Subtitle Sorter

The Subtitle Sorter reads every cue in the SRT you paste into the SRT Content box, arranges them in ascending order of start time, and writes the file back out with fresh sequential numbering from 1. The input is a standard SRT file and the output is a standard SRT file, downloadable as .srt, with identical text and timecodes but a corrected running order.

Out-of-order cues are almost always a side effect of editing rather than an authoring mistake. You merge the subtitles for two halves of a programme and the second file's cues land after the first file's in index order but not in time order. A colleague pastes a missed line at the bottom of the file rather than in position. A conversion script emits cues grouped by speaker instead of by clock. Players and QC tools react badly: some display the file in file order and show captions at the wrong moment, others stop rendering after the first backwards jump, and validators flag the file as malformed. Editors, subtitle QC operators and anyone stitching together episodic content hit this constantly.

The tool parses the file into cue objects with numeric start and end times in milliseconds, performs a stable sort on start time alone, then serialises the list back into SRT with indices renumbered to match the new sequence. Because the sort key is only the start time, cues that begin at the same millisecond keep their existing relative order, which preserves the intended stacking of simultaneous speaker lines. Cue text, line breaks and end times are carried through untouched, so nothing about the content or duration is altered.

There are no options to configure - a single textarea and a run action - and the whole thing executes in your browser, so files stay private and even long feature-length tracks reorder instantly.

• Chronological reordering by start time: Every cue is placed according to its numeric start timestamp, so the file plays in the order a viewer would actually experience it rather than the order it happened to be typed in.
• Automatic renumbering: After sorting, indices are rewritten as a clean 1 to n sequence, which is what strict SRT parsers and broadcast validators expect to see.
• Stable for identical start times: Two cues that begin at the same moment keep their original relative order, so stacked speaker lines and overlapping captions do not get shuffled.
• Text and durations preserved: Only the ordering and the index numbers change; dialogue, line breaks and end timecodes come through exactly as they went in.
• Single-field simplicity: The tool has just the SRT Content box and a run action, with no settings to get wrong under deadline pressure.
• Handles large merged files: Concatenated multi-part episodes with thousands of cues are parsed and sorted in one pass without splitting the file.
• Runs entirely in the browser: Nothing is uploaded, which makes it usable on embargoed or client-confidential material.

1. Click Load sample to see a deliberately jumbled file and how the sorted version differs, if this is your first time with the tool.
2. Paste the complete subtitle file into the SRT Content box - if you have just merged two SRTs, paste the merged result rather than the pieces.
3. Run the sorter; there are no options to set, because ordering by start time is the only sensible interpretation of a chronological subtitle track.
4. Check the output pane: the first cue should be numbered 1 with the earliest timecode in the file, and the numbering should run without gaps to the end.
5. Spot-check any point where you know two cues shared a start time, confirming they are still stacked in the order you intended.
6. Copy the corrected track or download it as a .srt file, then load it against picture to confirm playback no longer jumps backwards.

Example 1 - a late correction pasted at the end of the file. A missed line was appended rather than inserted, so the file ends with a cue that belongs near the start.

Before
1
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000
And that concludes the tour.

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,500
First, look at the entrance hall.

After
1
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,500
First, look at the entrance hall.

2
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000
And that concludes the tour.

Example 2 - two reels merged in the wrong order. Reel two's cues carried indices 1 to 40 and landed ahead of reel one after a naive concatenation. Sorting by start time interleaves them correctly and renumbers the whole track from 1, which is what turns a file a validator called malformed into one that plays cleanly end to end.

• Restores correct playback immediately: Captions stop appearing at the wrong moment or vanishing entirely after the first backwards time jump, without you re-timing anything.
• Makes merged episodes deliverable: Files stitched together from multiple reels or contributors become a single valid track that passes validation on the first attempt.
• Removes tedious manual reordering: Dragging cues around in an editor to fix ordering can take an hour on a long file and is easy to get wrong; this is one click.
• Protects your existing sync: Since timings are never recalculated, a sorted file is still frame-accurate against the same picture it was authored to.
• Gives you tidy indices for handoff: Clean 1 to n numbering means colleagues and clients can refer to cue numbers and mean the same thing you do.
• Keeps work confidential: The file is processed in your browser, so unreleased programming never travels to a third-party server.