VLC media player Reviews

by CTRinBNA

I was really hoping that with this latest update I could change my ⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ but out of frustration I have dropped it down to ⭐️⭐️

For at least a couple of years it limited OneDrive audio files to 200, then with the update prior to this one, the limit changed to 2450 - this latest update now limits it to 2452.
VLCmediaplayer only displays embedded album art in audio files in file list mode. When an audio file is selected to stream, the album art disappears in full screen mode, and when minimised to the mini player mode. I assume fixing this issue should not be too complicated.
Displaying the OneDrive audio file directly is aggravatingly slow, as well as in the time it takes to actually start streaming a selection - especially when compared to the nPlayer app. Perhaps if the VLC Player could create and keep a local cache file of the logged in cloud services listing all of the files in the selected directory . . . that one could be manually refreshed, similarly to how the CloudBeats app does . . . this might make VLC Player app feel more responsive.
I am really fond of VLCmediaplayer, and especially appreciate all the work that everyone has put into it. With continued feedback and support it will become as reliable and mature as its Windows version.

by AnitaPiusWrites

I’ve been using VLC for more than a year now and I download subtitles in VLCmediaplayer why watching a movie. Opensubtitles finds the best subtitle and lets you use it. If the subtitle isn’t available, I’ll search it online and copy the link to download on Vlc. But now it’s doing neither of that and I’m tired of trying. I updated my VLC thinking it’s the reason but it’s still the same. Please review this issue.
Thank you.

by Orejitas9

I’ve been using this for audiobooks bc it wasn’t designed like a music app, but this update makes me want to find something new. It's designed around thumbnails now instead of text, and since I don’t have images it just looks busy, everything is too big, and it takes more scrolling to find what I want. Can we at least have an option to switch to list view?

by Rhini99

VLCmediaplayer worked perfectly for me until the last upgrade. At first I could see all my downloaded files on VLCmediaplayer but now I’ll download and there’ll be no sign of what I downloaded. Also the download progress doesn’t show anymore. Please do something about it. Apart from these issues, VLC has been my best video player for decades

by Kartana101

It's not that bad. Here are rhe pros and cons:
(Note: I only tested the audio player for this)
Pros:
- Simple to start. I just plopped my music files in the VLC, and it scanned it immediately.
- It has features that the default Files app lacks. Shuffle, continuous play, etc.
Cons:
- The UI is confusing. When I tried to find how to shuffle, I learned that you have to 3D Touch the song and select Shuffle. It's not very convenient at all.
- Adding media to your library could be a bit more convenient.
- Background play is somewhat broken. Whenever I enter an app, turn off my screen, or sometimrd at random, it glitches out.
But overall, it's the best way to listen to mp3s on iOS as of now. 4/5

by Najuta

VLCmediaplayer has been amazing and i have used it for years but recently with the new update iam having alot of issues ,for one my shows play in a green tint all the time and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it , another problem is that my audio files are not playing in the full screen just showing up as a bar on the lower part of the screen iam unable to press on them and have them displayed on the full screen where i can edit the playback speed and everything.
Please fix the bugs soon , VLCmediaplayer is a staple and iam sad to see it having so many issues.
4 stars for always being reliable before this problem.

by OriginalGrumpyOldMan

[updated] Colorspace issue fixed in 3.3.2.
Some feedback on the new UI:
- [iPad Pro] less sensitive adjustment sliders in playback view?:
The left & right side “virtual” sliders for volume & brightness during playback are extremely sensitive, you have to barely roll your finger on the spot for a small adjustment, any bigger finger movement will max out the slider in either direction
- [iPad Pro] denser list view?:
Non-thumbnail list view (ex.: network folder) leaves a lot of space between names, as well as ~2/3 of the screen on the right empty. Or maybe at least generate & cache thumbnails for non-local folders?

[previously] My full review incl. the green/purple video issue and an immediate workaround was not published for 7(!) days - until after VLCmediaplayer was updated already. When I wanted this unpublished review removed it WAS published in its useless form below, with a wasted response from the developer?
[was: “Review not being published?”-“So delete this because I can’t”]

by Makejdiwkchdhkwowhxhj

Thank you so so very much for adding tab remember, loop/shuffle remember, and audio filters to the latest update. I absolutely love it. GO VLC!

