YouTube – Improve Auto-Generated Subtitles/CC for Videos

subtitlestranslationyoutube

Is it possible to edit the auto-generated subtitles/closed captions for a YouTube video from someone else? How?

I found a Dutch video that I want to add English subtitles for, with these steps:

  1. Fix the autogenerated Dutch captions
  2. Use those for automatic translation to English
  3. Fix the English translation

My guess is that this is the fastest way, and in the meantime I'll contribute to the Dutch subtitles as well.

But I'm stuck on the first step.

Best Answer

I have found a way to do so:

  1. Use Google2SRT to download the auto-generated captions to a .srt file (Subrip text file format):

Google2SRT download dialog

  1. Use Subtitle edit to edit the .srt file. This is an extremely powerful editor; it can even use Google Translate to start a file in a new language, that is then automatically opened side-by-side:

using Subtitle Edit

  1. Go to the YouTube video in question, click on More, then Transcript, and open the drop down to choose Add subtitles/CC:

"More" menu

  1. Choose the language that you want to upload the .srt file for, and under Actions choose Upload a file:

"Actions" menu

  1. You can then upload your .srt file. Click Submit for review in the top right corner, answer Yes, they are ready to be reviewed and it will go into the review process that YouTube has.

Note: as user130273 said in another answer: not all videos allow this.

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