VLC very slow to start

[chenav]

I've had this problem with the previous version and it persists now also with 2.0.1. I'm using a laptop which shuts down very rarely, so it's happening not only after system reboots, but just randomly from time to time.
What can it be?

[VLC_help]

Have you tried to reset VLC settings by removing %appdata%\vlc folder?

[cybmole]

i have also reported this issue. it is apparent in both 2.0 and 2.0.1. I reproduced it on 2 PCs running win 7 32 bit & win 7 64 bit respectively & it is NOT a cache issue. i.e. removing that appdata folder after backing up my custom key settings does not help.
the slow start is 1. after reboot, 2 after prolonged sleep, and also I think after using other players for some time then returning to VLC.
start is very fast when VLC is in regular repeated use.

I suggest that it is calling for windows library resources that are not automatically placed into RAM, and that are swapped out again after some disuse ( despite me having 6GB RAM !).


I cannot see any way of logging the 1st time run event. I monitored in task manager but only the single VLC process is launched.

this did not happen with 1.x series.
I have reverted to 1.11 & confirmed this, reverting back to 2.0.1 bring the bug back again.

PS as a side-observation. keeping preferences & cache in same folder seems poor design.
the standard 1st line troubleshooting response in this forum seems to be delete your appdata folder, and that leads to a loss of ALL preferences: - hotkeys, screen interface etc unless they have been carefully isolated & backed up. it is a real pain to have to recreate those from scratch.

[cybmole]

the slow start issue is still present in 2.0.2. is this on any future to-be-looked-at lists ?

to recap. on Windows 7 PC, 1st usage of VLC after reboot takes about 20 seconds to initialise.

subsequent uses are very quick.

does not happen with 1.x versions - have flushed cache/app folder etc -

have reproduced this behaviour on 2 different PCs

could someone at least check that bug is reproducible

[cybmole]

would truly appreciate some help with this guys.

on both my win 7 pcs: if I install any vlc1.x version - reboot - startup time for VLC on 1st use is ~1 sec
on same PCs install 2.0.1 / 2/ 3 reboot - start up time for VLC ( on 1st use only after reboot) is 20+ secs
I get this with starting VLC program only, so it's not cause by opeing a particular video file or format
does not seem to matter what I do with preferences / cache options or whether I use install over or uninstall first.

so what changed between 1.11 & 2.01 that could be causing this ?

[shass]

I just installed 2.0.4 and the startup lag seems to be much improved!

[alipps1]

I am now experiencing this problem after a recent upgrade to 2.0.4. Running Windows 7 ultimate 32. Tried removing and reinstalling, made sure media library was unchecked. I read above about removing %appdata%\vlc folder? but it doesn't tell me where it is or how to remove it. Any further info or fixes are appreciated.

[alipps1]

OK found %appdata%\vlc folder and deleted it, no change. VLC shows open in task manager but I don't get a VLC window for 1 to 3 minutes.

[alipps1]

Further troubleshooting, tried disabling subtitles and "preload MKV files in same directory", no help.

[alipps1]

bump still having this problem

[brianpcurran]

I was all set to try and figure this out with Process Monitor but it appears that the 2.0.4 update fixed it!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Try 2.0.5

[King InuYasha]

I can confirm this occurs with Windows 7 and Windows 8 with 2.0.5. On Windows 7, the longest it has taken is six minutes. On Windows 8, it is almost double that on a fairly regular basis.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Your VLC is not installed correctly

[doantello0821]

How do you install it properly then? I've been having the same issue. I've uninstalled VLC, deleted any related file, re-downloaded it, re-installed it as an Administrator, yet it continues to have about a 5 minute delay, sometimes up to 10 minutes, before the VLC window opens, even though it shows it being active immediately in my Task Manager. I was having these issues with 2.0.4 and continue to have them with 2.0.5. I'm running Windows 8 Pro x64 on my laptop. Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[doantello0821]

So I don't know if this method directly fixed my VLC issue, but I was having an issue opening the store on my Windows 8 laptop so I tried to the methods listed on the following website: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... c51e835920. Specifically, Method 4 worked, Perform clean boot and check. Windows 8 Store worked and miraculously so did opening VLC without having to wait a crazy amount of time. Again, I don't know if that directly fixed it or not or what the correlation maybe, if any, but my VLC is opening normally now so I thought I'd share.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Wow. This is very weird.

