As one of the most poplar video sharing sites around the world, YouTube has been widely welcomed and offered worldwide customers with billions of video files. However, you could see that most videos on YouTube have no subtitles. Adding subtitles to YouTube videos of your own can help make your videos more accessible to a wider audience. Having subtitles in your videos actually helps you more than you may think. Subtitles are traditionally used for viewers that are deaf, hard of hearing, or speak a different language. It can be translated by Google, and expands your reach even further than your native language audience.

And whether you're using the Classic or Beta versions of the studio, you should be able to get it done fairly easily. Just keep in mind that the method you use will determine how long it takes to add the captions, or subtitles to your YouTube video.

But how can you add subtitle to YouTube video? Can you upload subtitle file to YouTube videos directly? In this guide, we would like to recommend you 3 ways to add subtitle to YouTube videos so as to make your YouTube videos accessible by more visitors.

Solution 1. Add your own subtitles or closed captions on YouTube

YouTube actually allows you to add your own subtitles or closed captions to YouTube videos uploaded already. However, you need to keep in mind that this is only currently available on YouTube Studio Classic. So, if you're using YouTube Studio Beta, you'll have to switch back to do this.

To do so, click the icon that looks like a figure exiting a room, located in the bottom left corner of the screen. After that, here's how to add your subtitles or closed captions:

  1. Now you need to open YouTube on your browser and then log in with your own YouTube account and password.
  2. Go to your YouTube channel and then select the video you want to upload and add subtitle file to.
  3. Click the pencil edit icon to enter the editing panel.
  4. On the left sidebar column, you could see an option named “Subtitles”. Click it.
  5. You will then be asked to select subtitle language. Choose one and then confirm your choice.
  6. On the next follow-up page, click the “ADD” button under the Subtitle column.
  7. You will then be led to the “Manage subtitle and closed captions” page, where you could see multiple choices: Upload a file, Transcript and auto-sync, and Create new subtitle or cc.
  8. Choose “Create new subtitle or cc” button.
  9. Play the video and pause wherever you want to add a subtitle or closed caption.
  10. Type the subtitles or closed captions into the text box to the left of the video and click the blue "+" button.
  11. In the section below the video, you can drag the new caption or subtitle to adjust when, and how long, it will appear on the screen.
  12. Repeat as necessary, and when finished, click "Publish" or "Save Changes."

In this way, you could add any subtitles or closed captions to your YouTube video, and adjust the position freely.

Solution 2. Upload subtitles file to YouTube

YouTube also allows you to upload subtitle file to YouTube videos. You could upload various subtitle files to YouTube videos. Check the supported subtitle file formats of YouTube video for detailed requirements.

In the below guide, we are going to tell you the process of uploading subtitle file to YouTube video by using Text Editor, which helps you to add cc to YouTube video. You will understand how to add cc to YouTube videos in this way by uploading various subtitle files in other than notepad file. Below is the step-by-step guide for your quick reference.

  1. If you haven’t a generated subtitle file, create one. Open the text Editor on your computer.
  2. Create your own subtitle, such as Subtitle Number (eg: 1), Time Stamp (eg: 01:20:05:00) which reflects one hour, 20 min, 5 seconds and Text, sample text for a song. Check the image below to view the complete sample format.
  3. Then open file menu to save as > file name with srt extension > Save as all files type > Encoding as UTF-8 > Then click the Save button.

  4. Now you need to open YouTube on your browser and then log in with your own YouTube account and password.
  5. Go to your YouTube channel and then select the video you want to upload and add subtitle file to.
  6. Click the pencil edit icon to enter the editing panel.
  7. On the left sidebar column, you could see an option named “Subtitles”. Click it.
  8. You will then be asked to select subtitle language. Choose one and then confirm your choice.
  9. On the next follow-up page, click the “ADD” button under the Subtitle column.
  10. You will then be led to the “Manage subtitle and closed captions” page, where you could see multiple choices: Upload a file, Transcript and auto-sync, and Create new subtitle or cc.
  11. Click the “Upload a file” button.
  12. You then need to determine to upload either Transcript or Subtitle file on the "Upload a file" window.
  13. And then click the "Choose file" button to browse and load the target subtitle file from your computer.
  14. Then click the "Upload" button.

