbox One, Chrome OS, and more. VLC is also available on Apple Watch. But beyond that, the great thing about VLC is that it’s lightweight and easy to use. VLC is great for processing any video file you throw at it, but sometimes you need to step in, like with subtitles. Ideally, you can download perfectly synced subtitles without any adjustments. But if you’re not so lucky and want to know how to sync them manually on VLC, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s how to sync subtitles on VLC on Android, Android TV, iPhone, iPad, macOS, and Windows.

How to sync subtitles in VLC on Mac

During playback you can press H or J Adjusts subtitle delay by 50 milliseconds with each key press. If the subtitles are behind the sound, press H. If the subtitles come before the sound, press J.

Or, if you need to be very specific, follow these steps to sync subtitles in VLC on Mac:

1. Open the video you want to watch.
2. Go to subtitle > subtitle track Check if subtitles are turned on.
3. Go to window > Orbital synchronization.
4. Under Subtitles/Video, use Subtitle track synchronization Adjust subtitles.

If the subtitles are ahead of the sound, enter a positive number, which will delay the subtitles. If the subtitles are behind the sound, enter a negative number to speed up the subtitles.

How to sync subtitles in VLC on PC (Windows)

During playback you can press G or H Adjusts subtitle delay by 50 milliseconds with each key press. If the subtitles are behind the sound, press G. If the subtitles come before the sound, press H.

Or, if you need to be very specific, follow these steps to sync subtitles in VLC on PC (Windows):

1. Open the video you want to watch.
2. Go to subtitle > suborbital Check if subtitles are enabled.
3. Go to tool > Orbital synchronization.
4. Under Subtitles/Video, use Subtitle track synchronization Adjust subtitles.

If the subtitles are ahead of the sound, enter a positive number which will delay the subtitles as shown in parentheses. If the subtitles are behind the sound, enter a negative number, which will speed up the subtitles, as shown in parentheses.

How to sync subtitles in VLC on Android phone/Android TV

Please follow the steps below to sync subtitles in VLC on Android phone/Android TV:

1. Open the video you want to watch.
2. Click speech balloon icon, located next to the large play icon. On Android TV, there are several rewind icons in between.
3. Click subtitle track Check if subtitles are turned on.
4. choose subtitle delay from the speech balloon menu.

If the subtitles are ahead of the sound, click the plus (“+”) icon to delay the subtitles. If the subtitles lag behind the sound, tap the minus (“–”) icon to speed up the subtitles.

How to sync subtitles on VLC on iPhone/iPad

Please follow the steps below to sync subtitles on VLC on iPhone/iPad:

1. Open the video you want to watch.
2. Click speech balloon The icon in the lower right corner checks whether subtitles are on.
3. Click on the clock symbol in the lower right corner.
4. below subtitle delaydrag the circle icon to set the delay.

If the subtitles are ahead of the sound, drag the bar to the right, which will delay the subtitles. If the subtitles are behind the sound, drag the slider to the left, which will speed up the subtitles playback speed.

For more tutorials, visit our how-to section.