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Fixing VLC player crashes on Mac OS X

I’ve been a big fan of the VLC media player on the Mac and have been using it exclusively as my media player. However at some point the VLC player got very funky and suddenly stopped playing all video content. If you tried opening any video file it would open a blank video window and play the files audio for a few seconds before crashing. I tried deleting the app and getting the latest version on the website but that really didn’t seem to help. After a bunch of web searches and looking on several different forums I seem to have stumbled on a working answer.

1) Quit the application if it is running
2) Delete the VLC folder in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Preferences
3) Delete org.videolan.vlc.plist in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Preferences
4) Delete org.videolan.vlc.plist in /DRIVENAME/Library/Preferences

Restart VLC and it should play videos with no problems

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 12:17 am and is filed under technology, tutorial, videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

15 Responses to “Fixing VLC player crashes on Mac OS X”

  1. Marc Says:
    March 29th, 2008 at 3:51 am

    Thanks a LOT!

    My VLC wouldn’t even open anymore and I just couldn’t work out why. Thanks to you it now runs nicely again!!

  2. yeah Says:
    April 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    Having the exact same problem, but the fix didn’t fix it!

  3. Brian Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 9:57 am

    Thanks for the research. That fixes my issues.

  4. Islam Says:
    May 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 am

    THANK U THANK U THANK U THANK U THANK U

  5. Terence Says:
    May 10th, 2008 at 6:48 am

    WOW…!! YOu are great!! Solved!! Thanks!!

  6. Terri Says:
    May 10th, 2008 at 8:06 am

    U saved us!! Thank a million!!

  7. Eugene Chopenko Says:
    May 14th, 2008 at 4:30 am

    Thanks a lot! )))))) had a same problem

  8. foxbat Says:
    May 14th, 2008 at 6:26 am

    thanx, mate.

  9. ritm0 (portugal) Says:
    May 22nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    usualy i don’t answer in foruns but.. MY GOD thank you a lot..

  10. Crowmac Says:
    June 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Wow! It worked! Thanks to google and you, VLC is back on running!^^

  11. jc Says:
    June 5th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    i actually think the only important step is deleting the VLC folder inside the preference folder.

  12. Valery Says:
    June 25th, 2008 at 3:17 am

    Does not help. It crash every time when playback position moved

  13. Adam Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Thanks a lot! That solved my problem. A similar solution can probably by applied in many other situations where an app behaves erratically. All the more useful.

  14. Nick Says:
    August 20th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Thank you!! I use VLC player all the time but one day it stopped playing any videos, but i followed your tips and its now back to normal! Thanks again
    :-)

  15. Vin Says:
    August 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am

    thankyou so much

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