2 Ways to Fix VLC Media Player Not Working on Mac

Basic Fixes:

• Restart Mac: Rebooting your Mac can fix frequent issues with the installed apps. It’s a handy trick to troubleshoot common Mac problems.
• Force quit VLC media player: You should force quit the app using the Activity Monitor and try again. Use the Command + Space keyboard shortcut to open Activity Manager > select VLC > tap the X icon to close it.
• Download the video again: If you’ve downloaded a corrupted video on your Mac, you can’t play it on VLC or any other player. You must redownload it from the web.
• Reinstall the app: If all else fails, consider reinstalling the app to clear any temporary glitches with the player.

Fix 1. Delete VLC Preferences

If you cannot access the VLC player in the first place, you can’t reset preferences from the app’s settings. In that case, you must delete VLC preferences using Terminal. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open Terminal from the Applications menu.

Step 2: Enter the following command:

defaults delete org.videolan.vlc

Step 3: Open Finder and press the Command + Shift + G keyboard shortcut.

Step 4: Type ~/Library/Preferences and press Return.

Step 5: Delete the org.videolan.vlc folder.

Force quit VLC player on Mac and start from scratch. It should work as expected.

Fix 2. Disable Hardware Decoding in VLC

While hardware acceleration is useful for smooth video playback, it may sometimes cause issues. As such, you should try disabling it on VLC.

Step 1: Open the VLC media player and head to the app settings (check the steps above).

Step 2: Select Input / Codecs from the top.

Step 3: Uncheck Hardware decoding and select Save.