Vlc 2.2.0 - Resume playback? How? Where? When?

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

Other than a Addons Manager in the VLC menu (which doesn't work) I see no other changes in behavior with 2.2.0 after using 2.1.5. If there i supposed to be a "resume playback" function in 2.2.0 but I don't see it controllable from any preference. I don't see vlc asking if I want to resume a playback of a video file I stopped and tried to reuse later. As best as I can tell this doesn't exist in my 2.2.0.

As for the Addons Manager, all I get is a rotating "progress" pinwheel. The Addons Manager window is never filled in.

I think I read somewhere that these features may work if I remove all the various vlc preferences (org.videolan.vlc.plist, org.videolan.vlc directory) and maybe org.videolan.vlc directory in Application Support. But I am not going to experiment with that because I don't want to re-do all the preference tweaks I've set over the years. Since 2.2.0 doesn't appear any worse than 2.1.5 I can live without the new features since we didn't have them all the years before this. But if this is indeed the problem then vlc needs to be fixed to inherit its "old" (2.1.5) preferences.

[kdean]

For resume, open your preferences and on the Interface section, find "Continue Playback" and see whether it's set to "Ask, Always, Never".

The Addons Manager loads for me although there's only about 7 options.

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

Ah, so that's where the preference was hiding. Didn't notice it. It's set to "Ask". But it's not asking! I happened to be playing a video while answering this. So, as a test, just to be sure, I did an explicit "Save" of the preferences (with Ask still set), then quit vlc while it was playing, then double clicked the video to start vlc again. It just started from the beginning again and never asked to continue from where I previously quit vlc. So for me it doesn't work.

Note, I found that "continue playback" preference is saved in ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc/vlcrc. That's a text file which contains the "macosx-continue-playback" setting. The "continue playback" popop menu in vlc's preference does update the "macosx-continue-playback" preference setting: 0=Ask (default commented out), 1=always, 2=never. But for me they all behave as if they were "never".

As for the vlc Addons Manager, now it is working. Not sure what was happening before. Perhaps there was a server problem. Who knows? So at least that works - for what it's worth!

[Telet]

I not see the option in WinXP.
If i change it in vlcrc config file
qt-continue=1
VLC revert it to
#qt-continue=1

[Pachuco]

Also my "Continue playback?" preference in VLC for Windows (8.1) is by default configured as "Ask" but the feature doesn't work. I've tried selecting other options and reverting back to "Ask" but, no, I cannot make it work.

I never understood why getting this feature has had such low priority for Windows. I find the use of bookmarks and playlists utterly cumbersome with way too many clicks (and it always defaults to the first file name you have entered).

Congratulations on an otherwise excellent applications!

[dfuhrmann]

Hi,

Generally, please do not mix OSX and Windows here, because resume playback is implemented seperately for both (yet). So they might behave slightly differently.

For resume playback to work on mac, all of the following conditions need to be fullfilled. This is to avoid stupid questions to the user (like if he wants to continue at position 2 seconds after start of video, and similar).

- File must be a local file on your hard disk. No stream or similar.
- It must be longer than 3 minutes.
- The position to save should be within the following range: starting at 5% of total playback time, stopping at 95%.

If one of these conditions are not fulfilled, no resume dialog is shown.

[prMoriarty]

Also my "Continue playback?" preference in VLC for Windows (8.1) is by default configured as "Ask" but the feature doesn't work. I've tried selecting other options and reverting back to "Ask" but, no, I cannot make it work.

The same in the Archlinux

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

It's good to know at least I am not the only one with this problem (well, maybe, within the above stated restrictions) but I do agree this section of the vlc forums is for OSX only. I submitted a bug about this problem (#14021). In my latest comments there I questioned the reason behind these "restrictions" (other than the local file requirement, I can understand that). Why should there be any restriction of playback duration? Why should there be any restriction on where (and how) you stop the playback?

[shpokas]

Well, resume should work as simply as in mplayerx or any other media playing application. It does not. It is not obvious how to configure it.
I was not able to test it even once. Developers should rethink how to make this clear, simple and usable.
Let's start with mplayerx where this is on by default and DOES NOT require ANY configuration.

[dfuhrmann]

Note that you need to have "keep recent items" enabled (thats a setting in advanced preferences, macosx interface, and its enabled by default). Because the playback position is stored together with a list of recent file names and we cannot store them if the user does not want to keep recent items at all. Note as well that the position is only stored for the last (I think) 20 items or so.

But lets compare the default setup of VLC with mplayerX: The _only_ difference is: VLC asks if you want to resume for the first time. The user just need to click "always resume". Afterwards, the behaviour is the same as mplayerX. You do not need any further configuration.

(Ok, they are the small limits mentioned above, but we think they make sense.)

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

Problem solved.

Vlc preferences --> Show All --> Interface --> Main interfaces --> macosx --> Behavior section's "Keep Recent Items" needs to be checked.

Mine wasn't. If it can't remember what you've played it can't remember where to start them. So it was my error.

---

Oops, my error again, dfuhrmann already posted the solution.

[Gary King]

Problem solved.

Vlc preferences --> Show All --> Interface --> Main interfaces --> macosx --> Behavior section's "Keep Recent Items" needs to be checked.

Mine wasn't. If it can't remember what you've played it can't remember where to start them. So it was my error.

---

Oops, my error again, dfuhrmann already posted the solution.

YES this did the trick. I had the same problem as everyone in this thread, and in the bug report, but this simple change fixed it for me. I don't recall ever changing this setting, so I'm not sure why it's disabled if it should be enabled by default. Perhaps it was disabled by default a long time ago in VLC, since I've had VLC installed for a long time?

