VLC for iOS, version 2.2

Today, we published version 2.2 of VLC for iOS on the App Store. It features a re-designed interface for iOS 7, which we demonstrated in early November last year.

Since then, we took the time for further improvements, polishing and most importantly adding features in addition a plain restyling.

Notably, we added the following:

  • Google Drive integration and Dropbox streaming,
  • New multitouch gestures,
  • Improved library for TV Shows and Audio,
  • Better UPnP integration, with downloading support,
  • A startup tutorial,
  • New streaming formats and protocols supported,
  • Rewritten WiFi upload,
  • Improved privacy when using Passcode Lock

Additionally, we performed a lot of tweaks and minor improvements on the interface, which are also reflected in the legacy iOS 6 UI (yes, we still fully support it!):

  • Improved feedback for media download progress including data bitrate, procentual progress and estimated remaining download time
  • Opening network streams no longer leads to a collapsed file system hierarchy on the remote system. After playback, you can continue where you left off.
  • Added bookmarks for FTP servers
  • Previously removed episodes and tracks no longer show up in the respective group listings (#9705)
  • Improved privacy by requesting the passcode immediately after leaving the app and by obfuscating playback metadata if passcode lock is enabled
  • Added support to endlessly repeat the currently playing item (#9793)
  • Added option to disable file name display optimizations (#10050)
  • TV Shows are sorted by Season number / Episode number and Music Albums respectively by track number
  • Added ability to rename any media item in the library view
  • Added deletion of multiple media items in one step
  • Improved TV Show handling for shows with more than 100 episodes
  • If your media was recognized as part of a music album, the next track will automatically start playing afterwards
  • New translations to Czech, Malay, Persian, Spanish (Mexico)

Furthermore, we worked on details of all kinds of network interaction supported by VLC for iOS:

  • Improved UPnP stability and new support for downloading files from supported servers
  • Added cover-art and duration to UPnP server item lists
  • Fixed displayed size for files stored on UPnP multimedia servers larger than 2147.48 MB (#9641)
  • Dramatically improved WiFi upload reliability during concurrent or repeated sessions
  • Added support for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) (#9174)
  • Added support for https playback
  • Added support for system-wide HTTP proxy settings
  • Added support for m3u streams
  • Improved vlc:// custom protocol handling (#9542)

We hope that you with love this new version as much as we do. You can find detailed usage documentation on the VideoLAN wiki.

VLC for iOS is fully developed by volunteers in their spare time. If you would like to contribute in one way or another, please check VideoLAN.org.

In case you are interested in embedding our underlying technology as a simple framework to your own iOS or OS X app, have a look at the VLCKit wiki page and get in touch.

 

40 thoughts on “VLC for iOS, version 2.2”

    1. Sorry, I don’t really understand your question. VLC for iOS does not have access to the iTunes library and we won’t add support for this soon.

  1. “Added support for m3u streams”. Doesn’t work for me. Can’t open or download a m3u file. If file is renamed to .txt it can be opened but only the first entry is played. It’s not possible to skip to next entry in list.

    1. We are only supporting m3u streams like web radios when opened through the “open network stream” feature.
      It is currently not supported to sync such files as we didn’t finalize the playlist feature so far.

  2. A small question about the cache management : I used the web server to upload videos, but the first videos crash before the upload’s end (it was my mistake because I left VLC on my iPad before the end).
    However I have a question about the cache management : since my first upload it seem to have lost a lot of free space.
    Where is saved a file when downloading?
    Is there a purge system memory?

    1. The file is being downloaded to a temporary folder. When VLC launches the next time (not continues, but launches), it checks for the existence of said folder and removes it. It’s located within the Caches folder in the app context.
      This behavior is actually new in 2.2 preventing the display of half-downloaded files and associated crashes caused by the thumbnailing mechanism.

  3. Video (720p H.264 AVC, single audio track, single external subtitles track) has freezes at iPad 3 (iOS 6.1.3). The problem has appeared first in 2.1.3 version, if I recall correctly. Rollback to 2.0.2 (the only backuped version I have) fixes the problem.

    Is there a hope it will be fixed in further releases?

    PS: sorry for lame language – not a native speaker

    1. Hello, we are aware of the issue and looking into finding a solution for it without leading to a loss of functionality. Thanks for the feedback!

  4. Any way to make VLC iOS play all files in a folder when streaming audio from my Linux PC? I have my PC setup as UPNP plex server. When I try to stream an album from the album folder, vlc only plays one track then stops. I have to manually start each track, which kind of makes it useless if I want to listen to a whole album. Thanks!

    1. Hello,
      no, not yet. We will certainly add this feature in one of the next releases, but we didn’t come around to this very legitimate use case, as we focussed on video mostly for now. We will re-work the audio part quite a bit this spring, so stay tuned.
      Thanks for the feedback!

