VLC very slow to start

[CJbeans]

I had the same experience with launching VLC. My fix was to change the subtitle font to "Courier New". VLC now launches immediately on my system. Running VLC 2.1.3 on a Windows 7 x64 with 16GB ram.

[corey]

I am also having this problem as well. Mine started after putting in a either a SONY or "syfi, universal" TV series, now all commercial dvd start slow. I noted the vlc processes refusing to shut down so I would have 2-4 vlc processes going on at once, even though I "X"ed out of the player via the red "X". Also I would have the vlc cone still showing on my toolbar of active applications despite closing the player.

Also noticed that when a previous vlc that was shut down, and was still in processes, it would take even longer for a newly opened VLC window to start the DVD.

I have tried resetting settings as well.
I have deleted all files and reinstalled VLC no change.
I was using 2.1.3 rincewind
tried updating to 2.1.5 64bit no change

Personally I am starting to suspect a new DRM scheme being behind it, like the sony BGM rootkit scandal, one that Slows (random file types) in "unauthorized players"(so as not to raise red flags with the players development team or the end-users.) without blocking them altogether, in order to discourage users from using "unauthorized players". Reason I suspect this is, it was working flawlessly before I watched a "sony" or a "SYFI, universal" tv series

I suspect that the movie industry considers using VLC "as piracy" because VLC refuses to pay royalties for the keys.

[sniffy45]

I've had this problem over and over, over the years, sporadically with long periods of time in between, so I forget what I did to fix it. SO I am posting here not only to be able to find THE ANSWER when I google, but to also help you all who are just as frustrated as I. Every google post about it is hyperbole, no fix!

With that said, it is your fault vlc is running like sh*t. The software works fine, the code is fine and any bugs it may have will be in a beta version and should be expected.

It could be a cache issue, not likely, but what the hell, check.

For me, every time its my AV or Spam protection. These tools always change so you forget. As of now, I run Malwarebytes pro. That was the culprit! I put an exclusion in and sweet baby jebus I got my awesome VLC back.

[MPE]

Has anyone already suggested the removal of the Firefox vlc web plugin? That's what did the trick for me. I was actually cleaning up my pc, and came across the vlc plugin I wasn't using anyway. I had already accepted the long startup for VLC, because it works fine otherwise. Then to my great surprise the VLC startup was much faster after the removal of the plugin.
You can find instructions for the removal at this post on the mozilla forum.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 8&t=417274

Cheers!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

VLC is slow to start if something/someone destroys the VLC plugins cache.

[RickD]

I followed the permission thing, changed myself to owner, it increased the speed a lot (from up to a minute or so to 5 secs approx) : good but still not normal.
Set an exception for the VideoLan folder in MalwareBytes and it's now a tad faster i think.
But it gets INSTANT when i shut down MalwareBytes altogether.

If anyone knows how to properly set an exception in MalwareBytes then please say : i just excluded the folder, not sure what more to do.

Thanks to all ! This problem has been doing my head in for months now.

[Dignan17]

I've been having this problem for months now. It's really annoying...

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

You need to fix your permissions, I'm afraid.

[Dignan17]

You need to fix your permissions, I'm afraid.

That didn't work for me, and it doesn't make a lot of sense that it would have this kind of effect.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yes, if it's slow to start, it means the plugins cache is not written

[Dignan17]

...and what would do that? ...and how do I fix that?

[wroot]

For me as for many users on this thread this problem started with the release of 2.x version. 1.x version was always instant to launch no matter the permissions or AV software in use. I was using the same OS, same AV software with VLC 1.x and then updated to 2.x and suddenly VLC startup became 10+ seconds (only the first launch after the system boot). Since then i have already upgraded my PC, upgraded the OS and changed an AV software, but VLC startup stayed slow. Recently i have decided to try anything i can find about this issue. So far the most impactful thing was to exclude VLC folder in AV software (using Avast, excluding "Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\*" R and X checked (read and execute)). This has made VLC to launch in a few seconds or faster, which is satisfying for me (especially comparing to the usually slow startup). I'm not going to try changing the permissions. This is NOT the way software should work in Windows environment (giving full permissions or such). And it shouldn't even be suggested by developers. You are developing a product for Windows, so it should work without altering the default OS behavior.

As about the AV software affecting VLC startup. As i said, this wasn't the case with 1.x version. It is also the same with various AV brands. Other video players (and many other programs) start faster than VLC. I assume in 2.x there were some architectural changes behind the hood making VLC maybe load more files or dlls or doing some other stuff making AV to check it longer. It's up to VideoLAN to either deal with this or not, but common users won't be digging into AV settings and excluding stuff, they will just compare two video players and say "hey, this one is starting faster, i will use it instead".