Aside from that, I use box for video storage, it VLC seems to have a hard time loading subfolders. It is quite large, but I can’t open the folder at all. Doesn’t seem like a connection issue to me. I would be happy to provide some sort of test box folder or video of the issue.

by Middleman445

This is the best video player app on iOS!

Developer is quick to address bugs that come up! Thank you dev!

Only two suggestions I can offer is a toggle to put 15 second skip forward and back on the playback UI and the ability to create folders to help put seasons of shows together - you can add folders of episodes in iTunes through file share but they get split up in the library.

by Canalien42

Half the videos I watch are now green because one of the codecs isn’t working properly after the latest update. Same files were working fine before the update, reinstalling VLCmediaplayer doesn’t fix it.

Edit: the Hardware Decoding was turned on by default which I don’t remember it being set to that prior, that was the issue. The rest of VLCmediaplayer seems to be working well.

by Sgr A*

I love VLCmediaplayer, but after the most recent update I can no longer rename the filenames of the network streams I’ve collected. You used to be able to rename by simply holding on the name and then you’d get the option to rename, but now it simply says “copy”. Why would I want to do that? Please restore this functionality.

by Hokie757

Love the VLC app but since iOS 15.4 and the latest app update, I cannot cast to my Chromecast anymore. I know Apple+Google don’t want to play nice but it would be nice if this feature could come back.

Update: had to remove and reinstall, but I can chromecast again.

by Metatron64

More fiddling with VLCmediaplayer revealed that the button for looping only appears in the video controls when the player is in horizontal orientation, not vertical. Presumably this is because there is more room to fit buttons in the bottom of the screen there than in vertical orientation. Shame that it got somewhat "buried" so me and at least one other reviewer I saw thought it was removed and shot off inaccurate reviews.
Anyway, here is your full, very well deserved, five stars. May VLCmediaplayer remain as fine or better for many years to come.
IGNORE AFTER THIS POINT; NOT CORRECT: -I used the video looping feature often, both on single videos and playlists, so the choice to remove such a useful feature that has been in VLCmediaplayer for as long as I've had it is disappointing. If the looping feature was left in, this update would have gotten a full five stars from me, not four.-

by StanYH

Awesome new interface, but best is the speed improvements while playing video from accessing the network. It used to take between 10-20seconds to start a video file on a network drive and scrubbing/skipping forward or backward had noticeable latency - now that’s all gone, everything is near instantaneous! Scrubbing is amazing to find a specific point in a video quickly! Great update and work!

Some feedback for future improvements:

- if you have password lock on for opening VLC, it feels like content should pause or stop playing if it’s locked. For example minimizing VLCmediaplayer locks it, but content keeps playing in the background. If you try open open up VLCmediaplayer again, password is requested but audio content is still playing. Feels like password protect is leaving a small loophole in its privacy.

- when playing media back in shuffle mode, pressing back used to (a few versions ago) take you to the last video you watched but it now just goes to the video before it when sorted by file name. It feels like a good use-case to cache what was watched so that you can rewatch one quickly if you wanted by pressing back once or multiples times to go back multiple videos.

- it would be nice to have more configurable playback controls with gestures. Instead of just turning them on and off, be able to assign what gestures do. For instance, If I want swiping up to jump forward 1 min instead of increasing volume

by Honest.reviews

i am a loyal and more than a decade long VLC user on PC, Mac, Linux and for several years, on iOS.
The new update has taken out the loop song feature. I just cannot find it. VLC player always worked perfect for me. I’m angry at myself for needlessly updating VLCmediaplayer when the older version worked perfectly fine.

by Wish2die

This is best Media Player for apple but in last update somehow, I don’t know why peoples are not reporting this but somehow Now we cant click on download online subtitles in full screen mode or after clicking it is not downloading subtitles. Hope they are going to fix it as soon as possible.

