How to Edit VLC Media Player Shortcuts (Hotkeys)

There are more than a couple of shortcuts in VLC Media Player. They are created to make your life that much simpler. For quick use of the player and its functions, the hotkeys come quite in handy. There are many of those shortcuts. The default buttons to press to access those shortcuts are simple enough.

Some prefer to set their own shortcut buttons so that they may remember it easily. Some just don’t like the default shortcut buttons. Other shortcuts interfere with the default Windows or OS shortcuts. For example: the shortcut to move the currently playing movie forward or backward using the keys CTRL + ALT + LEFT or RIGHT ARROW interferes with the default Windows display alignment shortcut. Unexpected results happen due to this.

There are options in this software to edit those default shortcut keys. To do so:

  1. In the Menu Bar click on Tools and then “Preferences” [CTRL + P is the shortcut].
    vlc-preferences
  2. On the left of the preferences option go to “Hotkeys”. Different set of hotkeys/shortcuts are shown.
    vlc-hotkeys
  3. To edit a shortcut double click on one of those Action or Hotkey.
  4. A “Hotkey Change” option is displayed. Press the key combination to change it. For example press Ctrl and K key together or just K key.
    vlc-hotkey-change
  5. If the shortcut is already used up then a warning is displayed.
    vlc-hotkey-change-step
  6. Otherwise the change is made. Click on the “Save” button on the bottom right to finalize the change.
    vlc-change-save

*Note: There is also a “Reset Preferences” button to reset all the changes that you have made to the VLC preferences menu including the shortcut / hotkey change.

Video Tutorial

15 thoughts to “How to Edit VLC Media Player Shortcuts (Hotkeys)”

    1. Yes, it seems to be not working. You can downgrade your VLC or use the zoom filter available in Advanced Preferences > Video > Filters > Magnify/Zoom interactive filter

  1. Certain keys are ignored in my version as well. the arrow and shift keys (in any combination) have not affect whatsoever. This thread is the first evidence that I have found on the web that others are encountering this as well. I’m using windows 10 x64 and VLC 2.2.4. Does anyone have any information on this issue?

  2. Before a friend upgraded me to ubuuntu 16.04 I found a way of putting buttons to go Faster or Slower. Can anybody clue me in how to get those arrows/buttons back ? VLC is my favorite utility to play audio and video filles… Miss those arrows!

  3. Yeah, so while I was attempting to change the hotkey for fast forward and rewind to just left and right arrows instead of shift left and right it doesn’t work. I can’t find any solutions online anywhere.

    1. I have the same problem, just installed the lastest x64 VLC after a fresh Windows 10 install. Weird.

  4. Thanks for the article, is there any way to change the skip buttons on vlc player on both sides of the stop button? I want to change it to medium forward jump instead, is there any way to do this?

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