Updated 2026-09-20 · Steps for viewers and for creators
How to turn off YouTube auto dubbing
You opened a video and someone is speaking your language in a voice that clearly is not the creator's. Nothing is broken. YouTube generated a translated audio track and played it instead of the original — and it did not ask first.
Below: the one-video fix, the permanent fix, the creator switch, and an honest answer to the question underneath all of this — whether you want no dubbing, or dubbing you actually control.
Why is my YouTube dubbed in English all of a sudden?
YouTube generates translated audio tracks for eligible videos automatically. The feature is on by default for eligible creators, new uploads get dubbed as they are published, and YouTube has said it may also generate dubs for videos that were published earlier. That is why a channel you have followed for years can suddenly start speaking a different language.
Which track you hear is decided by your account's preferred language. You never switched anything on — the default simply matched you to a dub.
Does YouTube auto dubbing use AI?
Yes. The translation and the voice are both machine-generated. YouTube is also piloting a lip sync feature that alters the speaker's mouth movements to match the dubbed audio, currently limited to select channels and qualifying videos.
What does “auto-dubbed” mean on YouTube?
It is a label, not an error. YouTube marks a video auto-dubbed in its description when the audio you are hearing is a translated track the system generated, rather than the audio the creator recorded. Seeing the label is the useful part: when a video has been auto dubbed, the original track stays published alongside the generated one, so you can always switch back.
If you are a viewer
The label explains why a familiar channel suddenly sounds wrong. You were matched to a dub because of your account's preferred language, not because the creator chose it for you specifically. Two clicks in the player put the original back — steps in the next section.
If it is your own video
The label means YouTube published a generated dub of your upload to viewers in other languages. Uploads from eligible channels get auto dubbed by default, so you did not have to opt in. You can switch it off entirely, or keep it and review each dub before it goes live — both options are covered further down.
Where the label appears
In the video description. There is no badge on the player itself, which is why most people notice the voice before they ever notice the label — and why so many assume something is broken rather than that a feature is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
Turn off auto dubbing on one video
Fastest route when a single video is playing in the wrong language. It changes nothing else about your account.
- 1
Open the video that is dubbed
Any video showing an 'auto-dubbed' note in its description has more than one audio track. The original is still there — it is just not the one playing.
- 2
Open Settings in the player
Click the gear icon in the video player controls, the same menu you use for playback speed and quality.
- 3
Select Audio track, then the original language
YouTube lists every track published for that video. Pick the original language and the creator's real voice comes back immediately.
The same Audio track menu exists in the YouTube app on iPhone and Android. It only appears on videos that actually have more than one track, so if you do not see it, that video was never dubbed.
Stop auto dubbing for good: set your preferred audio language
This is the setting that actually decides your default. Do it once and you stop switching tracks video by video.
- 1.Click your profile picture.
- 2.Click Settings.
- 3.Click Playback & Performance.
- 4.Under Language, click add or edit languages.
- 5.Select the languages you understand, then confirm.
The part that does the work: content whose original audio is already one of your preferred languages will not be translated — it defaults to the original audio. So add every language you genuinely understand, not just your first one. Add Japanese and Japanese videos stop being dubbed at you.
YouTube notes that this preference is separate from your app language and location settings, and that it does not affect your search results or recommendations.
When YouTube plays a video in the wrong language
A related symptom, and people rarely connect it to dubbing: the audio is not in your language and not in the original either, or a channel you have watched for years suddenly changed language overnight. Titles and descriptions can shift too, which makes it feel like the whole app broke.
It is the same mechanism. YouTube matched the video to your preferred language list and served a translated track. The fix is the setting in the section above — and the reason adding every language you understand matters is exactly this: a language on that list is never dubbed at you, it plays as recorded.
How to disable auto dubbing on Shorts
Straight answer: YouTube does not document a switch that applies to Shorts only, and the Shorts player does not surface the Audio track menu the way the normal player does.
The lever that does work is the account-level preferred language setting in the section above. It governs which audio track you get across YouTube rather than one video at a time, which makes it the practical fix for a feed you scroll rather than a video you choose.
Disable auto dubbing on your own channel
If the dubbed voice is being put on your videos, the switch lives in YouTube Studio:
- 1.Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- 2.Click Settings, then Channel, then Advanced settings.
- 3.Uncheck Allow automatic dubbing.
- 4.Click Save.
There is a middle option if you want the reach without the surprises: leave automatic dubbing on and check Manually review dubs before publishing in the same panel. Nothing goes live until you have heard it.
Why auto dubbing is not available on some videos
YouTube lists five reasons a video is ineligible: it runs longer than 120 minutes; it has no speech, only music, or very little spoken content; the original audio is in an unsupported language; the source language could not be detected; or the speech is fast enough that a dub would come out unlistenably sped up.
Why YouTube auto dubbing lands badly for so many people
The complaints are consistent, and they are not really about translation quality:
- Nobody asked for it. It arrives on by default, on a channel you chose to follow in its original language.
- One voice for everyone. A conversation between two people comes out in a single flat voice, and the delivery that made the creator worth watching is gone.
- The original is buried. You can get it back, but only if you know the Audio track menu exists — and most viewers do not.
If you do want dubbing — but on your terms
Worth separating two different complaints. Some people want the dubbing gone, full stop — everything above solves that. Others landed here because a video they wanted to understand was dubbed badly, and switching back to the original leaves them watching something they still cannot follow.
If you are in the second group, the problem was never dubbing. It was dubbing you had no say in. That is the gap EarDub fills — a free Chrome extension that dubs YouTube videos only when you ask it to:
You decide when dubbing starts
Nothing plays until you click the button in the player. No default, no surprise audio swap.
Choose the voice, keep the original
Pick from 60+ neural voices, and keep the creator's real voice underneath at whatever volume you want.
Languages YouTube will not dub into
Cantonese, Turkish, Vietnamese and more — 17 dubbing languages in total, independent of what a creator enabled.
One honest limit: EarDub builds the dub from the video's captions, so a video with no captions at all cannot be dubbed yet. Most popular videos have at least auto-generated captions, which work fine.
YouTube auto dubbing FAQ
Does turning off auto dubbing also turn off subtitles?
No. The audio track and the captions are two separate settings. You can listen to the original audio and still read translated captions, or the other way around.
Will changing my preferred language affect my recommendations?
No. YouTube states that the preferred language setting is separate from your app language and location settings, and that it does not impact your search results or video recommendations. It only decides which audio track, title and description you get.
Why does the Audio track menu not appear on some videos?
That menu only shows up when a video actually has more than one audio track. If a video was never dubbed, there is nothing to switch between and the menu is hidden.
Is there a way to disable auto dubbing for everyone who watches my channel?
Yes, if it is your channel. In YouTube Studio, go to Settings, then Channel, then Advanced settings, and uncheck 'Allow automatic dubbing'. Existing dubs stop being published and new uploads are not dubbed.
I turned it off, but I still cannot understand the video. Now what?
Turning off auto dubbing gives you the original audio back — it does not translate anything for you. If the problem was never the dub itself but the language barrier, you want dubbing you control rather than no dubbing at all. That is what EarDub does: you press the button, you pick the voice, and the original audio stays available underneath.
More answers about quota, troubleshooting and privacy are in thehelp guide.
Watch in whatever language you choose
Free to install, 1 hour of dubbing every month after a Google sign-in, no credit card. Uninstall anytime and nothing is left behind.
Steps on this page follow Google's published YouTube Help documentation and were checked on 2026-09-20. YouTube may change its interface at any time. EarDub is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google.