[jaycelou]

For resume, open your preferences and on the Interface section, find "Continue Playback" and see whether it's set to "Ask, Always, Never".

The Addons Manager loads for me although there's only about 7 options.

I'm on win64 version with clean install, I've check the option default was on "Ask" but it didn't ask. Resume function ON WORKS with "Always" option.
BTW, the setting seem too deep, not easy to find. Isn't it easier for user if it reside under Main interface menu?
Thanks.

[xyzzy-xyzzy]

The "continue playback" is not buried deep. Only the "Keep recent items" checkbox". I think that's because "they" think that users won't want to be toggling that very often. They're probably right. Somewhere in history I must have unchecked that option since I saw no need to remember what I previously played. But it does emphasize what I said in my first post about not wanting to recreate my preferences from scratch because like this checkbox I can't remember all of the possible tweaks I might have done over time to get vlc to behave the way I want it.

As for expecting it to "ask" when it doesn't ask. Remember (as mentioned earlier in this thread) you need to be using a file beyond some minimum size and you need to have stopped the playback beyond some percentage after the start and before the end. I don't agree with vlc making that choice for the user because it can be confusing if you don't remember the "rules" but that's the way it is.

[midas02]

Came searching here as well why this much advertised feature wasn't working for me.

Seems that, if I double-click a video (.mp4) in Windows explorer, VLC doesn't add it to its "recent media" list ("Media->Open recent media"), and doesn't remember where I left off. If I open the video from within VLC ("Media->Open File") though, it will add it to its recent media list, and will remember where I left off.

Strange. Is this expected behaviour, or work in progress?

I've noticed that my Windows calls VLC for mp4 files with this command: "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --started-from-file "%1"
I didn't set it, VLC probably did itself, but maybe the optional parameter has something to do with it.

[Rayden]

The "Keep Recent Items" did the trick indeed.

So this tells us that we should create a ticket so developers can handle the scenario if the continue playback is different that 2, it has to enable keep recent items. Also if the person tries to disable it afterwards should display a warning or something.

[dfuhrmann]

Keep recent items is an advanced setting only. It is known that some settings do not work together with others, and we cannot warn about every possible invalid combination.

Generally, users should know what they are doing if they change anything in the advanced preferences.

Indeed, we have a slightly different case here, but I'm not sure yet how this should be handled best.

[midas02]

Seems that, if I double-click a video (.mp4) in Windows explorer, VLC doesn't add it to its "recent media" list ("Media->Open recent media"), and doesn't remember where I left off. If I open the video from within VLC ("Media->Open File") though, it will add it to its recent media list, and will remember where I left off.

Just to report that this was fixed in the last version (2.2.1). All working fine now.

[MichaelIsGreat]

Where kudos are due, they should be given profusely!! The only feature that truly mattered to me and that I have been waiting for years to see it appear on VLC is this resume playback feature, believe it or not!

When I first installed VLC 2.2.0, the only and first thing I tried was to see if the playback feature that was advertised as being now implemented in VLC 2.2.0 worked and unfortunately it did not.
BUT with VLC 2.2.1, I have the pleasure to report that this playback feature works perfectly well!! AMAZING, AWESOME, YOU NAME IT, I AM IN HEAVEN!

I use Windows 7 by the way.
To give you more information. Go to Tools, Preferences, at the bottom left under Show settings, select All. On the left side where all the options are displayed, select Interfaces, press the small arrow to see various options available, select Main Interfaces, then Qt. Then, it is the interesting part, there is this option Continue playback? and I selected Always and it was the option that I wanted.
---It is by default selected as Ask and here is what Ask does. When you listen to say an mp3 audio file, and then close VLC without even stopping it, the next time you open it, it will show very quickly (too quickly to my taste) an option at the top left of the VLC window to resume the audio file where you left it off. If you click on this small message at the top left, it does resume the audio file where you left it previously when you closed it very quickly without even stopping it.
---Now the Always option that I went through the Preferences tool to select it. This Always option gets rid of this message at the top left and automatically resumes the audio file where you left it when you closed it without even stopping it. That is the option that I wanted and it works perfectly.

One thing to note. After setting this new feature to Always, for some strange reason, when I right-clicked on the folder containing several audio files, VLC did not start. I solved this issue by doing Tools, Preferences and I unticked the option that is displayed when the Interface button is selected (and the show settings is set to simple) and that is called "Use only one instance when started from file manager". The untick of this option solved this strange problem.

Again, KUDOS TO THE ENTIRE VLC TEAM FOR HAVING FIXED SO WELL THIS RESUME PLAYBACK FEATURE AND MADE IT WORK FLAWLESSLY. MANY THANKS. I am indeed in heaven now with this resume playback feature that I have been waiting for so long. It is awesome.

By the way, I have Windows 7 and therefore as soon as Windows 10 is offered free to me as well as Windows 8.1 users, I will move to Windows 10. So, I hope you get ready for the VLC Windows 10 version too. Thanks. Windows 10 will be nothing short of amazing!!!

[midas02]

---It is by default selected as Ask and here is what Ask does. When you listen to say an mp3 audio file, and then close VLC without even stopping it, the next time you open it, it will show very quickly (too quickly to my taste) an option at the top left of the VLC window to resume the audio file where you left it off. If you click on this small message at the top left,

Same here, ideally I would like the notification to stay on for about 10 seconds.

[markifi]

I agree with midas02, the button disappears annoyingly quickly.