How to Loop a Video on a Mac: QuickTime, YouTube, VLC, IINA, and Several Videos at Once

The fastest way to loop a video on a Mac is QuickTime Player: open the file, choose View > Loop, or press ⌥⌘L. It plays again from the start every time it ends, until you turn it off. YouTube, VLC, IINA and Photos each do it a little differently, and none of them is built to loop several videos at once, each on its own. This guide covers every common case, then shows how to loop two or three clips side by side in one window.

Loop a video in QuickTime Player

QuickTime Player loops a movie from its View menu, and it is free, already on your Mac, and the right answer if you only have one video. Apple documents the menu command in its QuickTime Player guide.

1. Open the video. Double-click the file, or right-click it in Finder and choose Open With > QuickTime Player.
2. Turn on Loop. Choose View > Loop, or press ⌥⌘L. A checkmark appears next to Loop.
3. Press play. When the movie ends, it starts again from the beginning.
4. Turn it off. Choose View > Loop again, and the checkmark goes away.

The shortcut is on Apple's QuickTime keyboard shortcuts page, listed as "Loop the movie". That also answers "loop video Mac shortcut": ⌥⌘L in QuickTime, and the shortcuts in the table further down for VLC and IINA.

Loop a YouTube video on a Mac

To loop a YouTube video on a Mac, right-click the video player and choose Loop. That is the method YouTube's help page gives for watching on a computer, in your browser.

• One video: right-click inside the player, then choose Loop. Right-click and choose it again to stop.
• A playlist: open a video that is in the playlist, expand the playlist panel on the right side of the page, and click Loop in the playlist box. The whole playlist then repeats.

The loop belongs to YouTube's own page, so it only works there. Plush doesn't loop web videos itself: a website in a Plush tile plays the way the site decides, so that's the one kind of tile that won't loop for you.

Loop a video in VLC and IINA

VLC and IINA are two free players that loop a single file, a whole playlist, or just one section, all from the Playback menu. They are also the better choice for formats such as MKV, which Plush may not open.

Watch the shortcuts: ⌘L means Repeat All in VLC but A-B Loop in IINA, and ⇧⌘L is the reverse. VLC's menu has a Random option too, on ⌘Z. You can download VLC for Mac from VideoLAN, and IINA is free and open source on GitHub.

To loop a list of files in VLC, add them to the playlist and choose Repeat All; IINA's Playlist Loop does the same for its playlist. Both play one file at a time, so this repeats a sequence rather than playing several videos together.

Loop just one section (A-B loop)

An A-B loop repeats only the part of a video between two points you choose, which is what you want for a guitar lick, a dance move or a line of dialogue. VLC and IINA both have it, and Apple's QuickTime guide documents looping only for the whole movie.

• VLC: choose Playback > A→B Loop (⇧⌘L) at the start of the section, and again at its end. The section then repeats.
• IINA: choose Playback > A-B Loop (⌘L) to set the start, and again for the end.

Plush has no A-B loop, so for a section of a clip, use VLC or IINA. If a slower pace is what you need, Plush's speed setting offers 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.25×, 1.5× and 2×, though it is one setting for every tile.

Loop in Photos and Live Photos

Photos for Mac can loop a Live Photo, but Apple doesn't document a loop setting for regular videos in Photos. In Apple's guide to viewing videos in Photos, you'll find playback controls and no loop option.

For a Live Photo, open it in edit view. A pop-up menu at the bottom right of the Live Photo offers Loop or Bounce (and Long Exposure), as described in Apple's Live Photos guide. To loop a regular video from your Photos library, export it or drag it to the desktop, then open the copy in QuickTime Player or Plush.

Loop several videos at once

To loop several videos at once, each on its own, you need each video in its own player, and there are two ways to do it on a Mac: separate QuickTime windows, or tiles in one Plush window. This is the question behind searches like "loop multiple videos in QuickTime" and "how to loop 2 videos".

The QuickTime way: one window per video

QuickTime opens each file in its own window, so you can loop several movies by repeating the single-video steps:

1. Open each file. Each one gets its own window.
2. Turn on Loop in each window. Click a window, then press ⌥⌘L.
3. Start them together. Press ⌘Return, which Apple lists as playing or pausing all open movies.

It works, and it costs nothing. The catch is that you arrange the windows yourself, turn Loop on for each one separately, and handle the sound of every window by hand.

The Plush way: one window, every tile loops

Plush Media Player is a free Mac app, on the Mac App Store for macOS 14 or later, that puts several videos in one window as tiles. A local video in a tile loops by itself: when it ends, it jumps back to the start and plays again, forever. There's no switch to flip and no setting to find. Each tile loops on its own, at its own length, so three clips of different lengths each keep repeating independently. Local audio files (mp3, m4a, aac, wav, aiff, flac and caf) loop the same way.

Plush is free for up to 3 tiles, with the Grid and Split layouts and Focus sound. Plush Pro, a one-time $2.99 with no subscription, raises the limit to 8 tiles.

