VLC Media Player Shortcuts and Hotkeys

VLC Media player shortcuts are great for saving you some time. You can perform several actions without even moving your mouse or clicking on the menu buttons. The hotkeys are great for quick video playback actions. Just hit the shortcut keys and see the resulting action instantly.

Here are the shortcuts and hotkeys of VLC Media Player:

File Operations

CTRL + O : Open a single  file
CTRL + SHIFT + O : Open multiple files
CTRL + F : Open folder
CTRL + D : Open disk
CTRL + N : Open network stream
CTRL + C : Open capture device
CTRL + V : Open location copied in the clipboard
CTRL + R : Convert and save file
CTRL + S : Stream your media locally or on the internet

Program Operations

CTRL + Q or ALT + F4 or ALT + Q : Quit
CTRL + E : Open the adjustment and effects menu
CTRL + SHIFT + W : VLM Configuration
CTRL + M : Open the message screen
CTRL + P : Open the preferences menu
F1 : Help
SHIFT + F1 : About

Playing Operations

SPACE : Play and Pause a file
N : Next Track
P : Previous Track
F or F11 or Mouse Double Click : Full screen mode on and off
CTRL + H : Switch minimal interface on and off
T : Show current and remaining time information
CTRL + T : Go to a specific time of a playing media
P : Go and play from the start of a file
S : Stop movie
Esc : Full screen exit
E : Switch to next frame
L : Loop off, one or all
R : Random on and off

Subtitles

G : Decrease subtitle delay
H : Increase subtitle delay
V : Cycle through subtitles

Playing Speed

[ : Decrease playing speed
] : Increase playing speed
= : Normal playing speed

Quick Forward and Backward

SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW : 3 seconds forward
SHIFT + LEFT ARROW : 3 seconds backward
ALT + RIGHT ARROW : 10 seconds forward
ALT + LEFT ARROW : 10 seconds backward
CTRL + RIGHT ARROW : 1 minute forward
CTRL + LEFT ARROW : 1 minute backward

Display Options

A: Cycle aspect ratio
C : Cycle through crop display area
Z : Cycle through zoom mode
D : Deinterlace On and Off
O : Switch to original size of the video
W : Wallpaper mode on (with DirectX output)

Sound and Audio Operations

CTRL + UP ARROW or Mouse Scroll Up : Volume Up
CTRL + DOWN ARROW or Mouse Scroll Down : Volume Down
J : Decrease audio delay
K : Increase audio delay
B : Cycle through available audio tracks
M : Mute sound on and off
Shift + A : Cycle through audio devices

Media Information

CTRL + I : View and edit media information like title, artist, album
CTRL + J : View codec information like your media dimensions, audio and video codecs

Playlist Operations

CTRL + L : Switch to playlist or back to media
CTRL + Y : Save current playlist to a file
CTRL + B : Create, delete and clear bookmarks menu.

Disc Operations

Shift + B : Next title
Shift + O : Previous title
Shift + N : Next chapter
Shift + P : Previous chapter
Shift + M : Disk Menu
Shift + H : History forward
Shift + G : History back

Miscellaneous

Shift + R : Start and stop recording
Shift + S : Take snapshot
ALT + C : Crop from bottom
ALT+ SHIFT + C : Uncrop from bottom
ALT + D : Crop from left
ALT + SHIFT + D : Uncrop from left
ALT + F : Crop from right
ALT + SHIFT + F : Uncrop from right
ALT + R : Crop from top
ALT + SHIFT + R : Uncrop from top

File Menu Operations

ALT + M : Open media menu
ALT + L : Open playback menu
ALT + A : Open audio menu
ALT + V : Open video menu
ALT + S : Open subtitle menu
ALT + O : Open tools menu
ALT + I : Open view menu
ALT + H : Open help menu

* Hit the subsequent underlined character of menu item name after opening menu items using the above file menu operation shortcuts. This will open the sub menu. If the same character is underlined for several sub menu items, hit those characters multiple times to navigate to the correct one. Then hit enter to open it.

* You can also learn how to edit these shortcuts to fit your preference.