Thank You In Advance

by CleverHacker

This is my favorite app on my phone. The recent update cleaned up a lot of the problems I had with it and made the UI better. The local files feature is amazing because I don't have to store media on my phone. instead I can connect and SD card with the adapter and I basically have an extra 32gb of storage.

by Jcarveryoung

EDIT: the devs fixed this issue very quickly, thank you! VLCmediaplayer was perfect until the last update, it now forces all my videos to have a green and purple tint that I can’t fix correctly with filters. It is not the files as I was watching the same ones before the last update. Once this is fixed I will gladly put in an updated 5 star review because I use VLCmediaplayer so much!

by Vanish %

Why does VLCmediaplayer is giving headache I've been upgrading this player over & over again but nothing has changed in it, before I really love this player just bcos of the subtitles is very easy & simple to download but for now you guys are make me feel anxiety, I can't continue waste my data with my time for your new update I'm tired of it, bcos from now I'll no longer be using VLCmediaplayer again

by Mjmmjmw

In the earlier versions, UPnP streaming did not work very well. The new version of VLCmediaplayer has fixed nearly all the issues I had with the earlier versions!
Like others have said, the option to shuffle the playlist is only visible in landscape orientation—made it a bit difficult to find at first.

by Soonergrrrl

Update: my previous issue was resolved, but unfortunately, I really REALLY wish I could revert back to before I updated to this latest version (3.2.0). Now, TV shows are no longer grouped together, and my video tab just looks like a huge mess! It seems like in this update you spent too much time focusing on how the music part works, especially for a VIDEO player. I never really understood why there was a music option anyway to be honest. I don't like the new playlist system because as someone else said, the main screen is still wicked cluttered. Also, when I tried to just put a tv show into its own playlist, they are all kinds of out of order and no way to organize them. BOO. This does not feel like an update, but a way to turn the video player into a music player. So now I have no way to get files off the main screen, no way to group episodes of a tv show together, and I have to hunt and hunt through all these video files to find what I'm looking for, but boy...that empty music section sure looks fancy.

Now VLCmediaplayer no longer responds to my touch. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but to no avail. I don't know how to use an app on a touch device that doesn't respond to touch. It is useless now. Too bad because it was the reigning champ of video players for so long...

by Pjdale

This has got to be the worst update for an app that I have ever seen.

1) when I scroll to select a video and click on the weird little icon in the top right (that looks like I’m about to write a note - which I had to figure out by trial and error) all of my videos jump around, the pictures become smaller (and harder to see) and I have to scroll around again to find the one that I want to delete. I hate doing it every time.

2) with the old version, in my main view, all of my titles that were from the same series were automatically grouped and the ones that weren’t were there right beside the ‘video groups’ It was very intuitive. I could see all of my groups and all of my single titles in one group. Now, with the update, I have to choose between seeing the groups (which don’t have my individual titles) or seeing every single episode of every show that I have and scroll around like crazy to find the ones that I want. There should be a view (like in the old version) where I can see my groups and my single titles in one view. This way is awful and makes it take extra long to find the show I want to watch.

In all, there are no improvements in this new version and I wish that I could go back to the old version. Also, I don’t normally write reviews, but this one is just so bad that I had to. I hope these things get fixed quickly, or you can be sure that I am already looking to another app to play all my videos.

Cheers.

by Dutchman93

I’ve been using VLCmediaplayer to download videos to my iPad for the better part of a year, and there are a couple of features that I found very important for my usage: the grouping of tv shows under one title, and that my iPad stayed awake during the downloading of several files from network locations (notably OneDrive). Both of these crucial things are now gone - and are several impacting my use of VLCmediaplayer. I would hope these things are fixed in future updates.

Additionally, it would be nice if there were a screen that would show what is being downloaded to the device, as I often try to download several files at once. And, if I permit myself to ask for one more thing, it would be the ability to download while VLCmediaplayer is in the background, as that would allow me to continue using the device while it is doing what I asked it to do.

by AppleJyce

Whether i’m on my iphone se or the 11 pro, the VLC app seems to not continue the playlist nor loop an audio file. i’d have to start and stop or fiddle around with restarting to get it to function currently. i mean, it’s probably the best app for the intended proposes if had those issues were addressed and resolved.
i’m not sure why, but VLCmediaplayer wouldn’t keep playing the track if it was looped nor continue to the next track on the playlist when not looped. it just stops then it would not play until VLCmediaplayer is shutdown and restarted. Ugh! This wasn’t the issue previously as it was near bug free. Yes, i have been using VLCmediaplayer for a long tine and tend to want to stay loyal to it however, it’d be so awesome if i didn’t have to restart VLCmediaplayer to play the next track while on the go. Otherwise i would have given VLCmediaplayer 5 stars!!

