Settings General

Settings: General

⋯ → Settings → General (Ctrl+P; the header reads Global Settings). The language and look of the app, the update check, the logs, Developer mode and the reset button. See how the Settings window works.

Appearance

These four rows preview at once: the whole interface changes while the window is open, and the choice is kept when it closes. They are interface settings, not VLC options.

Option	Choices / default	What it does
Interface language	Dropdown: Auto (the language of Windows), then the complete languages, then the partial ones marked (partial). Default: English; an installed copy starts in the language chosen in Setup.	The language of every menu and window of VLC Redesign. It changes at once, without a restart. See Languages.
Layout direction	Segmented: Left to right / Right to left. Default: the direction of the language.	Mirrors the interface. Choosing a language sets it (Hebrew, Arabic, Persian… switch to Right to left); you can change it afterwards, for example to keep a right-to-left language laid out left to right. See Languages.
Theme	Segmented: Dark / Light / System. Default: System.	The colour scheme of the whole interface. System follows Windows' app mode, also while VLC runs. See Colours and themes.
Accent color	Nine swatches: orange #D37918, red #E15033, gold #C49D24, green #18A235, cyan #18AAD3, blue #185DD4, purple #8E41FF, pink #F051B5, grey #AFAFAF. Default: orange.	The colour of selections, sliders, toggles and active items. Stored as redesign/accent.

On systems other than Windows, VLC follows the system language: the Interface language row shows System language (xx_YY) as plain text, with the note VLC follows the system language.

Startup

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Show confirmation and error dialogs	Toggle. Default: on.	On: VLC's errors appear at the bottom of the window (a media that cannot open, for example), and VLC asks before removing media from a playlist or from the play queue, or deleting playlists. Off: errors are only kept in VLC's messages and those removals happen at once. Deleting a file from the disk is always confirmed.	qt-error-dialogs
Check for updates automatically	Toggle. Default: on.	Looks for a new release of VLC Redesign on GitHub when VLC starts, at most once a day. See Install and update.	redesign-update-check

Diagnostics

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Developer mode	Toggle. Default: off.	Shows the expert rows (marked Developer mode on these pages) under the Advanced Options of every page, and adds All VLC options to this page.	redesign/developer-mode (interface setting)
Save a log	Toggle. Default: off.	Writes VLC's messages to a text file. The log starts or stops when the Settings window closes; no restart is needed.	file-logging
Log file	Path field with Browse (a save dialog titled Choose a log file). Default: empty.	Where the log is written. Empty: vlc-log.txt (vlc-log.html in HTML format) in VLC's working folder, which is often not writable for an installed copy, so choose a full path.	logfile
Log details	Dropdown: Default / Information / Errors only / Errors and warnings / Everything (debug). Default: Default.	How much goes into the log file. Default follows Show minor warnings below.	log-verbose (−1, 0, 1, 2, 3)

Good to know

• What each level really logs. VLC's file logger adds one level to the value chosen (upstream VLC behaviour, modules/logger/file.c), so the file holds more than the names say: Default and Information log errors and information; Errors only also logs warnings; Errors and warnings and Everything (debug) log everything, debug messages included. For a bug report choose Everything (debug).
• The log is appended to the file, and each line is written at once, so the last lines survive a crash. Delete the file to start a new one.
• While the Messages window (Ctrl+M) is open it takes the messages; the log file continues once it closes. See Save a log.

Advanced Options

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Show minor warnings	Toggle. Default: off (0). On writes 1.	Raises VLC's verbosity from errors and information to warnings as well. It applies when the window closes, but VLC never saves this option (it is volatile), so it is off again at the next start. To keep it, add --verbose=1 to the next row.	verbose
Additional command line options	Text field. Default: empty.	Options VLC reads at every start, as if written on its command line, for example --no-osd --network-caching=3000; quote a value that contains spaces. The real command line wins when it gives the same option. Files to open, and options only a command line can give (--help, --config, --reset-config…), are ignored. Shows Applies the next time VLC starts once changed.	extra-options
Log format	Dropdown: Plain text / HTML. Default: Plain text.	The format of the log file. HTML colours errors, warnings and debug lines.	logmode (text / html)
Collect playback statistics	Toggle. Default: on.	Collects local statistics of the playing media (bitrates, lost and displayed frames…) for the Statistics of the media information window. Nothing is sent anywhere.	stats
Open configurations folder	Button Open.	Opens VLC Redesign's settings folder (vlcrc, vlc\vlc-qt-interface.ini, the media library…) in File Explorer.
Reset all settings	Red button Reset.	Asks Reset all settings? (Every setting of VLC media player goes back to its default.). Reset puts every VLC option and every interface setting back to its default, the interface language back to English and the layout to its direction, then closes the window. The media library and its history are kept.
Welcome setup	Button Open.	Closes Settings (keeping your changes) and runs the first-run welcome steps again.
All VLC options (Developer mode)	Button Open.	Closes Settings and opens VLC's classic preferences, which list every option of VLC and its modules.

Developer Options (a heading with four rows) appears between Reset all settings and Welcome setup only in builds that have VLC's POSIX system logger, so not on Windows:

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Write to the system log	Toggle. Default: off.	Sends VLC's messages to the system log (syslog).	syslog
Include debug messages in the system log	Toggle. Default: off.	Adds debug messages.	syslog-debug
System log identity	Text. Default: vlc.	The process name the messages are logged under.	syslog-ident
System log facility	Dropdown: user, daemon, local0 to local7. Default: user.	The syslog facility.	syslog-facility

When to change what

• Something goes wrong: turn on Save a log, set Log file to a full path (for example on the Desktop) and Log details to Everything (debug), reproduce the problem, then attach the file to a bug report.
• A command-line option you always use: put it in Additional command line options instead of editing a shortcut.
• Start over: Reset all settings. To reset only the keys, use Reset all shortcuts on Controls.

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All settings · Interface →