We’ve all been there. You’re trying to enjoy a gorgeous cinematic trailer or a fast-paced cooking tutorial, and suddenly, giant white blocks of text start flooding the bottom of your screen. Sometimes they’re helpful. Other times, they are a complete disaster—autogenerated gibberish that covers up the very thing you’re trying to look at. If you’re wondering how to take captions off YouTube, the good news is that it’s usually just a single tap away, but the "how" changes depending on whether you’re clutching an iPhone, sitting at a gaming rig, or shouting at your smart TV remote.
Captions are basically the "check engine" light of video streaming. You ignore them until they start bothering you, and then you realize you have no idea how to make them stop. It’s actually kind of funny how tucked away these settings can feel. YouTube calls them CC (Closed Captions), and while they are an accessibility godsend for millions, they can also feel like visual clutter when you don't need them.
Honestly, the logic behind why they turn on automatically is a bit of a mystery. Sometimes it’s because of your account settings; other times, the uploader "forced" them on. Whatever the reason, let's get them off your screen.
The quick fix for desktop users
If you’re on a laptop or a PC, you have the easiest path. You don't even need to dive into menus most of the time. Just look at the bottom right of the video player. See that little box with the "CC" inside it? Click it. That’s it. If there’s a red line under it, they’re on. If the line is gone, they’re off.
But wait. There’s a pro tip.
Keyboard shortcuts are your best friend here. If you’re in the middle of a video and don't want to hunt for the mouse, just hit the 'c' key on your keyboard. It toggles the captions instantly. It’s the fastest way to handle the situation without breaking your flow.
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Sometimes, though, clicking the CC button doesn't feel like enough because you want to change how they look rather than just killing them entirely. If you click the gear icon (Settings) right next to the CC button, and then click "Subtitles/CC," you’ll see an "Options" link at the top of that tiny menu. In there, you can turn the background transparent or make the text tiny. If you’re only turning them off because they’re too big, maybe just shrinking them to 50% is the real answer.
Mobile struggles: iPhone and Android
Using the mobile app is a different beast. The interface is cramped.
To take captions off on a phone, tap the video once to bring up the overlay. You’ll see a "CC" icon in the top right corner of the player. Tap it. You should see a small notification at the bottom of the screen saying "Captions turned off."
If you don’t see the CC button directly, YouTube might be hiding it inside the "Additional settings" menu. Look for the gear icon or the three dots in the top right. Tap that, then select "Captions." From there, you can select "Turn off captions."
One thing that drives people crazy is when captions keep coming back every time you start a new video. That’s usually because of your global account settings. To fix this permanently:
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- Tap your profile picture.
- Hit Settings.
- Find "Captions."
- Toggle the "Show captions" switch to the off position.
On Android, this might actually kick you over to your phone's system-wide Google accessibility settings. Don't panic. It's just how Android handles subtitles across different apps. If you turn them off there, they should stay off in YouTube too.
Why do they keep coming back?
It’s annoying, right? You turn them off, watch one video, click a new one, and there they are again.
This usually happens because of "sticky settings." YouTube tries to be smart. If you manually turned on captions for a video in a noisy room, the algorithm thinks, "Oh, they like captions now," and applies it to your whole session. To break this cycle, you have to go into your playback settings on a desktop browser. Go to your YouTube Account Settings, then "Playback and performance," and make sure "Always show captions" is unchecked. Also, uncheck "Include auto-generated captions (when available)." This is the "nuke" option for subtitles.
Dealing with the Smart TV nightmare
Smart TVs have the most frustrating UI for this. Whether you're using a Roku, Apple TV, or the native app on your Samsung or LG, the remote is your only weapon.
First, press the "Up" or "Down" button on your remote while a video is playing to bring up the playback bar. Navigate over to the "CC" icon (usually on the left or far right depending on the version of the app). Click it. Select "Off."
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The catch? Some TV remotes have a dedicated "Subtitle" or "CC" button that overrides the app settings. If you’ve accidentally hit that on your physical remote, the YouTube app might be forced to display them. Check your actual TV settings if the app-level fix isn't sticking.
When the captions are "burned in"
Here is the one scenario where you are out of luck: "Open Captions."
Unlike Closed Captions (the ones you can toggle), open captions are literally part of the video file. The creator "burned" them into the image during the editing process. You see this a lot with viral social media clips or international news segments where the translation is vital. If you can't find a CC button and the text looks different than the standard YouTube font, they are probably burned in. You can't turn those off. They are pixels, not data.
Practical steps for a cleaner screen
If you want to ensure your YouTube experience stays clutter-free, follow these specific steps to audit your account:
- Desktop Audit: Go to youtube.com/account_playback and verify that "Always show captions" is disabled. This is the master switch.
- Mobile Reset: Clear your app cache if the CC button seems to be glitching or won't stay off. On Android, this is in your phone's App settings; on iPhone, you might need to just offload and reinstall the app.
- Browser Extensions: If you're on Chrome or Firefox, some "Enhancer for YouTube" extensions have a feature that forces captions to stay off regardless of what the video demands. It's a bit of a power-user move, but it works.
- Incognito Mode: If you’re on a shared computer and captions are driving you nuts, opening YouTube in an Incognito/Private window often resets the player to its default "off" state, provided the creator hasn't forced them on.
By managing both your individual video settings and your global account preferences, you can finally stop the constant battle with the CC button. Most of the time, the "c" key shortcut or the top-right toggle on your phone is all you need to reclaim your screen.