USER MANUAL

From here, you have two distinct paths to choose from - each designed for a different type of viewing experience. On the left is your quick access option for immediate playback. On the right is your gateway to building a powerful, organized video library. Both paths give you full access to VidVana's advanced features, but they serve different purposes depending on how you want to use the app.

The Name column shows the folder name as it appears on your computer. Each row represents one folder, and the indentation shows you the folder hierarchy - child folders are indented beneath their parents, just like in Finder or File Explorer.

How to use it:

Checkbox: Each folder has a checkbox to select it for import. Check the box to include that folder's videos in your import. Unchecked folders are skipped entirely.

Color coding in the Name column:

The Actions column contains a three-dot button (⋮) that appears only on folders that contain subfolders. Clicking this button opens a small dropdown menu with selection options.

Menu options (for regular folders):

Menu options (for combined folders): When a folder has "Combine" enabled, the menu simplifies to:

This menu is especially useful when you have a deeply nested folder structure and want to select or deselect an entire branch without clicking each folder individually.

The Combine column contains the "Combine Subfolders" button, which appears only on folders that have subfolders inside them.

What it does: When you click Combine, VidVana will treat all videos from that folder AND all its subfolders as if they belong to the same single folder in your library. Instead of having separate folder entries for each subfolder, everything gets grouped under one parent folder name.

Why this is useful: Imagine you have a folder called "Vacation 2024" with subfolders like "Day 1", "Day 2", "Day 3", etc. Without Combine, each day would appear as a separate folder in your library. With Combine enabled, all videos appear together under "Vacation 2024" - cleaner and easier to browse.

Visual indicators:

When you activate Combine on a parent folder, the Combine buttons on all its subfolders become disabled (grayed out), showing you that those folders are now part of the combined group.

Important: Even when combined, VidVana remembers the original file path of each video. If you ever need to find the actual file on your computer, that information is preserved.

The Videos column shows a count of new videos in each folder that are available to import. This count includes videos that have never been added to your library before and have supported formats (MP4, MOV, WEBM) with compatible codecs.

What the number means:

Note: This column does NOT count videos that are already in your library (those appear in the Library column) or videos you previously deleted (those appear in the Deleted column).

The Deleted column shows how many videos in each folder were previously deleted from your library but still exist on your drive.

What "Previously Deleted" means: When you remove a video from your VidVana library, the app remembers that you deleted it. If VidVana scans a folder and finds those same files again, it recognizes them as "previously deleted" rather than treating them as new videos.

Visual indicator:

How to re-import deleted videos: When you expand a folder containing deleted videos, each deleted file is shown with a checkbox. Check the box next to any deleted video you want to bring back into your library. This lets you selectively re-import videos you may have removed by mistake, without importing everything.

The Library column shows how many videos from each folder are already in your library. These videos will be automatically skipped during import to avoid duplicates.

Visual indicators:

Why this matters: If you're adding the same folder again (perhaps after downloading new videos into it), VidVana automatically detects which videos you already have and only imports the new ones. You never have to worry about accidentally creating duplicates.

Video File Status When Expanded:

When you expand a folder to look at the individual files, the app uses a specific visual language to tell you the status of every video:

This button only appears when VidVana detects videos that cannot be imported due to incompatible codecs (like ProRes or DivX) or unsupported file formats (like AVI, WMV, FLV).

Clicking Export Excluded generates an HTML report file that lists every video that was skipped, organized by the codec or format causing the issue, the folder where each video is located, and the full file path so you can find it. The report helps you identify which videos need to be converted to a compatible format (like H.264 MP4) if you want to add them to VidVana.

The button shows the count in parentheses. For example, "Export Excluded (23)" means 23 videos were found that cannot be imported.

Once you've checked the folders you want, the "Add to Library" button will light up with the final count. Clicking it completes the process, and your new collection will instantly begin playing on your grid.

Once logged in you can also access the Add Folder option from the VidVana top menu in both Mac and Windows. Additional folders can also be added from within the Library itself.

Each tab lets you browse, search, sort, and filter your videos with different criteria: you can sort by name, date, rating, watch count, or duration, and filter by rating range, watch count, or video resolution. The Library tracks metadata for every video including custom names you assign, star ratings (0-5), watch counts, last watched date, bookmarked moments, and whether it's currently loaded in the grid or queued up.

