{"id":11918,"date":"2010-07-08T16:44:10","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T15:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:12:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:12:36","slug":"how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t you just hate it when you open a movie clip on your Mac and it opens in QuickTime? Although <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\/macosx\/what-is-macosx\/quicktime.html\">QuickTime X<\/a> is an improvement in terms of speed and interface on previous versions, it&#8217;s still quite slow and fussy about formats. Instead, I use <a href=\"http:\/\/vlc-media-player.en.softonic.com\/mac\"><strong>VLC Player<\/strong><\/a> to open video files on my Mac because it&#8217;s fast, opens almost anything and is very light on resources.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s annoying though to have to Ctrl-click or right-click and select <em>Open With<\/em> every time you want to open a video file with it. It&#8217;s far better to set VLC Player as your default player for all video files. All you need to do is hold down the <strong>Ctrl and Alt key<\/strong> when you <strong>left click<\/strong> on a video file. Alternatively, <strong>right click<\/strong> and hold down just the <strong>Alt key<\/strong> instead. Select <strong>Always Open With<\/strong> and then select <strong>VLC Player<\/strong> and you&#8217;re done!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-images.sftcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2010\/07\/vlc.png\" alt=\"vlc default player mac.png\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t you just hate it when you open a movie clip on your Mac and it opens in QuickTime? Although QuickTime X is an improvement in terms of speed and interface on previous versions, it&#8217;s still quite slow and fussy about formats. Instead, I use VLC Player to open video files on my Mac because &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to set VLC Player as default on Mac&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2009,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-11918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.4 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don&#039;t you just hate it when you open a movie clip on your Mac and it opens in QuickTime? Although QuickTime X is an improvement in terms of speed and interface on previous versions, it&#039;s still quite slow and fussy about formats. Instead, I use VLC Player to open video files on my Mac because\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.4\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Softonic English - Just another Softonic Sites site\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac - Softonic English\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Don&#039;t you just hate it when you open a movie clip on your Mac and it opens in QuickTime? Although QuickTime X is an improvement in terms of speed and interface on previous versions, it&#039;s still quite slow and fussy about formats. Instead, I use VLC Player to open video files on my Mac because\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-08T15:44:10+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T09:12:36+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac - Softonic English\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Don&#039;t you just hate it when you open a movie clip on your Mac and it opens in QuickTime? Although QuickTime X is an improvement in terms of speed and interface on previous versions, it&#039;s still quite slow and fussy about formats. Instead, I use VLC Player to open video files on my Mac because\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BlogPosting\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#blogposting\",\"name\":\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac - Softonic English\",\"headline\":\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/author\\\/nick\\\/#author\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/articles-images.sftcdn.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2010\\\/07\\\/vlc.png\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#articleImage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-08T16:44:10-07:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-02T02:12:36-07:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"commentCount\":3,\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#webpage\"},\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#webpage\"},\"articleSection\":\"How to\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/category\\\/how-to\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"How to\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/category\\\/how-to\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/category\\\/how-to\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/category\\\/how-to\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"How to\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Softonic English\",\"description\":\"Just another Softonic Sites site\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/author\\\/nick\\\/#author\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/author\\\/nick\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#authorImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f276f97f91dcc97d0204d49e8bd71e62e79082e8d56e16201bd650349db7f6d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"Nick\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms-articles.softonic.io\\\/en\\\/how-to-set-vlc-player-as-default-on-mac\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to set VLC Player as default on Mac - Softonic English\",\"description\":\"Don't you just hate it when you open a movie clip on your Mac and it opens in QuickTime? 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