Step-by-step guide to Arabic subtitles on Netflix

I watch Netflix in English and was always annoyed that I can add German and French subtitles – but not in Arabic. I had installed several add-ons and plugins to fix that but, to be honest, I was never really satisfied.

Sometimes the quality of the subtitles was bad; sometimes the plugins didn’t work on my Chromecast or Amazon Fire Stick. As an alternative, I watched movies on MBC2 because they show English films with Arabic subtitles. But Netflix is just so much better…

In this article, you will learn…

• how to add Arabic subtitles to Netflix movies;
• how to list all available movies with Arabic subtitles;
• how to apply this trick to other languages – you can also watch Netflix stuff with Hebrew, Japanese, Hungarian, Greek, etc. subtitles;
• how to use other tools for language learning with Netflix.

I thought that all this was related to copyright issues, broadcasting rights, or IP geoblocking. But now I know, that’s just nonsense.

By chance, I found a way to easily add ARABIC subtitles to almost any movie or series. It works on TVs and with streaming sticks. You don’t need to install anything.

It is just a little trick in your Netflix account settings.

Here is a step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Go to “manage profiles” on Netflix

Here is a direct link: https://www.netflix.com/profiles/manage

Remark: If you are not logged in, you need to sign-in first. After you have done that, you may need to click on the above link again or you click in the right corner on manage profiles.

Step 2: Add a new profile

Now press Add Profile. We name the new profile Arabic.

–> Press continue.

Step 3: Adjust the language setting of your new profile

Now we will apply a simple trick that will enable us to add Arabic subtitles. Open your newly created “Arabic” profile. You just need to click anywhere inside the profile.

You will now see some options.

Open the “Language” drop-down menu. You will see more than 20 languages.

Netflix assumes that this is your native language and will use this language to display your interface. So watch out: You need to be able to read Arabic. Otherwise, you will struggle to adjust your settings.

–> Select Arabic (العربية) as language.

–> Once you have done that, press SAVE.

You will now return to the main screen showing all your different profiles.

–> Press DONE.

Step 4: Select your newly created profile “Arabic”

Once you have pressed on the DONE-button, it means that you have finished editing your profile. You will now see all your profiles again – with the difference that as soon as you click on one of the profiles, it will get activated.

–> Select the new profile: “Arabic”.

You will see a list with movies. Netflix wants to know more about your taste. This is not important. You can ignore it.

–> Just press متابعة.

Netflix will now set up your screen in Arabic…

This may take up to 5 seconds. In May 2020, I got a welcome screen showing Money Heist which by the way is called “el-Brufisur” in Arabic as you can see below ;-)

Step 5: Choose a movie that offers Arabic subtitles

Now comes another trick. Not every movie or series has Arabic subtitles. So, how can we find out that there are Arabic subtitles available?

TIP Click on this link to do a query for Arabic subtitles:

You should now automatically see all available movies with Arabic subtitles. If it didn’t work, click on the drop-down menu and select الترجمة. In the next field, select العربية.

Hint: By choosing الصوت instead of الترجمة, you get a list of all movies and series with Arabic audio.

I select Ozark.

Step 6: Choose Arabic for the subtitles

This is the last step: You now only need to select your preferred audio language (English, German, Russian, Turkish) and select ARABIC (العربية) for your subtitles.

That’s it.

The result

If you want to switch back to your main profile, just click on the (in my case yellow) smiley on the very left of your screen or simply restart Netflix on your Fire stick or Google Chromecast.

Some hints

How to quickly find Arabic movies on Netflix

If you would like to search for Arabic movies, you can use the search bar on the top and enter Arabic in English.

Watch Arabic movies with Arabic subtitles

As soon as you change your profile to Arabic, you will notice that you suddenly have many ARABIC cartoons and movies – films that were produced originally in Modern Standard Arabic or an Arabic dialect.

That’s great news: Now you have the option to watch Arabic movies with Arabic subtitles!

I was looking for such an option for a very long time because I always wanted to watch Arabic movies with Arabic subtitles. I do that in English all the time, so I got used to it.

I guess this trick has solved the almost never-ending story of Arabic subtitles on Netflix for good now. :-)

Use this trick for other languages

On Netflix, you typically have 5 to 7 of the subtitle languages most popular in your region.

You can easily use this method to watch Netflix with Hebrew, Greek, Dutch, Japanese, etc. subtitles.

Here is a list of available languages:

• Arabic
• Bahasa Indonesian
• Danish
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Mandarin
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Spanish
• Suomi
• Swedish
• Turkish

You follow the same steps – except for one thing (which is quite obvious): Instead of Arabic, you choose your desired language ;-)

Other tools for language learning with Netflix

I didn’t know that it was actually that easy to get Arabic subtitles on Netflix. Instead, I tried out many tools and wrote about them. Some of them are still very helpful.

Perfect Strangers: Arabic Film Sparks Debate in Egypt

• Movies & Series

byGerald Drißner

January 30, 2022

Add Arabic subtitles on Netflix: A simple guide

• Movies & Series

byGerald Drißner

November 20, 2017

Picture credit: Screenshots of Netflix