From the Library, you can perform actions on individual videos or in bulk: load videos to the grid for playback, create playlists, rename videos with custom titles, view detailed information, and manage your collection. When viewing folders or sessions, you can expand groups to see all videos inside, select multiple videos at once, and load entire groups to fill your grid. The Library also shows you visual indicators of videos currently playing in the grid are marked "Already in Grid," videos waiting in the queue show "Already in Queue," and available videos display a "Load to Grid" button.

The Library modal includes a tile size dropdown in the top-right corner with five preset sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) that adjusts how large the video thumbnails and cards appear in the Library grid view. Smaller sizes let you see more videos at once for faster browsing, while larger sizes show more detail including thumbnails, titles, and metadata.

In the All Videos tab, you'll find a "Remove under:" dropdown next to the Sort by control. This feature lets you quickly clean up your library by removing very short video clips that may have accumulated over time - things like video thumbnails, transition effects, test recordings, or social media snippets.

How it works: Select a duration threshold from the dropdown (5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or 1 minute). VidVana will scan your entire library and show a confirmation popup with the count of videos that fall under that duration.

Smart protection: The confirmation popup tells you exactly what will happen before you confirm. If any of the short videos are pinned to your grid, they'll be kept safe and the popup shows how many are protected. Similarly, if any short videos are used in your saved compilations, they'll also be kept to preserve your creative work. The popup also notes how many of the videos are currently playing on your grid - these will be removed from the grid when deleted.

Permanent removal: When you confirm, the videos are removed from your library and added to the excluded list so they won't be re-imported if you scan the same folders again. This action cannot be undone, so review the counts carefully before confirming.

The dropdown always resets to "None" after each use, preventing accidental deletions.

When you open the Video Library and expand any folder, session, playlist, or rating group, you'll see a toggle button appear in the controls row (it looks like a grid icon or list icon). This toggle lets you switch between two different ways of viewing your videos:

In the Folders tab, you'll see a toggle button that switches between "Full Path" and "Folder Name" modes. This control helps you organize and find folders more easily based on how you think about them:

In the Folders tab, you can group your videos by the drive they're stored on instead of by folder. This is useful if you have videos spread across multiple external drives or storage locations. Click the server icon button (next to the Full Path/Folder Name toggle) to switch to drive view — your videos will be organized into collapsible groups based on which drive they live on. Click a drive row to expand it and see all videos from that drive. You can select all videos on a drive at once using the checkbox, or use the arrow button to load them all into your grid. The drive grouping option only appears when you have videos on two or more different drives.

The large image area shows a preview frame from your video. Hover over it to see a play overlay. When browsing from the Landing Screen, a Quick Play button appears on hover. Click it to instantly watch that video without loading it to the grid.

The video's display name appears below the thumbnail. Click the title to open the Rename modal, where you can assign a custom name without changing the actual file on your computer. The modal shows the original filename for reference, lets you type a new name, and includes a reset button to revert to the original. Your custom names are saved and encrypted with your library data.

When browsing within the app with videos playing in the grid, each card shows two buttons:

In the top-left corner, a checkbox lets you select videos for bulk actions like loading multiple videos at once or creating playlists.

The X button in the top-right corner removes the video from your library. The file stays on your computer.

When viewing the Now Playing tab, cards show a simplified layout:

If a video's source drive is disconnected, a warning badge appears on the card. The thumbnail dims and the card becomes non-interactive until the drive is reconnected.

The Library is persistent and encrypted - everything you add, rate, bookmark, rename, or organize is saved locally on your device and protected by your PIN. It's designed to grow with your collection, handling thousands of videos with efficient filtering and search, and serves as the foundation for all other features like QuickPlay (which loads videos based on rating/recency/watch count), compilations (which pull from your bookmarked moments), and the Favorites modal (which lets you bulk-load highly-rated videos). The Library essentially transforms VidVana from a simple video player into a full content management system for your personal collection.

To load videos, you click on individual video cards to select them, checkboxes appear and selected cards highlight in orange. Videos that are already playing in the grid or waiting in the queue cannot be selected (they're greyed out and un-clickable). You can select as many available videos as you want across different tabs and groups, and the "Load Selected" button in the footer and in the upper right menu shows how many you've selected. If you're searching or filtering, two buttons appear: "Add Search Results" lets you bulk-select all matching videos to add to your current selection, while "Add to Playlist" lets you create a new playlist directly from the search results without needing to select them first. Once you've selected your videos, clicking "Load Selected" triggers a check: if you have fewer than 4 videos total (including what's already in the grid), a warning modal pops up explaining you need at least 4 videos for a 2x2 grid (which is the minimum grid initial load size), with options to "Add More Videos" or "Continue Anyway." If you continue or already have enough videos, the Review Modal opens showing all your selected videos along with stats like total count, duration, average rating, and bookmark count.

