Set VLC as default video player not working

[tenry]

How do I set the VLC video player as the default application for video files (video/mp4)? I tried quite anything I could do:

• Right-click on video file, choosing a default application ("vlc") has no effect, it keeps with Totem ("Videos")
• System Settings -> Default Applications -> Video. I can choose between Totem (pre-selected), Banshee and VLC media player. Switching between Totem and Banshee has immediate effect, but selecting VLC media player does not change anything (also it keeps selected in that window when re-opening the system settings)
• Replacing totem.desktop with vlc.desktop in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list also has absolutely no effect

What else can I do? VLC media player is working I can explicitely open my video files with VLC, so it seems to be installed correctly.


I am using Linx Mint 17 with the Cinnamon desktop environment version 2.2.16.

[austin.texas]

In addition to the right-click > Open With > Other application > VLC > Set as Default
you can also do right-click > Properties > Open With > VLC > Set as Default
I have experienced occasions when that worked, when the first method did not.

[tenry]

In addition to the right-click > Open With > Other application > VLC > Set as Default
you can also do right-click > Properties > Open With > VLC > Set as Default
I have experienced occasions when that worked, when the first method did not.

That's actually, what I did: clicking on properties and then Open With. Tried it directly over Open With and Other application, but didn't work either.

[Flemur]

The "mime" implementation on linux is pretty goofy.

Replacing totem.desktop with vlc.desktop in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list also has absolutely no effect

I have VLC set as the default for movies and it doesn't appear in either one of those files (upper and/or lower case). Both files show "totem" as the default for a lot of things, including movies, and I don't even have totem installed. Great stuff, huh?

This might help (several different answers):
http://askubuntu.com/questions/289337/h ... n-globally

This stuff below is kinda hacky/kludgey, but so is mime itself...

If all else fails and you don't need totem, make it be a link to vlc:
$ which totem
$ which vlc
(to find the executables)
$ cd [to where totem is]
$ sudo mv totem totem.save
$ sudo ln -s [vlc] totem
[vlc] is the full path to vlc, if it's not in the same dir as totem.

Or, if you don't have totem, make a 'totem' script in your ~/bin, that just launches vlc (with passed params).

[tenry]

The "mime" implementation on linux is pretty goofy.

Replacing totem.desktop with vlc.desktop in /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list also has absolutely no effect

I have VLC set as the default for movies and it doesn't appear in either one of those files (upper and/or lower case). Both files show "totem" as the default for a lot of things, including movies, and I don't even have totem installed. Great stuff, huh?

This might help (several different answers):
http://askubuntu.com/questions/289337/h ... n-globally

This stuff below is kinda hacky/kludgey, but so is mime itself...

If all else fails and you don't need totem, make it be a link to vlc:
$ which totem
$ which vlc
(to find the executables)
$ cd [to where totem is]
$ sudo mv totem totem.save
$ sudo ln -s [vlc] totem
[vlc] is the full path to vlc, if it's not in the same dir as totem.

Or, if you don't have totem, make a 'totem' script in your ~/bin, that just launches vlc (with passed params).

I think, I tried quite everything, that is suggested in your link.

I could "replace" (or even uninstall) Totem, similarly like you described it, but there are very few cases, where I still wanna use Totem instead of VLC, so this solution is out of question.

[Flemur]

I could "replace" (or even uninstall) Totem, similarly like you described it, but there are very few cases, where I still wanna use Totem instead of VLC, so this solution is out of question.

Tho I still don't advise that you try hacky link stuff, above (althougth I'd certainly try it! - it's easy to undo), you could try it and run "totem.save" for the real totem. (and maybe make an alias or ~/bin file with a better name, pointing to the real totem.save). Besides, there should be a better answer than that, but if the proper methods aren't working, then....?

[tenry]

I somehow solved the issue! Solution (at least, in my case):

Right-click on video file -> Open With -> Other application (file properties and then Open With would propably work as well).
In that dialog, click the bottom right button "Reset to system defaults" (the "Default Application" was still Totem), then select VLC and click "Set as default". Now, VLC appears as the "Default application" in the list and it is used as the default application for that file type.

[LesStrater]

System Settings -> Default Applications -> Video. I can choose between Totem (pre-selected), Banshee and VLC media player. Switching between Totem and Banshee has immediate effect, but selecting VLC media player does not change anything (also it keeps selected in that window when re-opening the system settings).

I'm using LMCE-17 and the above is what I did and it worked for me.
System Settings -> Preferred Applications -> Video, (set to VLC Media Player.)
I checked it by rebooting, then double-clicking on an flv video file which opened in VLC.
Interestingly, I checked the /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and the Video/Flv still points to Totem.

[FranklynA]

Right click on movie>Properties>File Type Options>Click on preferred default player & hit "Move Up" to take it to the top of the list>Apply>Ok