Video Tutorial

31 thoughts to “VLC Media Player Shortcuts and Hotkeys”

  1. Shift+L is the A/B Loop shortcut… I dont know why its not posted anywhere but I found it on one of the forums and no one seems to know about it.

  2. It would be good to have a hotkey for brightness to save going through a procedure, like SM Player has press for for brighter or 3 for darker.

  3. Frame advance – “E” press, works for about a dozen frames then does a big skip ahead… I am using on high frame rate video for precision viewing through 120 fps clips and would love this to work better. Any ideas?

  4. Missing are the skip fwd/back just using the right and left arrow keys. Also, volume up/down just uses the up/down arrow keys on Windows version anywhere. Using the ALT key isn’t necessary

  5. some of these shortcuts don’t work with fullscreen mode. Like hitting Ctrl+B doesn’t show bookmarks list while in fullscreen mode, similarly with so many other shortcuts.

    Is there a way to enable it/ make it work ? Any amount of help is appreciable.
    (btw, I’m running VLC 3.0.16 on WIndows 10)

    1. I found some hotkeys stopped working when I got a new laptop. For instance + used to speed the video on the old keyboard but not the new. The problem was the old keyboard had a + button whereas the new keybord it was Shift + and woudnt be recognised. Anyway the fix was to go to VLC Tools Preference Hotkeys and double click on the hotkey not working, press the key combination you want to set for it and accept the change. It worked for me. Good luck.

  6. some of these shortcuts don’t work in fullscreen mode. Like Ctrl+B doesn’t show bookmarks list while in fullscreen mode, etc. similarly with many other shortcuts.

    Is there a way to make them work? Please, Any amount of help is appreciable.
    (btw, I’m running VLC version 3.0.16 on windows 10)

  7. On my Mac, J increases subtitle delay and H reduces it, though according to the list here G should decrease and H should increase. I don’t mind the keys being a little different, but I have no key to decrease audio delay, which I need to do. G increases it while K does nothing. Can anyone advise? Thanks.

  8. VLC player is awesome, but what I’ve been missing for years is a hotkey for the AB loop command. It’d be so much more comfortable to have a shortcut at hand for this. Read about some workarounds with pulling the button into the fullscreen controller and then being able to use the Strg-L combination, but, as of today, this function seems to have been abandoned again. It’s the only thing that bothers me with the VLC. Would be glad if this could be solved.

    1. Agreed. I downloaded this program hoping for just such a feature. This is a key utility for musicians learning parts.

    2. Click on the “View” tab and then click “Advanced Controls” and an additional toolbar will open up with an “A B” loop icon.

  9. Is there a keyboard shortcut to jump to the start of a video? I see “P : Go and play from the start of a file” listed under “Playing Operations” above; but it doesn’t work on my MacBook Pro.

  10. I’d love a shortcut to resume where I left off. Presently, I am watching a Documentary, ported through my TV. It’s on the dry side, so to take a break, I moved it down the playlist. I’ve got the keyboard beside me, but without the shortcut, I have to get up, hit the mouse to resume, which will not happen before the resume button disappears.

  11. can vlc make a hot key for AUDIO/STEREO MODE/LEFT? This is very useful for me when I am playing a multiplex file.Thanks

  12. Shortcuts not working. Trying to use vcl while transcribing (to a word file) a video. Space and such are of course out of question so created alternative combinations for play/pause etc. Won’t work. Shortcuts such as volume and skip do work.

    1. agreed. configuring volume controls repeatedly w & w/o shortcuts doesn’t work after 3.0,used to be defaultly controlled with keyboard arrows. had to reset forward/back playback too.

  13. My Hotkeys suddenly stopped working today. Spacebar works but F and the left and right arrow keys don’t. Alt+arrow keys don’t either. Very strange. Using latest VLC 3.0.8 on Win7.

  14. What are the hotkeys for the Android version (for those who use Android VLC on their Chromebooks)? These hotkeys don’t work, but it does respond to some keypresses but in an unpredicatable way.

  15. Is there a way to create a shortcut to download subtitles?
    Using the VLsub 0.11.0 extension under VLC>extensions menu.

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