      1. Thanks for replying. I love VLC, been using desktop versions for years. I admit I usually only use it for video. This ios app is great and the ability to stream and / or download media from my PC on my home network is wonderful! Thanks for the great free app.

  5. Hi,

    I’m curious to why Video plays just fine on my iPad but there is no sound whatsoever? I googled it and searched through your forums and some have suggested that I change my timezone to outside the U.S. This still does not remedy my problem.

    Do you know why video and audio plays fine on my computer, but when I transfer it to my iPad there is no sound?

    Thank you!

      1. I am still not getting sound for some videos (not all). Otherwise it’s a great start!

  6. Hi, Thanks for the great work on VideoLAN! I’m trying to use it as much as possible as part of my home podcast management workflow. My basic steps are: 1) download all available episodes of a podcast with gPodder 2) use Mp3Tag to add track numbers to the set 3) use iTunes to transfer all files to VLC on my iPod Touch 4g (iOS6). (crazy, I know).

    I needed step 2 because I wanted all podcasts from the same series to be recognized as a “Music Album” by VLC on the iPod. Once I added the track numbers – this worked for all Audio files – but Video files are still showing up only in “All Files”, even with track numbers.

    I now see from the above that “TV Shows are sorted by Season number / Episode number”. I tried adding new named fields to my files : “Season” (non-unique positive integer) and “Episode” (unique positive integer) – but this didn’t work – they are still showing up (only) in All Files.

    Even though the metadata for the files already includes a “Folder” name – they do not get put in folders. (As you know, there is no way for me to create new folders using the VLC iPod app).

    I’m assuming that all information used to have files sorted into (possibly new) folders comes from the file metadata – could you please tell me all specific metadata fields and values I need to create in order to have my files sorted as folders? (I believe this question was also asked here: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=113660 .)

    e.g., to get files into folders under Music albums, I know I need a unique positive integer in “Track” — I’m assuming that “Album” also needs to be non-blank? Are there any other fields that are used? (And what field value makes VLC put it in Music Albums – is that done by a metadata value, or just by filetype?)

    Similarly for TV Shows – do I have the exact field names “Season” and “Episode” correct? If so, what other fields and values do I need to get video podcasts sorted as TV shows? (and, if not, could you please tell me the correct field names I need?)
    Thanks again!

  7. When I download a video, I’m given the option of opening it in VLC. When I open it the first time in VLC, there is a copy of the video placed in an area of VLC which is called “document / inbox”. It is eating up my storage in my iPad. How can I get to this “document inbox” to clear it out ? Any help is very much appreciated. I’m using VLC Version 2.3.0 of books from boxes.

  8. I try to playback a video from my Synology box, starting the video from within the DSFile app. I am connected via WebDAV running over HTTPS. VLC is launched to play the video, but the player doesn’t seem to be able to access the video file. The exact same video plays fine when accessed via WebDAV over HTTP.

    Now I noticed that playback over HTTPS is supported since the last version, but somehow it does not seem to work for me.

    If I can supply anyone with additional info to troubleshoot this, please let me know.

    Otherwise, thanks for an app very well made and very much loved 🙂

    Warm regards,

    Wout from The Netherlands

  9. Hi,
    i play videos via VLC on iPad and the app is the BEST!! 🙂 Is it possible play all files automatically? I have to click on the every file.
    Thanks for help.

  10. Hi! I’m Karen! I’ve been using vlc for ios for quite some time now and i love it! But I got a problem though.. Subtitles won’t appear on the screen, I’m not sure where to fix it. The subtitles appear when I play it on my laptop. Pls help me, Thanks!

  11. Hi! I love using VLC on my iPhone but I have a problem when pausing files. After unpausing the audio is distorted.

  12. I have no been able to make or transfer a playlist for vlc to my phone. How do I make a playlist so I can listen to only the songs I want to?

      1. I tryed to play a m3u playlist (tv channels), streaming of the first channel in the playlist start correctly but no way to go to next channel etc, It should be fine to be able to upload a m3u playlist and find the list of the channels in the “TV Sows” tab

  13. Can I play .xspf files? I’ve tried to copy an .xspf file to the app’s documents, but no luck. MP4 files work when I copy them to the app’s documents.

  14. Thanks Guys for the wonderful iPhone app, I have one question , can I play only one track in an album without moving to the next ones automatically ? sometimes I want to play single long track without the need to stop playing after it finishes 🙂

  15. Why doesn’t VLC access the songs and videos already on my phone? (i.e. ones I captured with phone, or ones that were previously sync’d via iTunes)? The only options I have are local networks, server, or sync to VLC app.

    1. We initially didn’t do this feature, because this was technically not allowed. Nowadays, that’s possible, but no volunteer stepped up to actually do the code. The team tends to be focussed on making stuff available which isn’t on device already, but I definitely see your use-case where it would probably be nice to have everything in 1 place.

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