Can QuickTime or VLC Play Multiple Videos at Once on a Mac? How to Do It, and a Faster Way

QuickTime Player can play several videos at once: open each file and it gets its own window. VLC on a Mac can too, but only if you launch extra copies of the app from Terminal, because VLC for Mac doesn't have the "multiple instances" setting that its Windows version does. IINA allows multiple windows out of the box. This guide covers all three, how to arrange the windows on screen, why they don't stay in sync, and the one-window alternative when you'd rather not juggle them.

QuickTime, VLC, IINA and Plush compared

All four can show more than one video at once, but they do it differently, and only one keeps the videos in a single window. Here's the quick comparison before the details.

Can QuickTime play multiple videos at once?

Yes. QuickTime Player opens each file in its own window, so you can open as many as you like and play them at the same time. It's already on your Mac, which makes it the quickest route.

1. Open the files. Select two or more videos in Finder, right-click, and choose Open With > QuickTime Player. Each opens in its own window.
2. Arrange the windows. Drag them where you want them, or use macOS tiling, covered in the arranging section below.
3. Play them together. Press ⌘Return. In Apple's QuickTime Player shortcut list that command is "Play or pause all movies."
4. Loop if you want. Choose View > Loop, or press ⌥⌘L, in a window to repeat that movie (Apple Support: loop a movie). It's a per-window setting.

QuickTime's limits

The group play and pause shortcut is the only thing tying the windows together. QuickTime has no command to keep separate windows in sync, so each window keeps its own time: scrub one and the others stay where they were. You size and place each window yourself. Apple's QuickTime guide doesn't describe a playlist or queue either, so a folder of clips means opening each one. For the full routine with two videos, see our split-screen guide.

Can VLC play multiple videos at once on a Mac?

Yes, but not in the way you'd expect. VLC for Mac plays one video in one window. To get two videos going together, you run a second copy of the VLC app.

Why VLC opens only one window on a Mac

On Windows, VLC has a preference for allowing more than one instance. On the Mac there's no "Allow only one instance" setting to turn off. In VLC's source code that option is built only for Windows, Linux (through DBus) and OS/2. The VideoLAN wiki says it directly: "On the Mac, running multiple instances of VLC is not supported out of the box." MakeUseOf reached the same conclusion in October 2023: "If you own a Mac, you can't play multiple instances of VLC Media Player by tweaking the app's settings" (MakeUseOf).

How to open multiple VLC windows on a Mac

The VideoLAN wiki's multiple instances page gives a Terminal workaround. It was last edited in 2019, so treat it as an older page, but the open command it uses is a standard macOS one.

1. Open Terminal. It's in Applications > Utilities, or search for it with Spotlight.
2. Start a new VLC instance. Type open -n /Applications/VLC.app and press Return. A second VLC appears with its own window and its own Dock icon.
3. Or start one with a file. The wiki's form is open -na /Applications/VLC.app "/path/to/video.mp4". The new instance opens with that video.
4. Repeat for each video. Every run starts another instance, so three videos means three runs.

To start two videos at once, run the file form twice. Change the paths to your own files:

open -na /Applications/VLC.app "$HOME/Movies/a.mp4"

open -na /Applications/VLC.app "$HOME/Movies/b.mp4"

Keep the quotation marks, which protect file names that contain spaces.

What you give up with separate VLC instances

• Each instance is its own app. It has its own Dock icon, its own window and its own controls. Pausing one doesn't pause the others.
• Nothing keeps them in sync. That's simply how separate instances work. If you need two videos to start together, you press play in each.
• The playlist isn't a side-by-side tool. VLC's playlist plays files one after another. Repeat One (⌘R) and Repeat All (⌘L) change how it loops, not how many play at once.
• The mosaic feature is a streaming setup. VLC's mosaic is built from configuration files and command-line options, not a menu item, so it's impractical for casual viewing.

VLC is excellent at what it's for. The current Mac version is 3.0.24 (VideoLAN), it's free, and it handles a very wide range of formats. The multiple-window part is the awkward bit. Our side-by-side comparison guide covers what to do when the point is to compare two takes.

Can IINA open multiple windows?

Yes. IINA, the free open-source player for the Mac (GitHub), has a setting called "Allow multiple player windows" under Settings > General, and it's on by default. With it on, each file can open in its own window and play alongside the others, with no Terminal needed.

• Open in New Window. Hold ⌥ while the File menu is open and File > Open in New Window… appears. Its shortcut is ⌥⌘O.
• The same file twice. A separate setting, "Allow opening the same file in multiple windows," controls whether one file can have more than one window.
• Picture in picture. Video > Enter Picture in Picture (⌃⌘P) floats a video above your other windows.

IINA has the same limit as QuickTime and VLC: the windows are separate, and nothing keeps them in step. To put a second file in its own window, hold Option and choose File > Open in New Window.