Also, you can make necessary changes by dragging the subtitle bar, and finally publish that.

Solution 3. Add subtitle to video for uploading to YouTube with Leawo Prof. Media

We know there are quite a lot of wonderful subtitle download sites that enable us to download any subtitle for any movie online. What if you have downloaded subtitles from these top subtitle download sites and would like to add to your movie files for uploading to YouTube? Is there any easy way to add subtitle file to video before uploading to YouTube? You need to take a try of Leawo Prof. Media.

Leawo Prof. Media is an all-inclusive media converter suite that offers you the ultimate solutions upon various media files, including Blu-ray, DVD, video, audio, picture, online video, and even ISO image files. Featuring an internal video converter, Leawo Prof. Media enables you to convert videos between various formats like MP4, AVI, WMV, MKV, MOV, 3GP, and 200+ other formats for almost all media players, devices, video editors, etc. You could easily convert video files for uploading to YouTube. The unique thing is that it enables you to add subtitles to videos for uploading to YouTube with subtitles. Therefore, you don’t need to do so many options on YouTube to add subtitles to YouTube videos.

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The below guide would show you how to convert downloaded YouTube video with the Convert module built in Leawo Prof. Media.

Step 1: Enter the Convert module

On Leawo Prof. Media program interface, open “Convert” menu to enter the “Convert” module.

Step 2: Add source videos

Under the “Convert” module, you could directly drag and drop videos, or click the “Add Video” button to browse and load source videos from your computer hard drive.

Note: After loading source videos, you could play back loaded videos, edit loaded videos, select subtitles and audio tracks, take screenshots, etc.  

Step 3: Add subtitle

To add subtitle to video files for uploading to YouTube, you need to click the drop-down box named “Subtitle” in each loaded video title and then click the “Add Subtitles” option. You then will need to browse and load subtitle files in SRT, ASS or SSA file format. After selecting the external subtitle file you have downloaded, click the “Open” button.

Step 4: Set output format

Set an output format for video files. Hit the button next to the “Add Photo” button and then click “Change” option to enter the “Profile” panel. Choose output format from “Format” or “Device” group according to your needs. To upload output video to YouTube, you could choose MP4 Video, FLV Video or other YouTube compatible video format from the “Format > Common Video” group.

Step 5: Change video and audio parameters of output file

You could adjust the video and audio parameters of output file for YouTube. Click the “Edit” option on the drop-down panel next to the “Add Photo” button and then adjust the parameters like video codec, video bit rate, aspect ratio, resolution, audio codec, sample rate, bit rate, channel, etc.

Step 6: Set output directory and convert

After setting output format, return to the main interface, and then click the green “Convert” button. On the popup sidebar, set output directory in the “Save to” option. You could see required disk space here. Finally, click the “Convert” option to start converting videos with subtitles added for uploading to YouTube.

Once the conversion completes, you could get YouTube compatible videos with desired subtitles added successfully. Now, just go to YouTube site and upload the converted video file to YouTube as you usually. Once the upload completes, you will get a YouTube video with subtitles you like.

Conclusion

You could add subtitles to YouTube videos in the 3 ways mentioned above as you like. Compared to the former 2 methods, the last one by using Leawo Prof. Media would help you save your time and energy since it offers much easier operations, though it requires existing subtitle file. Besides adding subtitles to video for uploading to YouTube, Leawo Prof. Media also enables you to handle other multimedia conversions, such as converting Blu-ray/DVD to video, copying Blu-ray/DVD, burning video to Blu-ray/DVD, downloading online videos, and more. Leawo Prof. Media offers more comprehensive multimedia solutions for you.