by Dan_R19

I’ve used VLCmediaplayer for a while before and never had any issues at all. It even had an equalizer option readily available. However it’s been working awful since I last used VLCmediaplayer which was a few years ago. My music files sound high pitched all the time for no reason, I tried using the poorly integrated equalizer but didn’t help. Every time I play something it sounds like it’s getting high pitched. It’s annoying. The equalizer is another problem, it no longer saves my settings for it so I have to manually keep adjusting it and the option to use it on my XS is hidden unless I go landscape mode. Most importantly being my audio being butchered by the annoying high pitch that it gives my music a lot when I play it. This is by far the worst player I’ve used in a very very long time, no other player affects my sound quality in any way >:(

by Amandakbishop

I loved VLC, it blew all other streaming services away, I use it daily on my Mac and still love it, but the interface for the iPad is now way too hard to use. Doesn’t remember which shows I’ve watched so they all say unwatched and new, hard to work out where I left off.

The view for the thumbnails is clunky and I’d love to be able to toggle back to the previous view. At least the grouping is back, but still seems clunky and not as slick. Jittery when playing and often if you pause and resume the audio and video sync is out. Closing out of the video is the only way to fix it. Which it does not remember where you were at when reopening, and heaven forbid you forget which episode you were watching, it does not remember....

I want so much to keep using this, but it’s frustrating when traveling which I do A lot and need a good app to stream entertainment.

by Gigabitz

Every time VLC for iOS gets mature and has a full feature set, it gets scrapped, and features have to go absent indefinitely in the new version. It happened in 2.x, and now it's happening in 3.x.

I need an easy way to interact with videos grouped in folders. VLC 2.x had this, and it was easy to use.

Can't find it in 3.2.4. If it's there, it's not obvious. I've been looking - in VLCmediaplayer , at the Videolan Wiki, in the VLC iOS forums - which are chock full of people who also miss the exact same feature. People creating forum accounts just to add their feedback about it.

Tried to create playlists in 3.2.4, which would have been a decent enough workaround. Nope, the playlist section just talks about connecting to a streaming server, and it won't let me create playlists.

Like this is the main thing I do with VLCmediaplayer - watch playlists of videos for school. And the current version of VLCmediaplayer makes that very tedious.

And I'm searching everywhere for documentation on 3.2.4, but I can't seem to find any. I can't find a features list, nor a coming soon list, or decent workarounds... People are just trying things and seeing if they work. That's really not an adequate solution.

I've been a diehard VLC user for years, but now I'm looking for an alternative app that can simply do what the old version of VLCmediaplayer did.

by Joecunningham

Rather than update VLC on my iPad, Out of curiosity, I installed the new version everyone is complaining about onto my iPhone instead (I only keep movies on my iPad) and imported a sample movie to the phone. I then played the sample movie in VLC, paused it, and then tapped “Done” to see if the thumbnail would update to the current frame. No. The thumbnail did not change from whatever random frame VLCmediaplayer chose. Only the progress bar underneath changed. In my previous 5-Star review I said: “Please do no get rid of the freeze frame thumbnails. I love picking my own thumbnail image.” If I can no longer choose a frame from a given movie to be its thumbnail, I will not update because I do not want to lose this feature. Perhaps it had to do with the sample movie I chose. Let me know if I’m wrong and this important feature still exists.

by Chaos3079

PRE-UPDATE I have been using VLC since before I can remember and loved it would recommend it to anyone looking to play files. Great app never found something it wouldn’t play

Post-update I can’t see video files that are on my server and play on vlc on pc so I know they are really there and working. I can’t swipe and jump 30 Sec ahead anymore now it says 5 Sec but does nothing and slide bar at the top is just for looks cause I can move it anyplace and it just barely jumps video ahead and not to where I want it. I haven’t updated pc version in fear off haveing the same issues. Not complaining just begging pleading with you to fix this. The rest is perfect love the new look!!

