# VLC media player — user reviews > 1,286 indexed App Store user reviews of VLC media player by VideoLAN, rated 3.70/5 from 5,780 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vlc-media-player/id650377962.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 2,836 · 4★ 838 · 3★ 637 · 2★ 479 · 1★ 990 ## What do users think of VLC media player? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Plays everything - 👍 Great for offline media - 🔒 No ads or subscriptions - 🚀 Convenient file transfer - 👍 Customizable playback **Cons** - 🐛 Buggy after updates - 🔋 Drains battery - 👎 Confusing UI/UX - 🐛 Unreliable network streaming - 👎 Lacks basic features **Commonly reported bugs** - Playback issues with certain codecs - Crashes when accessing network shares - Inconsistent shuffle/repeat behavior - Subtitle sync problems - Deleted files not freeing up storage **Most requested features** - Picture-in-Picture mode - Improved playlist management - Folder-based organization - Lyrics support - Chromecast integration ## Newest reviews (18 of 1,286) ### 4/5 — Good, needs PiP *2026-08-26, version 3.7.3* Good app, works well. Just needs Picture in Picture ### 3/5 — Meh *2026-08-20, version 3.7.3* I use the app to listen to audio files and this app has a weird issues where it skips the first second of the song and it’s really annoying because that’s my only issues with the app. ### 4/5 — We need this update *2026-08-19, version 3.7.3* The app is good for looking at files and playing old video files from 2001 that windows media player doesn't support but there's one issue. I want to watch DVDs on my iPad and I don't know how to do that on VLC mobile. Can you fix that? ### 3/5 — M3u playlist Oddities *2026-08-18, version 3.7.3* The IOS version of VLC is the only viable alternative we have to Apple Music, but the fact that my .m3u playlists aren’t importing correctly is a huge bummer. VLC can see and even read them, but only one or two songs actually populate in the playlists (when there are more like 10 or more in the playlist) and I genuinely cannot figure out why. It would be so nice if this could be fixed, or if the way to fix it was more obvious. I want to be able to update my playlists on my Linux PC and then copy the updated playlists onto my iPhone to sync them. It just does not seem reliable or stable atm. I hate manually remaking my playlists. Please find a way to streamline this and make it more accessible ### 2/5 — could be better *2026-08-17, version 3.7.3* would be better if airplay allowed video to play rather than just audio at present the only option is to screen mirror which uses much more battery and is impractical ### 2/5 — DLNA GONE *2026-08-16, version 3.7.3* VLC no longer supports streaming from dlna servers. I used it all the time on iPad. No matter what I reboot or re-install, DLNA servers no longer show up in the new VLC app. The documentation only mentions SMB, FTP, and PLEX as server options it will connect with. Have always loved VLC and still use it on my PC. Especially to find subtitles to embed in video. Its brilliant. Ugh….I didn’t say uPnP support was gone…I said support for DLNA was gone. ### 4/5 — Not too bad. *2026-08-12, version 3.7.3* App would sometimes crash when I do the most basic things, but it’s an amazing alternative to youtube. Shuffle mode always plays the first song in the playlist and then shuffles only the rest for some odd reason, but that’s not much of an issue for me. ### 4/5 — Almost perfect *2026-08-10, version 3.7.3* Great app for downloading and viewing videos but they still don’t have Picture in Picture for iPhone.. my only complaint right now ### 2/5 — DLNA GONE *2026-08-08, version 3.7.3* VLC no longer supports streaming from dlna servers. I used it all the time on iPad. ### 4/5 — Need a setting to prevent controls from disappearing *2026-08-08, version 3.7.3* I use VLC for audio language lessons and I need to use the Rewind button frequently. This would work a lot better if the controls would stop disappearing every few seconds. ### 3/5 — bug *2026-08-06, version 3.7.3* Playlists are not played in alphabetical order after sorting alphabetically. Can add 5 seconds forward and 5 seconds backward function? ### 3/5 — A really great app but the lack of Picture in Picture holds it back *2026-08-06, version 3.7.3* I love VLC and this is an app I use all the time now, but it doesn’t have picture and picture so if you ever need to tab out to do something you miss some of your video. It would be much more useful and convenient if you could just put the video in a small window like most iOS apps. ### 3/5 — Unable to import folders *2026-08-06, version 3.7.3* I try to import albums but since they're downloaded in folder format I have to "quick look" at each of them and then download each of them individually, I wish there was a better way to do it but otherwise the app is good ### 3/5 — TWO THINGS I'D FIX *2026-08-05, version 3.7.3* 1. Add PiP 2. Fix the stutter that happens when an audio track is played ### 2/5 — Screen brightness miss-swipes *2026-08-05, version 3.7.3* I've gotten to the point of not using vlc because of the annoyance of mistakenly swipping up or down and vlc dimming or brightening my screen when I don't want it to. At least allow the user to disable that function. ### 4/5 — Pretty good *2026-08-05, version 3.7.3* Pretty good for iPhone music player the fact that you can’t save from your phone to Apple Music sucks VLC is pretty good! ### 3/5 — Support *2026-08-03, version 3.7.3* No jellyfin support huh ### 4/5 — Playlists could be improved *2026-08-02, version 3.7.3* At random moments Playlists will just have their saved songs wiped, there’s