DaVinci Resolve won’t import your subtitle file
DaVinci Resolve won’t import SRT
Seen in: DaVinci Resolve
What is actually wrong
Resolve’s Media Pool > Import Subtitle expects a well-formed SRT in UTF-8. A file that is really WebVTT, ASS or a transcript with an .srt extension, a file with a byte-order mark and Windows-1252 accents, or a file with a broken cue near the top will import as nothing, import with garbled characters, or be refused outright.
Fix it here: VTT to SRT
Drop the file. It is detected and converted in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Free to start, no signup.
Convert a file now
Conversions …
Drop EDL, SRT, VTT, .prtranscript, or transcript files
Any caption, transcript or timeline file: CutConvert picks the converter and shows what survives · up to 100 KB per file
The fix, step by step
Open the file in a plain text editor
If the first line is WEBVTT, [Script Info] or a brace, the file is not SRT no matter what the extension says. Convert it below.
Convert or validate
Drop the file into the converter. VTT, ASS and transcript JSON become clean SRT. If it already is SRT, the validator on this site names the broken cue.
Import through the Media Pool
Right-click in the Media Pool, choose Import Subtitle, then drag the subtitle clip onto a subtitle track on the timeline. Do not import it as media.
The five failure modes, in order of likelihood
1. It is not actually SRT. Zoom, Vimeo, YouTube and most transcription services hand out WebVTT. Some editors rename it to .srt so it will show up in a file dialog. Resolve opens it, reads WEBVTT where it expects a cue number, and imports nothing. The same happens with an ASS script or a Whisper JSON under an .srt name. The converter on this page detects the real format and writes true SRT.
2. The timestamps use dots. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.500 is VTT syntax. SRT wants a comma before the milliseconds. Resolve is stricter about this than VLC. Converting from VTT fixes it in every cue at once.
3. Encoding. An SRT saved from an old Windows tool in Windows-1252, or from Word with smart quotes, imports with accented characters replaced by question marks or boxes. Resolve reads UTF-8. Re-saving as UTF-8 in a text editor fixes it; the converters here always write UTF-8.
4. A broken cue. A missing blank line between cues, an end time before its start, or a cue number that repeats can stop the import partway through. Resolve does not tell you which cue. The SRT validator on this site does, with the line number.
5. Wrong import path. Dragging an .srt into the Media Pool as if it were a clip creates nothing useful. Subtitles come in through Import Subtitle and land on a subtitle track, which Resolve adds when you drop the clip on the timeline.
Timing and the timeline start
Resolve places imported cues relative to the start of the timeline, so a subtitle file that begins at 00:00:00 lines up with a timeline whose first frame is 01:00:00:00. If your cues came from a file with a burned-in offset, the SRT shifter tool moves the whole file by a constant amount before import.
Keep the file on your machine
Detection, conversion and validation all run in the browser. Nothing is uploaded, which is why you can do this on an unreleased cut without a second thought.
FAQ
- Does DaVinci Resolve import VTT?
- Recent versions accept .vtt through Import Subtitle, but SRT is the format every Resolve version reads reliably. Converting to SRT removes the version question.
- My subtitles imported but show boxes instead of accents.
- That is an encoding problem, not a Resolve problem. Convert or re-save the file as UTF-8 and import again.
- Can I import an SRT straight onto the timeline?
- Import it into the Media Pool with Import Subtitle first, then drag the subtitle clip onto the timeline. Resolve creates the subtitle track automatically.