[Dignan17]

Well said, wroot. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be a common problem, so I doubt the VLC developers really care, or else we'd see a much larger thread and any sort of effort to help those of us affected by this issue. I'm very sad to say that after using VLC for longer than I can remember, I'm going to have to move on to something else. It's a shame.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Starting VLC without plugins cache has always been slow on Windows. Absolutely always. That Windows slowness is the reason why the plugins cache was even invented by Gildas Bazin over ten years ago. Antivirii only make the problem worse.

If it is still slow after the first start, it´s a sign that the plugins cache cannot be written. There is nothing for the VLC developers to "fix" here. Just make sure that you have write permission to the VLC installation directories and the file system has free space.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

VLC folder in AV software (using Avast, excluding "Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\*" R and X checked (read and execute)). This has made VLC to launch in a few seconds or faster, which is satisfying for me (especially comparing to the usually slow startup). I'm not going to try changing the permissions. This is NOT the way software should work in Windows environment (giving full permissions or such)

Your AV software is blocking the correct execution of VLC, and you blame VLC?

The plugins-cache is necessary, to run fast. It should be installed at the last part of the installer, when you run VLC. If you block it from being created, yes, it will not work well.

[Dignan17]

I'm disappointed in VideoLAN and its representatives in this thread specifically for approaching a call for help from your users with such accusatory tones. As someone who's used VLC for over a decade, who's installed it on every computer I've ever worked on, and even contributed to the Windows 8 Kickstarter campaign, I'm going to have to rethink my support of this application and start looking for an alternative.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I'm disappointed in VideoLAN and its representatives in this thread specifically for approaching a call for help from your users with such accusatory tones. As someone who's used VLC for over a decade, who's installed it on every computer I've ever worked on, and even contributed to the Windows 8 Kickstarter campaign, I'm going to have to rethink my support of this application and start looking for an alternative.

Your contribution to this thread was to accuse us of "not caring" and when we told you how to fix, you just ignored it, and blame us for your computer to malfunction.

You need to let VLC create its plugins cache for VLC to start fast. There is no secret here.

As you even said, millions of VLC users don't have the issue, and a small minority has (see this thread). So, it's very very more likely that the issue is not in VLC but in the way it's used.

Finally "VideoLAN and its representatives", what the h**l? You believe we're a company or something? You should stop being used to American corporations and their usual PR speak. We're volunteers, and we do things the correct technical way. Even if it is quite direct.

[Dignan17]

Wow, thanks for taking an opportunity to be civil and going the opposite way with it. My apologies for not understanding the makeup of VideoLAN, but there's no reason for you to act like this. You do realize that the people you're being rude to are the ones most trying to use your software. If we didn't care, we wouldn't come here for help.

The part of my initial post that you're missing is that we're here looking for a cause of this issue. You and the other representatives of VideoLAN/VLC keep telling the people in this thread "plugins cache! you need the plugins cache!" but have never once tried to:

a) get to the bottom of what's causing whatever you think is happening to this plugins cache
b) explain how to fix whatever might be happening to the plugins cache

The only solution I've heard is "your AV is doing it." Why is this the assumption? I've seen no evidence of this on my end. My AV has shown me no signs of flagging anything related to VLC as a virus.

I've gone through the process of granting my primary user account full permissions to the VLC program folder, which, as another person here observed, is not something a user should have to do. This did not fix the problem anyway.

So if my AV isn't the problem and the permissions aren't the problem, what's the problem? Like many other users here, VLC never used to exhibit this behavior. I'm not saying that a change in the application caused this. Applications and the operating systems they run on get updates all the time, and who knows which programs might conflict with each other because of added features. I don't know.

But what I do know is that for some odd reason you guys have taken the weird approach of being extremely off-putting to the people who, I assume, are your biggest fans. Perhaps some of us (myself included) used language that made you defensive, but I'm still surprised by your overall tone. For example:

Finally "VideoLAN and its representatives", what the h**l? You believe we're a company or something? You should stop being used to American corporations and their usual PR speak. We're volunteers, and we do things the correct technical way. Even if it is quite direct.