The modal checks file availability for each video and marks any missing files in orange with an unavailability reason. Inside the Review Modal, you can search through your selection, sort by name/duration/rating/bookmarks (this only changes the display order, not the load order), and use "All" or "None" buttons to quickly check or uncheck all videos. You can also manually uncheck individual videos you don't want to load. If you click "Cancel," the Review Modal closes and restores your original selections from before you opened it, discarding any changes you made inside. You're back at the Library modal where you can continue selecting or unselecting more videos. If you click "Done," the app checks if any selected videos are unavailable - if some are missing, it shows a warning popup letting you cancel or proceed with only the available videos. If you proceed (or if all videos are available), and if you have more than one video selected and the playlist popup setting is enabled, it asks if you want to save this selection as a playlist for future use. Whether you save a playlist or skip that step, the app then checks if any videos are on network drives and shows a network mode recommendation if needed, loads all the checked videos into your grid and queue, closes both the Review Modal and the Library modal, and shows a notification confirming how many videos were loaded successfully.

The grid in VidVana is designed to let you watch and control multiple videos at the same time, all on one screen. Think of it like a live, interactive TV guide for your own video library - every tile in the grid is like a TV channel that's always playing. This setup makes it easy to quickly scan through a big collection, spot something that catches your eye or you're in the mood to watch, and jump straight into fullscreen to watch it in detail. You can move between videos instantly, double-clicking any tile to bring it front and center, then exit fullscreen with a double click or clicking the X button in the upper right corner and pop right back to the grid to see what else is happening.

The main point of the grid is to help you find videos of interest quickly without constantly opening and closing files or tabs. By showing you lots of videos at once, the grid allows you to preview, compare, and interact with your entire collection in real time. If you see a video you like, you can pin it to keep it from changing, swap random new videos into empty tiles, and adjust the layout or grid size at any time. This makes browsing and discovery not just faster, but actually enjoyable. Instead of digging through folders or menus, everything you need is playing right in front of you, and you're always just a click away from jumping into anything that grabs your attention.

These appear on every tile without hovering:

Title: The video name appears at the top of the tile.

Scrubber: A timeline bar appears above the HUD. Drag it to seek to any point in the video.

Double-click anywhere on a tile: Instantly opens that video in fullscreen mode.

This system turns each tile into its own fully-featured player, making discovery and navigation across dozens of videos lightning fast.

At the top left of the screen, you'll see two icons. The heart icon shows whether this video is marked as a favorite, and you can click it to toggle the favorite status on or off. Right next to it is the star icon which displays the current rating for the video, and clicking it opens the rating modal where you can assign a star rating from zero to five stars in half star increments.

At the top of the fullscreen window is the video title which shows the filename or any custom name you've assigned to the video in your library. The title appears when you move your mouse and automatically hides after about two seconds of no mouse movement.

On the left and right sides of the screen in the middle are large chevron arrow buttons for navigation. The left arrow takes you to the previous video that's currently loaded on your grid tiles, and the right arrow takes you to the next video on your grid tiles. These arrows cycle through whichever videos are actually playing on your tiles at that moment. When you navigate to a different video using the arrows or arrow keys, that video also restarts from the beginning (unless you decide to continue play times currently in the grid from the Settings).

In the top right corner is a small X button that closes fullscreen mode and returns you to the grid view. You can also press the Escape key to exit fullscreen at any time, or double click anywhere on the video to exit fullscreen and return to the grid. When you exit fullscreen, the video continues playing on its tile from wherever you left off in fullscreen, and all the other videos on the grid resume playing as well.

At the bottom of the screen, the main HUD panel contains two sections. The bottom section has all the capsule fullscreen control buttons organized into groups, and above that is the timeline section with the playback controls. The timeline section has transport controls on the left side including a volume button, skip back button, a play pause button in the center, and skip forward button. On the right side of the timeline is the scrubber which shows the current playback time on the left, a draggable track in the middle, and the total video duration on the right. The capsule buttons below the timeline are organized into groups.

