How To Use a Jump Forward Shortcut in VLC

Some video segments are boring to watch. Other times, you want to skip to the bit you need to review or browse video snippets until you find the scene you need to make that awesome meme. If you’re using VLC, you can press on the playback bar to jump to a time section, but you might miss important parts if you do it randomly. You can do this faster using the jump-forward keyboard hotkeys for VLC. If you don’t know these hotkeys, you’ve come to the right place.

This article explains various VLC jump-forward shortcuts for Windows, Mac, and smartphones.

What Are Jump Forward Shortcuts on Windows?

If you want to use VLC more efficiently and productively, learn all its shortcut keys. There are two main ways to jump forward: increasing the playback speed, and jumping to a future timestamp.

For the first, press the “-“ button on your keyboard to play a video faster. Alternatively, press “]” to speed the video up a little bit. Likewise, press the “+” button to play it slower or get back to the default after a +, or press “[“ to slow it down a bit and reverse a “]”. Press “=” to go back to the default speed.

To hop forward and avoid viewing some parts, use the following hotkeys:

• Jump three seconds forward – Press “Shift + Right arrow.”
  
• Move 10 seconds forward – Hit “Alt + Right arrow.”
  
• Jump one minute ahead – Push “Ctrl + Right arrow.”
  
• Shoot five minutes forward – Press “Ctrl + Alt + Right arrow.”
  

VLC has hotkeys for reversing the jump-forward actions above, including:

• Move three seconds back – “Shift + Left arrow.”
  
• Jump 10 seconds back – “Alt + Left arrow.”
  
• Hop one minute back – “Ctrl + Left arrow.”
  
• Jump five minutes back – “Ctrl + Alt + Right arrow.”
  

You can also press “Ctrl + T” to move to a given timeframe in your video file. For instance, you can enter the preferred time using the number keys on your keyboard. Press “Enter” to go to the time you’ve set.

How to Speed Up Your Video in VLC on Mac

If you use VLC on Mac, you can speed up your video by pressing down the “CMD” and “+” keys together. Do the opposite (press CMD and +) to slow it down. Press the “CMD” and “=” keys simultaneously to restore the normal playing speed.

Other important hotkeys for jumping videos forward in VLC on Mac are:

• “CMD + Right arrow” – Fast-forward your video by three seconds.
  
• “CMD + Option + Right arrow” – Allows you to jump your video forward by ten seconds.
  
• To reverse the above actions, replace the “Right arrow” with the “Left arrow.”
  

Setting up the Default VLC Playback Speed on Windows or Mac

To avoid altering the playback speed manually each time you play a video in VLC, create your default playback speed. Every video you play after this will use the same playback speed. Here’s how to do it:

1. Press Ctrl + P to navigate to advanced configurations. Press “CMD + P if running a Mac computer. You can also click “Tools,” “Preferences,” and “Show settings.” Then tick the “All” circle.
   
2. You will open the “Advanced Preferences” menu. So, click the “Input/Codecs” option.
   
3. Move to “Playback control” to alter the speed of your video. Enter a two-decimal value as your default playback speed and click “Save.”
   
4. Stop your video and press “Play” again. Another way is to close and open VLC again to see if the default speed setting works.

Jump Forward Your Video in VLC on Android or Apple

VLC is a multi-platform video and audio player. If you prefer playing your Android or iOS videos in VLC, you should learn how to use jump-forward hotkeys. If you are on Android, here are the steps:

1. Launch your VLC Media Player and choose a file to play.
   
2. Tap the “three dots” icon in the lower left corner.
   
3. Locate and choose the “playback speed” icon.
   
4. To increase playback speed, touch the “+” button. You can also move the playback speed’ slider from 0.25x to 0.4x.
   
5. To make 1.00x your default speed, touch the “Playback speed” icon and slide the bar to the middle.

If you play your iPhone or iPad videos in VLC, here’s how to jump-forward them:

1. Launch VLC and tap the “three dots” icon at the bottom right corner.
   
2. Choose “Playback speed” from the “Video Options” menu. A slider with two-speed extremes will appear. So, slide the bar forward to increase the speed from 0.25x to 8x.
   
3. After choosing the ideal speed, the video will adjust itself automatically.

Other Important VLC Shortcuts

No matter the device you open VLC on, you can access most of its shortcut keyboard keys. Besides the jump-forward or jump-backward hotkeys, VLC has other hidden shortcuts. Not only can you use these keys in their default settings. You can also customize them to enjoy using your VLC app more. Here are more hotkeys you can use when opening videos in VLC on your computer or mobile device:

• Spacebar – Use it to “Play” or “Pause” a VLC video.
  
• Ctrl +Up arrow – Use these keys to increase volume.
  
• Ctrl + Down arrow – Decrease volume.
  
• F – To view VLC in full-screen mode, press “F” or double-click the VLC playback screen.
  
• Esc – Press the Escape key to exit the full-screen. You can double-click the full-screen or press “F” again to exit.
  
• N – Press the letter “N” to move to the next track in your playlist.
  
• P – Push the letter “P” to play the previous track.
  
• M – Press “M” to mute your video.
  
• T – When on full-screen mode, press “T” to see the elapsed and remaining time.
  
• V – Use this hotkey to turn on or off the subtitles.
  

FAQ

Can I customize VLC hotkeys?

Go to Tools > Preferences, and open the Shortcut menu to get a full list of VLC hotkeys. You can change the hotkeys in this menu.

Which other media players can I use to speed up or slow down my videos?

VLC is among the best free tools, but you can try others. If you use Mac, try a tool like QuickTime Player. Although it can handle virtually ten times fewer video formats than VLC, the QuickTime Player, you can choose the playback speed before playing a video clip. Windows users can use Sigma Media Player. It lets them adjust playback speed after opening a video file.

Control Videos in VLC With Your Keyboard

To enjoy viewing videos on VLC, learn how to use different hotkeys. These keys will be unique depending on your operating system. If you have a Mac PC, most hotkeys will start with “CMD.” On the other hand, Windows VLC hotkeys start with “Ctrl” or “Alt.”

What do you use the fast-forward feature most? Let us know in the comments section below.