VLC is one of the most popular video playback software for PC and also for smartphones. It’s always better to know the shortcuts for apps that you frequently use in order to save time and not hamper your overall viewing experience.

So, in order for you to be able to have a smooth VLC experience, here is a list of 68 of the available VLC shortcuts. While the ones mentioned below are the preset shortcuts by VLC, you can also edit and customise them according to your needs.

Go to ‘Tools’ > ‘Preferences’ > ‘Hotkeys’. Now select the VLC shortcut you wish to customise, double-click on it and then choose the key you wish to assign. You can also use the ‘Ctrl + P’ shortcut to open the Preferences menu.

VLC shortcuts for Playback

• Spacebar: Toggle play and pause
• S: Stop the file
• [: Decrease the playback speed
• ]: Increase the playback speed
• =: Revert to the default playback speed
• A: Change aspect ratio
• C: Change and crop the display area
• Z: Change the zoom mode
• O: Original video size
• Ctrl + Up arrow/Mouse scroll up: Increase volume
• Ctrl + Down arrow/Mouse scroll down: Decrease volume
• M: Mute the file’s sound
• J: Decrease the audio delay
• K: Increase the audio delay
• B: Shuffle through the available files or tracks in the queue
• N: Play the next track or file
• P: Play the previous track or file
• F/F11/Double click on the mouse: Toggle full-screen mode on and off
• Esc: Switch off full-screen mode
• L: Toggle between loop off, put the current file on loop or put the entire queue on loop
• R: Toggle random shuffling of tracks or files on and off
• CTRL+T: Toggle minimal interface on or off
• D: Toggle deinterlace on and off
• Shift + A: Shuffle through the available audio devices
• T: Current and remaining time information

Also read: How to stop Google from saving your location data and delete it too

VLC Shortcuts for Subtitles

• V: Cycle through and select the desired subtitle file
• G: Decrease the sub-title delay
• H: Increase the sub-title delay

VLC Shortcuts for Forward and Backward

• Shift + Right arrow: The file is forwarded by 3 seconds
• Shift + Left arrow: The file is reversed by 3 seconds
• Alt + Right arrow: The file is forwarded by 10 seconds
• Alt + Left arrow: The file is reversed by 10 seconds
• Ctrl + Right arrow: The file is forwarded by a minute
• Ctrl + Left arrow: The file is reversed by a minute

VLC Shortcuts for Recording/Cropping

• Shift + R: Toggle start/stop recording screen
• Shift + S: Take a screenshot
• Alt + C: Crop from the bottom
• Alt + Shift + C: Uncrop from the 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

VLC shortcuts for dealing with files

• Ctrl + O: Open a file
• Ctrl + SHIFT + O: Open multiple files
• Ctrl + F: Open a folder
• Ctrl + D: Open a disk
• Ctrl + N: Open a network stream
• Ctrl + C: Open capture device
• Ctrl + V: Open a location copied in the clipboard
• Ctrl + R: Convert and save a file
• Ctrl + S: Stream your media locally or via the internet
• Ctrl + I: Check out file information like title, artist, album and edit them
• Ctrl + J: Check out video and audio codec information
• Ctrl + B: Modify the bookmarks menu — create, delete and clear

VLC shortcuts for app settings and menu

• F1: Help
• Shift + F1: About
• Ctrl + Q/Alt + F4/Alt + Q: Quit
• Ctrl + P: Open the preferences menu
• Ctrl + Y: Save the current playlist
• Alt+ M: Access media menu
• Alt + L: Access playback menu
• Alt + A: Access audio menu
• Alt + V: Access video menu
• Alt + O: Access tools menu
• Alt + I: Access view menu
• Alt + H: Access help menu

The VLC media player is free open-source software that can play various multimedia files on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.

Also read: 12 Netflix keyboard shortcuts you must know