[Manik]

Hi, I have windows 8 64bit and it takes long to open, but I think it only happens after I try to open a ogg file.

[Solidsoftman]

Hi. I'm running Windows 8, 64-bit with 8Gb of RAM and have found the long startup time only happens when I plug in my external 3TB drive (USB3) which has only video files of various type - .avi, .mkv etc (I use Songbird for music, kept on another drive). Changing the caching and subtitles options don't make any difference either. There was a comment earlier about the speed of the drive which I don't think 'should' be an issue with USB3..?? I swear by VLC so I won't be switching to something else, and I do hope there will be some sort of fix for this soon. My personal work-around is to copy the files I want to use to yet another, smaller drive which is also time consuming, but at least VLC works!!

[jay_stuart]

running Win 8/VLC 2.05. on a 4GB RAM machine with VLC media cache disabled. startup time varies from 15-25 seconds regardless of target video file size. Also: time required to close application is in excess of 10 seconds. I know this doesn't sound like a lot but I'm selecting short clips to edit (200-400MB) so I'm spending more time waiting to start and stop than I am actually viewing. If I reboot entire system, the wait time is far less so I suspect I am caching somewhere. Are there specific settings I can change to minimize the problem. All help is appreciated.

[Solidsoftman]

Ok, since my last post VLC started working fine with the external hard drive so that isn't the issue either. It started again today and I just wanted to play a clip from my laptop and it's lagging up to 3 minutes. The only thing I can put this problem down to is the subtle magnetic variations that occur relative to my geographical location. It started when I was 250km from home, continued for a day when I got back, and now I'm 250km from home and it's happening again. Not very plausible I know, but it's all I can come up with. Either that or my laptop just decided to have a "bad hair day".. :-/

[TommyG]

I have had this problem ever since installing Windows 8 Pro 64bit.

It didn't matter weather I opened a video file or opened vlc directly it would still take a good few minutes to start. I tried all suggestions but none worked for me, so I tried looking at the compatibility mode options, I tried running vlc as administrator and the UAC prompt appeared, I clicked yes and vlc started straight away, which seems to point to a permissions issue.

I did the following and it has worked for me.

Go to - C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC
right click the vlc application and click properties
click the security tab
click advanced
Change the owner to yourself ( in my case home\Tom )
click ok and close all dialog boxes
then...
right click the vlc application and click properties again
click the security tab again
click edit
highlight your account name
check the allow full control box
click apply
close all dialog boxes

vlc now starts straight away for me, my problem seemed to be related to the fact that my account didn't have full rights to the player which is weird since i have only one account on my pc which is a local admin.

[Naveen_Reloaded]

TBH , i was thinking it was dude to some bad codec , but followed your post and now vlc opens INSTANTLY.

How is this not fixed yet ?

[MalWatts]

I've just upgraded to VLC 2.1.3 (x32) on WinXP Pro (32) from a 1.1.x release (yeah, I know, but it was working for me, and it wasn't broken...)

Since update I have the "agonisingly slow to start" problem. Tens of seconds to minutes before play starts, after double-clicking on a file (independent of file size or type - currently I'm trying to play 4MB MP3 audio files - 40 second load time). 1.1.8 started in a second or two; close to instantaneous for my purposes.

Once the player starts, it seems to run flawlessly.

Before I revert to the 1.1.x branch, has anyone found a reason and/or a solution for this problem ?
I tried the security suggestion that worked for some people for Win8... but I already am the file owner, and have "full control".
The problem occurs whether or not I have external storage attached.
Cache clear makes no difference. Reinstall makes no difference.

Seems a shame to go backwards...

Thanks for any help,

Mal.

[t-burke]

I've been experiencing this slow start also. Sometimes I can click on a file and VLC would open immediately. Somtimes it takes minutes. Got to the point where once I got VLC to open, I would not close the player and just add files to it. Recently, through the compatibility feature, I clicked on "Run as Administrator" and files open immediately after clicking Allow in the User Account Control. Very annoying, but works.