also a personal issue of not being able to have playlist art or a button to play/shuffle music with you needing to select a song first. With this aside this app is extremely good for listening to tracks offline. Responding to devs: I can only seem to find the button on albums [which I didn’t see initially thank you for the heads up] ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Plays anything but.. *2026-08-20, version 3.7.3* Pros: There isn’t any video or music file this can’t play. CONS: Awful, awful, AWFUL user interface. Small skip buttons. Gestures to skip don’t reliably work. ### 1/5 — How has this app been so trash for so long *2026-08-17, version 3.7.3* How has this app been so trash for so long ### 1/5 — App experience *2026-08-15, version 3.7.3* They don’t push updates now . It is currently buggy and wrost now ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work *2026-08-13, version 3.7.3* Tried downloading some twitch vods onto it so I could work with them on my iPhone. Just says playback failed on even the smallest of videos. Even tested clips. Can’t do anything. Don’t waste your time with this app. ### 1/5 — Who is this app for? *2026-08-09, version 3.7.3* It lacks MOST basic playback features for audio. Seriously who is this app for? Are the developers developmentally disabled or do they just live in a cave? No ‘go to artist’, no ‘now playing. NO SEARCH FUNCTION. This is borderline obsolete and unusable ### 1/5 — Casting button is greyed out *2026-08-08, version 3.7.3* Can’t cast to tv ### 1/5 — Really Buggy *2026-08-05, version 3.7.3* Very poor, with local files it wont play the first second of anything and stops playing at all after a few songs ### 1/5 — Force close every time *2026-08-02, version 3.7.3* Forced close after playing one song … never gets fixed. ### 1/5 — Deletes your videos *2026-07-25, version 3.7.3* Randomly it will delete a video and the storage space will then turn into a system file which then cannot be removed without factory resetting your iPad. ### 1/5 — Terrible app *2026-07-23, version 3.7.3* Terrible app. No clear instructions are provided. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Sync with Photos App?? *2026-08-19, version 3.7.3* VLC has been one of my go to, opensource, video apps for over a decade on my Macs. I just downloaded it for iOS and love all the fratures it has, but is still missing a critical, seemingly obvious, integration with the native Apple Photos app. It would be great if VLC could recognize media content in the Photos app and even be able to view albums as playlists. I’m still giving the app 5 stars, but hopefully they will add this feature soon! ### 5/5 — Amazing app *2026-08-07, version 3.7.3* Works great for music and videos ### 5/5 — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ *2026-08-06, version 3.7.3* I’ve been using VLC for more than 10 years, ever since it came pre-installed on my first laptop. It’s been my go-to media player ever since. I love that it’s completely free and doesn’t pressure users into buying a subscription. It plays almost every video and audio format without any problems, and it’s always been reliable. Even on my iPhone, the app works smoothly and does exactly what I need. Thank you to the developers for keeping such an amazing app free for everyone. Highly recommended! ### 5/5 — What are these reviews? *2026-08-04, version 3.7.3* Does it have bugs that need fixed? Yes does it need to be updated? Yes but dissuading people from getting it is dumb because i’m fairly sure you don’t have a better recommendation. The only suggestion i would make is to add looping support for file types that can have loop points .wav and the like. edit: what’s the point of that edit:Sent! ### 5/5 — Great! But could improve! *2026-08-02, version 3.7.3* First time using this app and I love it! I did want to suggest the need to add a sorting capability throughout the files. It should have multiple ways to sort, A-Z, etc. Plus improve on this and it’ll be an even more useful app! Thanks! I love that you added multiple cloud storage accessibilities! That was so helpful! ### 5/5 — What are these reviews? *2026-07-29, version 3.7.3* Does it have bugs that need fixed? Yes does it need to be updated? Yes but dissuading people from getting it is dumb because i’m fairly sure you don’t have a better recommendation. The only suggestion i would make is to add looping support for file types that can have loop points .wav and the like. edit: what’s the point of that ### 5/5 — VLC is like an old friend *2026-07-29, version 3.7.3* One of the few, great constants in the computer world. It is a powerful tool but ’m not skilled enough to use it for more than the basic music player activities. However I will always bring it in on any new devices, like a favorite classic music album. ### 5/5 — The best digital media viewer to exist *2026-07-25, version 3.7.3* As someone who is fond with unique video/photo formats, this player is absolutely amazing! I have never had more fun playing around with unique video codecs with unique audio codecs and such. ### 5/5 — What are these reviews? *2026-07-21, version 3.7.3* Does it have bugs that need fixed? Yes does it need to be updated? Yes but not recommending it is dumb because i’m pretty sure you don’t have a better recommendation. The only suggestion i would make is to add looping support for file types that have loop points .wav and the like. ### 5/5 — Perfection *2026-07-20, version 3.7.3* It is the best app I have used for music. Just wish I could lower the volume of the app alone while I talk to friends and listen to music. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*