How to play multiple instances of VLC on Mac?

Question

It seems on Windows there is an option: 'Allow only one instance', but I can't find it on OS X.

How do I force VLC to open new separate instance for new videos?

Currently it's just replacing the existing one.

I've the recent VLC 2.1.5.

Answer 1

On the Mac, running multiple instances of VLC is not supported out of the box.

As workaround, you can run it from command prompt as:

open -n /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC my_video.mp4

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Or can create a Droplet/App by pasting the code below into a new AppleScript Editor script and save it as an application:

on run
    do shell script "open -n /Applications/VLC.app"
    tell application "VLC" to activate
end run

on open theFiles
    repeat with theFile in theFiles
        do shell script "open -na /Applications/VLC.app " & quote & (POSIX path of theFile) & quote
    end repeat
    tell application "VLC" to activate
end open

which does the following:

• launch the VLC droplet/app to get a separate instance of VLC,
• drop one or more files onto VLC droplet/app, or
• associate your .mov, .avi, and other files directly with the VLC droplet/app, allowing you to simply click on the files to launch the files in a new standalone VLC session.

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File Association with the Droplet/App can be done as follows:

1. Open Finder and find the video file of interest.
2. Right click on the file (assumes you have right click enabled).
3. Choose "Get Info".
4. Under "Open with:", click dropdown and select the VLC droplet/app.
5. Click "Change All" button.
6. If prompted "are you sure", select "Yes".

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Source:

• How to play multiple instances of VLC at wiki.videolan.org