The scrubber is the timeline control on the right side of the playbar that lets you navigate through the video. It shows three parts. On the left is the current playback time displayed in minutes and seconds. In the middle is a draggable track with a slider that represents the video's timeline from start to finish. On the right is the total video duration also displayed in minutes and seconds. You can click anywhere on the track to jump to that point in the video or drag the slider to scrub through the video smoothly.

If you've added any bookmarks (see Bookmarks) to the video, they appear as small vertical marker lines on the track showing you exactly where each bookmark is located.

When you seek to a new position using the scrubber, if you have an active loop running (see Loop Function), the loop start point updates to your new position instead of cancelling the loop. The scrubber has no settings to configure as it always represents the full length of the video from zero to its total duration.

Inside the modal, you have several controls and options. At the top is a scrubber bar with a circular playhead handle and two triangle handles. Dragging the circular playhead below the playbar will scrub through the video and find the exact moment you want. The video preview updates as you drag so you can see exactly where you are. Once you've found your starting point, drag the left triangle handle toward the playhead circle and it will automatically snap to that position. Then drag the playhead circle to find your ending point, and drag the right triangle handle toward it and it will snap to that position as well. The triangles magnetically lock onto the playhead circle when you drag them nearby, making it easy to set precise start and end times. You can also click anywhere on the scrubber bar and the nearest triangle will jump to that spot. There's a play button that lets you preview the selected range if desired.

Below the scrubber you'll see time displays showing the start time, end time, and duration of your selected range. There's a Single Frame toggle button that switches between capturing multiple screenshots at intervals or capturing just one single frame at the playhead position. When Single Frame mode is on, the interval controls are disabled and only the playhead circle is visible.

The "Export Every" field lets you set how many seconds between each screenshot capture, and this value comes from your Settings where you can configure the default interval between five and one hundred twenty seconds. You can adjust this as desired in the portal. Next to it, a "Picture Count" display shows how many screenshots will be captured based on your selected range and interval which you can also adjust in the portal as desired.

The "Export As" section has two dropdown menus. The first lets you choose between PNG or JPG format, and the default format comes from your Settings. The second dropdown lets you choose the image size with options for Match Source, 480p, 780p, 1080p, 1440p, or 4K. The app only allows you to export at resolutions equal to or lower than your source video quality. If you somehow had a higher quality option selected before opening the modal, it automatically resets to Match Source to prevent upscaling.

At the bottom of the Screenshot portal are three buttons. Cancel closes the modal and restores the video to exactly where you left off. Reset returns all settings to their defaults. Export starts the capture process. If you're about to export a large number of screenshots that exceeds the warning threshold you set in Settings, which defaults to one hundred screenshots, a warning popup appears asking you to confirm before proceeding. During export, a progress bar shows the percentage complete and you can cancel at any time. When you close the modal either by clicking Cancel, pressing Escape, or after a successful export, the video returns to the exact time position where you opened the modal and resumes playback if it was playing before, with all playback rates and swap timers restored to their original state.

The modal has two settings. "Capture Every" lets you set how many seconds between each still frame capture, and this value comes from your Settings where you can pre-configure the default capture interval between five and one hundred twenty seconds with a default of fifteen seconds. You can adjust this as desired in the portal. "Show Each Still For" lets you set how long each captured frame displays before fading to the next one, and this value also comes from your Settings where you can pre-configure the display duration between three and thirty seconds with a default of five seconds. You can adjust this as desired in the portal.

At the bottom are two buttons. Cancel closes the modal and returns the video to the exact time position where you opened it. Start Montage closes the modal and immediately begins the slideshow. When the montage starts, a brief preparing montage message appears while the first frame is being captured. During the montage, all fullscreen playback controls are frozen and disabled including play pause, skip buttons, the scrubber bar, speed, volume, loop, and the navigation arrows. The Montage button itself stays highlighted to show the slideshow is active. The video automatically advances through the timeline, capturing still frames at your specified interval, and each frame fades into the next one and displays for your specified duration. If the video reaches the end during the montage, it freezes on the last captured frame.

To stop the montage, click the Montage button again which opens the modal with two options. The Start button is now labeled Update and Resume which lets you adjust the settings and continue the slideshow. The Cancel button is now labeled End Montage which stops the slideshow completely and returns the video to the time position where you canceled it. When you end the montage, all frozen controls become active again and the video is ready to play normally. The montage settings you choose are remembered separately for each video, so when you start a montage on the same video again, it uses your previous settings as defaults.