Arrange the windows on your Mac

Whichever player you use, macOS can tile the windows for you. Apple's window tiling guide describes two routes: choose Window > Move & Resize in the menu bar, or hover over the green button in a window's corner and pick an arrangement.

• Two windows side by side: fn⌃⇧← or fn⌃⇧→.
• Three windows: fn⌃⌥⇧← is Left & Quarters, one window on the left and two on the right.
• One window fills the screen: fn⌃F.
• By dragging: drag a window to a screen edge to snap it, and hold ⌥ while dragging to tile it (Apple Support).

Tiling places the windows. It doesn't link them, so each player still has its own play button, its own timeline and its own volume. The other post on hearing one video at a time goes into the sound side of that.

One window instead: Plush Media Player

If you'd rather have every video in a single window with one set of controls, Plush Media Player puts them there as tiles. Each tile holds one local video, a website, or Apple Music, so the sources are the web, local files, and Apple Music. Plush is free on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later. It's free for up to 3 tiles. Plush Pro, a one-time $2.99 with no subscription, raises that to 8.

1. Open Plush and pick the tile count. Open the sidebar with ⌘\ and use the Tiles stepper. ⌘T adds a tile, and ⌘D duplicates one.
2. Add each video. Click an empty tile and choose Local Files, then pick a file. Or drag a video from Finder onto a tile. It's one file per tile.
3. Play them together. Space or K plays or pauses every tile. J and L, or the arrow keys, skip all tiles 10 seconds back or forward, and the speed menu (0.5× to 2×) applies to all of them.
4. Choose what you hear. Focus sound, which is free, plays one tile only: the one you double-click, or the one under your pointer if none is selected. M mutes everything.
5. Resize. Drag the seams between tiles, and double-click a seam to reset it. Layouts are Grid and Split for free, and Hero with Plush Pro.

Keeping the videos in sync

This is the part separate windows can't do. With Plush Pro, right-click a tile and choose Sync Tiles to This One, and the other tiles follow that tile's playback time. Plush checks about twice a second. It works for local video and web tiles, not for Apple Music. Our comparison guide has the whole routine.

Where VLC and IINA are better

VLC and IINA are better than Plush for MKV and WebM files. Plush plays MP4, MOV and M4V; AVI depends on its codec; and MKV and WebM are accepted but may not open. If your collection is mostly MKV, stay with VLC or IINA. Plush is also a player, not an editor, so it doesn't export a combined video. For that, you'd need a video editor.

Handy extras

• Local videos loop on their own when they end.
• Pin on Top (⇧⌘P) keeps the window above your others.
• Copy Frame (⇧S) copies the current frame of a tile.
• Restore Last Session brings your tiles back next time you open the app, and it's free.

For a look at how Plush stacks up against the other Mac apps built for this, see our roundup of the best multi-screen video players for Mac.

Which one to use

Pick by what you're doing, not by brand. Each of these is a good tool for its own job.

Frequently asked questions

Can VLC play two videos at once on a Mac?

Yes, but it takes a workaround. VLC for Mac runs one window per app, so you start a second copy of VLC from Terminal with open -n /Applications/VLC.app. Each copy plays its own video with its own controls.

How do I open multiple VLC windows on a Mac?

Open Terminal and run open -na /Applications/VLC.app "/path/to/video.mp4" once for each video. Every run starts a new VLC instance with its own window and Dock icon. This is the method documented on the VideoLAN wiki.

Is there an "allow multiple instances" setting in VLC for Mac?

No. VLC for Mac has no such setting, and in VLC's source code the "allow only one instance" option is built only for Windows, Linux and OS/2. The VideoLAN wiki says running multiple instances of VLC on a Mac is not supported out of the box, which is why the Terminal command is needed.

Can QuickTime play two videos at the same time?

Yes. Each file opens in its own QuickTime Player window, and the windows can play together. Press Command-Return to play or pause all open movies at once.

How do I play multiple videos in sync on a Mac?

QuickTime, VLC and IINA windows are separate, and none has a command to keep them in sync. In Plush Pro, right-click a tile and choose Sync Tiles to This One, and the other tiles follow that tile's playback time. It works for local video and web tiles.

Can IINA open multiple windows?

Yes. Settings > General has "Allow multiple player windows," which is on by default. You can also hold Option and choose File > Open in New Window, or press Option-Command-O.

How do I play multiple videos at once on a Mac without Terminal?

Use QuickTime Player or IINA, which open each file in its own window, or use Plush Media Player, which puts several videos in one window as tiles. Plush is free for up to 3 tiles. Plush Pro raises the limit to 8 for a one-time $2.99.

Does VLC's playlist play videos side by side?

No. VLC's playlist plays files one after another. To see videos side by side, you need separate VLC instances, separate IINA or QuickTime windows, or a tiled player.

Plush Media Player is free on the Mac App Store, and up to 3 tiles cost nothing. Plush Pro is a one-time $2.99 for up to 8 tiles, with no subscription. Drop your videos into one window and see whether it beats juggling three.