Don't upgrade to 3.2.3 if you have much content

[drheim]

I have an nvidia shield(android) with a lot of video files on it. I use it every day and it has worked great for me with previous versions of VLC for Android. I upgraded to 3.2.3 and it is probably one of the worst upgrades I have ever had. Trying to figure out a way to roll back on the nvidia shield, but it has been tough. For now I have had to switch to other video players. The problem is I have a few hundred video files on attached usb drives(exfat is filesystem so I can use it with windows, mac, linux, etc.). When I browse to the drives it probably shows about 5% of my content. I have given it time to populate, restarted, tried different drives, etc. and tried everything else I can think of. I also noticed that each time I browse in I will get a different list of video files. It usually starts at the beginning, but towards the end of the small amount of content it displays it will show different video files each time. I also noticed the GUI has changed as well and it is clicking when going between files which might be great if you have 50 files, but not if you have a lot of content as it is a lot slower. I just checked and saw 2 other people on this forum with similar threads, but do not upgrade to 3.2.3 if you have a good amount of content on a usb drive. I have had to download other players like MX Player or Kodi and those work fine, but I really miss the old VLC as it was great. Going to dive into the nvidia shield and see if I can figure out a way to remove and download the older version.

[Lotesdelere]

This sounds very similar to these reports:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=151698

[bouynxdor]

I'm having the same exact issue and so far of all the media players for Android i've found, this is the better one for interface. It started when i updated it to 3.2.3 yesterday. Most of my files are missing and my folders only go up to P

[lemmy999]

If you figure out how to go to the previous version please post here. I am having similar issues as you. I'm also having issues with subtitle files.

[Altradude]

After that last update VLC player is no good to me until the directory problem gets fixed. My videos list up to the letter "P" but I think some in each letter are missing that have lots of videos. It led me to explore other video players until then. MX player audio doesn't work for all videos so it's out. Archos player seems to work ok for now.

[Bashyman]

I'm having exactly the same problem about 50% of videos showing on my shield VLC.
Does anyone know how to downgrade to the previous version?
I think this update looks pants anyway. Preferred the look of the previous

[lemmy999]

3.2.3 also has issues loading subtitle files. I plan to downgrade to an older version soon. I just don't know which one was the last one that worked. I assume when they went form 3.1.x to 3.2.x is when this major change happened. But when I first noticed the subtitle file issue I looked and I had 3.2.3.

To downgrade the general steps (for an Nvidia Shield anyway) are:
1. remove 3.2.3
2. in settings enable installing .apk files that are not from the play store
3. download the older .apk (https://get.videolan.org/vlc-android/ I think the shield uses the arm64 .apk)
4. put the .apk on a USB stick and plug it in.
5. Use something like ES File Explorer to find the file and select it and choose install.


I like the new look ok, mainly because I can see the entire file name instead of having to wait for it to scroll. I just wish there was an option to view the files as lists and get rid of the icons.

[Dekans]

Browsing is fixed, 3.2.4 will have it working again.

[drheim]

lemmy999 - Thanks so much for posting that as I could not figure a way to downgrade. Really hoping this works and I can disable the upgrades as this has been a bad one and I did not even know about the subtitle issue which was really cool the way it could download them whenever you needed. The old version was quick and never had a single issue with it. I have been using MX player and it works fine, but I like the old VLC better

[drheim]

Hey guys,

The weird thing is I uninstalled 3.2.3, disabled all application updates in Google play store, and installed 3.2.2 and still have the exact same issues. Slow browsing with new interface, only seeing a small about of video content, and did not even try the subtitle downloader, etc. For anyone needing assistance with this, downloading "solid explorer" from google play store should give you permissions to install apk files for 2 weeks, and the URL reference above for older versions of vlc finally did connect. ES File Explorer and a few others have been removed from the google store, but should still work if you installed them previously

[Bashyman]

Apparently they are working on the fix, am holding out for the 3.2.4 version

[drheim]

The problem for me is even if they fix that problem, will the gui still be really slow browsing because it looks cooler and makes a clicking noise, etc? The update was more like a virus as I spent hours on it, but think I am finally good again thanks to lemmy99. I had to revert back to 3.1.7 to get it working properly and it seemed like everything was functioning correctly again(all files, fast browsing, subtitle download and working ,etc) and left updates disabled for everything. Thanks so much lemmy as your details really helped tremendously.

[lemmy999]

Hey guys,

The weird thing is I uninstalled 3.2.3, disabled all application updates in Google play store, and installed 3.2.2 and still have the exact same issues. Slow browsing with new interface, only seeing a small about of video content, and did not even try the subtitle downloader, etc. For anyone needing assistance with this, downloading "solid explorer" from google play store should give you permissions to install apk files for 2 weeks, and the URL reference above for older versions of vlc finally did connect. ES File Explorer and a few others have been removed from the google store, but should still work if you installed them previously

I installed 3.2.2 and 3.2.1 and the problems were there in all of them. I went to 3.1.7 (the last of the 3.1.x apk files) and it works like a charm. I loved having a working VLC again.

BTW, I used X-plore File Manager instead of ES File Explorer and I was able to pull the apk files off of the shared directory on my computer over the network. Made it very quick and easy. You do have to go in to the Shield settings and give X-plore the permission to install apk files. I don't remember exactly where that was, but it wasn't too hard to find.

[lemmy999]

The problem for me is even if they fix that problem, will the gui still be really slow browsing because it looks cooler and makes a clicking noise, etc? The update was more like a virus as I spent hours on it, but think I am finally good again thanks to lemmy99. I had to revert back to 3.1.7 to get it working properly and it seemed like everything was functioning correctly again(all files, fast browsing, subtitle download and working ,etc) and left updates disabled for everything. Thanks so much lemmy as your details really helped tremendously.

Glad it worked for you. I didn't find out until last night that 3.1.7 was the one to get. I'm not sure if the play store's auto updates took us straight from 3.1.7 to 3.2.3 or if each successive update was so quick (all in the month of November) that we didn't notice the problems until we were on 3.2.3.