Please help I want to love my vlc media player again!! :)

by IAmDirewolfe

This is one of the best media players I’ve ever managed to find. It’s been a joy using it for the 3 or so years I’ve been using it, but two specific things have always really made it less efficient for me, and maybe a few others:

1) When I import folders into VLCmediaplayer through any means, the folders themselves never show up in VLCmediaplayer , therefore undoing all my organization. I would love an update with something like that included. That would literally cause VLC to be my #1 goto media player.

2) Webm encoding, or whatever is going on there, is a bit broken. Sometimes when I import a webm, it will appear incredibly mangled. Sometimes, it won’t. I really cant play webms reliably in VLCmediaplayer. I’m not sure if that’s fixable or not, but I would really appreciate a look at that.

And then a new thing I noticed with a recent update is the disappearance of the ‘select all’ when editing. This lowers efficiency and takes more time when I’ve had to add everything to a folder. If there is a select all feature and I’ve just horribly missed it, please forgive me.

These are all the suggestions that I could think of. Thank you so much for making VLCmediaplayer, as it is the only one of its kind, and I wouldn’t prefer another.

by Nlkneim

I have been using VLCmediaplayer for months now. Overall, it’s a good app. It’s so easy to use and simple. But I have encountered some bugs recently. Sometimes when I add files to vlc using iTunes, the added files get duplicated. And when I try to delete one of the duplicated files, all of the copies get deleted. So then I have to add the files again with iTunes. I even looked at the vlc folder in the files app on iOS. I didn’t see any duplicated files there. Looks like the problem is with VLCmediaplayer and not iTunes.
Another drawback of VLCmediaplayer is that you can’t make folders for organizing files. So when you have a lot of files on your phone, you just have to scroll or search to find them.
I didn’t give VLCmediaplayer a five star rating only because of these problems. Hope they are fixed soon.

by Rich Rath

I need a player that can play local audio files in various formats --- especially 44k 32bit float PCM wav files -- and the ability to make ordered playlists from the local files. VLC fit the bill perfectly, but I am having two problems. First, I don't see any obvious way to order a playlist. It seems to just be alphabetical. Maybe because I have not read the files with id3 or the wav equivalent. To order them I have to rename them before putting them in the playlist. Maybe that will be better if I tag them though.
The second problem is pretty major. For any 44k32bit wav, the beginning of every file stutters, making the start of the song. Since I'm mainly concerned with the transitions between songs today, it was a real problem. I have not checked if this is true for other formats.

by RaleighJeff

I think these most recent updates to VLCmediaplayer have been the most that it’s changed since i’ve been using it. I’d like to offer a suggestion regarding how the media titles are displayed on the various lists. I name the titles of the media i record (and play back in VLC) first by the date and then the location it was recorded, and then the title of the song. WAY more characters than the 8-character limit to files names back in the days of early DOS versions!! LOL
I would like the titles of the media listed in VLC to word wrap to a second line, rather than truncate at the end of the first line. Or at least have the option to have them do that. Because in my case, there will be 6–10 titles that all start with the same name, and the part that is different is the part that gets truncated off.

by Rayzmup

Update 3.2.1 is much better than the mess that was 3.2.0. For my particular uses, the functionality has returned. However, my confidence in VLC has been shaken and I remain skeptical of any updates from now on.
———-
Since the last update I can’t stream video from my PC to my iPhone or iPad using FileBrowser. VLC used to be great because it “just worked” with one or two clicks, but now I have to copy and paste a network URL from FileBrowser to VLC every single time I play a video. I started using VLCmediaplayer ‘Infuse’ as a replacement and am pleased so far.

VLC used to be the king IMO in terms of video files. Hopefully VLC fixes whatever they broke with this horrible update, but if not, it’s good to know other apps can take their place.

by Eurydome

I switched from Foobar2000 to this because I prefer to use free software when possible. So far it’s been pretty good. The WiFi music sync is a really neat feature and I’ve been taking advantage of it to synch my library. The files app integration is a nice touch too, because I was able to just move the contents from my Foobar2000 directory to my VLC directory right from my phone.
I’m not really sure if this is an issue with VLCmediaplayer , but when I plug my phone into my computer and try to open the VLC directory, my file manager gives me an error so I can’t view the contents of my VLC folder from my computer. Minor annoyance, but not a deal breaker. I’ve noticed some stability issues and some lag too but overall it’s good.