The VideoLAN Forums

Any idea why? Is this intended? There was .txt support before this update.

TXT subtitles are still working but they are not automatically loaded anymore:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=144067

Hm, I can't even load them manualy :/

yes, I can confirm that for 3.0.4 (Mac and Windows). I guess I had that for earlier versions too. No automatic load of .txt, manual load doesn't work either. A workaround is to rename .txt to .srt. I think it is a bug.

BTW, if automatic loading of .txt is was turned off intentionally then I ask why? Why not have it as a fallback? In certain countries .txt is very common, VLC will loose audience this way.

Try to report this issue at https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/
VLC could preserve the support for txt subtitles. Probably it is not a special subtitle format. Is it just the wrong filename extension for SubRip srt or MicroDVD sub subtitle format? I had some experience with the txt subtitles in the past. I think the idea of txt filename extension came from Poland within a media player used in that area. Txt subtitles are still supported by hardware media players (set-top box, tv, ...). Users could already have burned txt subtitles on their cds/dvds so if old VLC versions can play them automatically, new VLC should play them, too. Now they can be loaded only manually (not drag&drop, but VLC menu: Subtitles > Add Subtitle File...).

The related ticket: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/21462
The support for automatic loading of txt subtitles has been dropped in VLC 3.
Please try following VLC Extensions during playback of a video: https://addons.videolan.org/p/1276669/
Please let me know whether the extensions work for you and which one is better. Check VLC logs in case of any troubles.

It seems that txt stands for TMPlayer subtitle format: https://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php/TMPlayer