Sheesh. This isn't an issue of "being used to American corporations," this is an issue of you guys being oddly defensive. And my response to that first sentence is "what the h**l?" right back at ya. What do you expect me to call you? My apologies for not being familiar with the general structure of VideoLAN (I figured you'd be happy enough if you knew that I've used your product for a decade and installed it on hundreds of computers*). I'm not sure why that generated such a bizarrely defensive reaction from you. My apologies for not knowing the exact term you would prefer for the members of your team engaging users on your company/organization/collective forum. I thought "VideoLAN and it's representatives" was fairly on point, and given your description of how you're organized, it seems to be even more apt. But for some reason you found that to be an offensive terminology and decided to bite my head off for it. Again, I find your reactions quite bizarre for anyone, whether they be from a development team, a corporation, or any other kind of shop. To see that you're apparently the President of VideoLAN surprises me even more, based on your interractions. (side note: I got my head bitten off because I thought you were more corporate than you are, but when something has a "President" it sounds pretty corporate).

Anyway, sorry again if my initial post offended you, but I still don't see much of a justification for your responses.

(*yeah, that's not happening anymore)

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

The only solution I've heard is "your AV is doing it." Why is this the assumption?

No it's not.

It's quite well explained in numerous threads, and documentation, and guides that VLC being slow to start is the blocking possibility of creation of plugins.dat in Program Files.

Sheesh. This isn't an issue of "being used to American corporations," this is an issue of you guys being oddly defensive.

Yes, we're an extremely small team, with numerous users, and noone doing support, so yes, we're annoyed when the same question is asked over and over...
Not happy? I have no solutions for that except selling support.

[wroot]

Starting VLC without plugins cache has always been slow on Windows. Absolutely always.

With the 1.x version of VLC this was true only for the first launch after the upgrade of VLC. It was even showing a cmd (terminal) window saying that caches are being rebuilt or something like that. Then it was fast. Without changing the permissions or excluding it in AV. You say it was 10 years ago when plugins cache was introduced. 2.x version was released in 2012, so plugins cache was already there in the 1.x version and didn't cause such issues then.

That Windows slowness is the reason why the plugins cache was even invented

Are these plugins needed for the core VLC functionality? Can they be disabled to avoid this issue?

Which part of the documentation refers to plugins cache problems? Can't find it. Also, i went to this thread after searching for this issue and this thread was the most recent one and with examples most accurately describing my issue.

Your AV software is blocking the correct execution of VLC, and you blame VLC?

I don't think AV is blocking VLC. Its resident just tries to scan the starting program and somewhere in this process bottleneck is created. I'm not a developer and don't know how exactly VLC operates and what happens during its startup. If you have a small team of developers, it is understandable that you can't fix all issues and this can be hard to pin point, but at least it should be curious for the devs to find out what is alienating a part of their userbase.

Just make sure that you have write permission to the VLC installation directories

the blocking possibility of creation of plugins.dat in Program Files

Can we have a ticket filed to propose moving this file and other files that need to be changed when a user runs VLC to the user's AppData folder (where it belongs actually)? Same on linux, to the /user/home folder of the user currently running VLC (found a thread about a user wondering why VLC needs to update plugins.dat file in a place with root only access instead of a user's space on Debian http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=117859). Altering files in Program files is not the way how a program should operate since Windows NT. It causes even more issues since UAC introduction in Vista.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

The plugins cache file naturally belongs with the plugins, not with the user. A single user can have multiple VLC versions (especially on Windows), and multiple users can use the same version with the same plugins and thus the same plugins cache.

If you use the Windows executable installer, and your AV is not messing up the system, the plugins cache should be generated just fine.

[wroot]

So, in my case it is not a corrupted plugins cache issue. If i do a clean install with AV disabled (same with AV enabled) it starts instantly when AV is disabled and starts slow when AV is enabled. I get that it would still start slow with AV disabled, if plugins cache is getting corrupted during the installation.

If the cache is only generated during the installation (btw, at which point exactly?) and setup should already be running with the elevated privileges, why do you suggest to change permissions of the installation folder?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

So, in my case it is not a corrupted plugins cache issue. If i do a clean install with AV disabled (same with AV enabled) it starts instantly when AV is disabled and starts slow when AV is enabled. I get that it would still start slow with AV disabled, if plugins cache is getting corrupted during the installation.

If the plugins cache were corrupt, then the first startup would be slow even with AV disabled. If it is only slow with AV enabled, then your AV is the problem. You can complain here all you want; there is simply nothing the VLC developers can do about your AV slowing the system down.

If the cache is only generated during the installation (btw, at which point exactly?) and setup should already be running with the elevated privileges, why do you suggest to change permissions of the installation folder?

Some people do not use the official executable installer. Also some people do not let the installation complete cleanly.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

it starts instantly when AV is disabled and starts slow when AV is enabled.

And proves our point... Change AV right now.

[wroot]

It does the same with another AV which i was using before.