It doesn’t happen automatically, you’ve just gotten lucky with your files. Subtitles can be embedded in the video file.

Yes, this. Torrenting music is not necessary. Slsk is a better option 99% of the time. Most of the tags are the automatic ones applied by the streaming service it was ripped from or MusicBrainz. But everyone seems to expect different things from tagging, so if you want every performer tagged and like every genre you’re never gonna find that.

Honestly I just use PiVPN on my clients and Jellyfin over HTTP. (The VPN encrypts traffic, don’t worry). It’s more secure than exposing it to the public internet in any way, really. After I had a goddamn Minecraft server get joined by a bot I stepped up security - in 2025, any hole will be exploited for data and botnets. If you’re hosting for family, I think there’s still value in the security Plex is offering by being the middleman between your computers in your home and the outside world.