How to loop videos in Plush

1. Get Plush. It's free on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later.
2. Add a video to a tile. Click an empty tile, choose Local Files, and pick a video. Or drag a video from Finder onto a tile. Each tile holds one file. MP4, MOV and M4V open most reliably; for MKV, VLC or IINA is the better choice.
3. Add more tiles. Open the sidebar with ⌘\ and use the Tiles stepper, or press ⌘T to add a tile. ⌘D duplicates a tile.
4. Let them play. Every local video loops with nothing to switch on. Press K or Space to play or pause all tiles at once.
5. Choose what you hear. With Focus sound, which is free, only one tile plays sound: the one you double-click (double-click again to release it), or the one under your pointer if none is selected. The rest loop silently.
6. Pick a layout. Grid gives even tiles. Split puts one big tile on the left, and you drag the seam between 25 and 75 percent. Drag a tile's picture onto another to swap them.

A few controls act on every tile together. J and L, or the arrow keys, skip all tiles back or forward 10 seconds. The keys 0 to 9 jump to 0 to 90 percent. Speed is one setting for all tiles: 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.25×, 1.5× or 2×.

Looping a folder (Plush Pro)

With Plush Pro, you can choose a folder for a tile. It plays the files one after another and wraps from the last file back to the first, so the whole folder loops. In Shuffle, every file plays once before any repeats; our guide to shuffling videos from a folder has the details. If you turn auto-advance off with the loop button on a folder tile, the current file loops instead.

Setups worth copying

An ambience wall

Put a fireplace, rain and an aquarium clip you own into three tiles. They loop quietly in different lengths, so the pattern never lines up the same way twice. With Focus sound, only one tile plays sound, so the other two stay silent. Our ambient video wall guide goes deeper, and the same idea runs through our Halloween ambience setup.

A practice loop at 0.75×

Drop a dance or music clip into a tile and set the speed to 0.75×. It repeats slowly until you've got it. Plush can't loop only a section, so if you want one phrase and not the whole clip, use VLC's or IINA's A-B loop.

A booth or shop-counter loop

A product video on a Mac at a booth needs to repeat all day. Drop the file on a single tile and press ⌃⌘F for full screen. With Restore Last Session, which is free, the tiles come back the next time you launch Plush.

A small loop pinned above your work

Shrink the window and press ⇧⌘P for Pin on Top. A looping clip stays above your other apps while you work. Our guide to watching videos while working on a MacBook has the full setup.

Two angles of one clip, in step (Plush Pro)

If you have two views of the same clip, choose Sync Tiles to This One in a tile's right-click menu. The other tiles follow that tile's playback time, so the two angles run together. Only the lead tile loops; the others follow it.

Which should you use?

Frequently asked questions

How do I loop a video on a Mac?

Open the video in QuickTime Player and choose View > Loop, or press Option-Command-L. A checkmark appears next to Loop, and the video repeats until you choose it again. QuickTime is free and built into every Mac.

How do I loop a video on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?

The steps are identical on every MacBook, because looping comes from the app, not the hardware. In QuickTime Player, press Option-Command-L. In VLC, choose Playback > Repeat One, and in IINA, choose Playback > File Loop.

What is the shortcut to loop a video on a Mac?

In QuickTime Player, it is Option-Command-L. VLC uses Command-R for Repeat One, Command-L for Repeat All and Shift-Command-L for an A→B loop. IINA uses Shift-Command-L for File Loop and Command-L for A-B Loop.

How do I loop a video on QuickTime Player?

Choose View > Loop, or press Option-Command-L, then play the video. When it reaches the end, QuickTime starts it again from the beginning. Choose View > Loop a second time to turn it off.

How do I loop a YouTube video on a Mac?

Right-click the video in your browser and choose Loop. For a playlist, open a video in the playlist, expand the playlist panel on the right, and click Loop in the playlist box. Both are in YouTube's own player, so they work in any browser.

How do I loop multiple videos on QuickTime Player?

Open each video, which gives each its own window, and turn on Loop in every window with Option-Command-L. Then press Command-Return to play or pause all open movies. For a single window with several videos, Plush Media Player loops every local video tile on its own.

How do I loop multiple videos in VLC?

Add the files to VLC's playlist and choose Playback > Repeat All (Command-L). VLC plays them one after another and starts over at the first. To loop one file, choose Repeat One (Command-R) instead.

Can I loop 2 videos at the same time on a Mac?

Yes. Open two QuickTime windows with Loop turned on in each, or put both videos in Plush, where each local video tile loops by itself. Plush is free for up to 3 tiles at once, and Plush Pro, a one-time $2.99, allows up to 8.

Plush Media Player is free on the Mac App Store, and every local video in a tile loops by itself, up to 3 tiles at once. Plush Pro is a one-time $2.99 for up to 8 tiles, with no subscription. Drop in your clips and let them run.