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.
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
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)
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.
Try latest version 3.0.18
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)
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.
B cycles through audio tracks
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.
Agreed. I downloaded this program hoping for just such a feature. This is a key utility for musicians learning parts.
Click on the “View” tab and then click “Advanced Controls” and an additional toolbar will open up with an “A B” loop icon.
George Best Holy Toledo! THANK YOU!!
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.
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.
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
ah if only they add shortcut to previous frame
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.
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.
Plaese add a shortcut key for AB repeat
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.
Is there a hotkey to switch between audio track 1 & 2?
Thanks
Don’t think so.
Its ‘B’. it cycles through audio tracks
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.
Yeah, I think the Chromebook version doesn’t support the desktop version’s hotkeys.
But it does support some hotkeys, just not the ones listed here. Why is there no documentation of what they are?
Is there a way to create a shortcut to download subtitles?
Using the VLsub 0.11.0 extension under VLC>extensions menu.
Nah, no shortcut for addon features