A Compilation is a way to take the favorite moments you've saved from different videos and combine them into one single, new movie. Think of it like a "Best Of" reel or a highlight video. Instead of watching ten different videos to see ten specific scenes, a compilation lets you string those scenes together so they play back-to-back as one continuous file.

When you first start using this feature, you begin by picking your bookmarks - the favorite moments you previously marked while watching videos in fullscreen.

At the top of the screen, you'll see the filter controls. The first dropdown says "Show" and lets you pick between All Videos, Unused Only to see videos that haven't been used in any compilations yet, or Used Only to see videos that have already been used. Next to that is the "Quality" dropdown where you can filter by Any quality, 4K, 1080p, 720p, or SD. To the right is a search box where you can type a video name to instantly filter the results. Included on the row is a number badge showing the total count of bookmarks that match your current filters.

Below the filters on the left side, your bookmarks are displayed as rows organized by video. Each row shows the video name on the left, followed by three columns showing how many times that video has been used in compilations, how many bookmarked scenes it has, and what quality the video is. If a video file is unavailable because it was moved, deleted, or the drive is offline, the row appears dimmed and shows Off for the quality. On the right side of each row are three buttons. The play button opens that video in fullscreen mode so you can add, edit, or remove bookmarks, then returns you to the compilation screen when you exit fullscreen. The X button deletes all bookmarks for that video. The chevron button expands the row to show all the individual bookmarked moments as thumbnail tiles.

When you click a row to expand it, you'll see thumbnail tiles for each bookmarked moment. Each tile shows a preview image of that moment. Below the thumbnail is the scene timestamp showing where in the video that bookmark is located, the video name, and how many times that specific bookmark has been used in compilations. When you click a tile, it gets selected and added to the scene tray and a checkmark appears on it. You can also drag the bookmark into the Scene Tray. The tile also highlights with an orange border and checkmark to show it's selected. You can click it again to deselect it. On the right side of the screen is the Scene Tray, which shows all your selected bookmarks as small chips with thumbnails, scene timestamps, and video names. Each chip has an X button to remove it from your selection. Below the Scene Tray, a quality status indicator shows whether your selection is compatible across clips. If all your selected bookmarks are the same quality (4K, 1080p, 720p, or SD), it shows a green checkmark with All Same Quality. If you've mixed different video qualities, it shows a yellow warning triangle with Mixed Quality, because your final export will be limited to the lowest quality in your selection. When you select a bookmark that's lower quality than what you already have, a warning banner appears at the top explaining that this will limit your export quality, giving you the option to cancel or continue. You can check a box on the warning to stop seeing it for the rest of your session.

Once you've selected at least two bookmarks, the Start Editing button at the bottom of the Scene Tray becomes active and shows how many clips you've selected for your compilation. Clicking this button takes you to the next screen where you can trim each clip to the exact length you want.

When you load a scene into the editor, the app doesn't show the entire original video. Instead, it creates a "working area" for you to trim from. The length of this area (labeled in the sidebar as Bookmark Length) is chosen based on these three rules:

The video editor is on the upper left of the screen. The video preview features the video with an integrated scrubber at the bottom. To edit and adjust your clip you undertake the following:

To the right of the video editor is the sidebar, you'll see a counter showing the number of scenes and which scene you are currently editing. You can use the navigation arrows at the bottom of the sidebar to cycle through all the bookmarks you selected in the previous create compilation screen.

The sidebar to the right of the video contains several actions for managing your clips:

In the sidebar, you'll see live data for the start time, end time, and the resulting duration of your trimmed clip. You'll also see the video's quality and the total bookmark length (which is the maximum segment you can trim from this specific bookmark).

Once you are happy with the trim, click the Add This Clip button. This action "finalizes" your edit and moves the clip into the Compilation Tray at the bottom of the screen.

The Compilation Tray at the bottom keeps track of every clip you've edited and added for final export as a compilation. It displays the total duration of your entire compilation and shows thumbnails for each clip. The total only counts clips that you have actually finished trimming and clicked Add This Clip on. The scene you are currently working on in the main preview is not added to the total until you click that button. As soon as you add a clip to the tray, remove one, or re-add a clip with new trim points, the total time updates instantly.

You can drag and drop these thumbnails to reorder them. If you change your mind, you can click the X on any thumbnail in the tray to remove it to re-edit. If the clip you are resetting has already been added to the Compilation Tray at the bottom, clicking "Reset" will also remove it from the tray and reset the edits made.

If you decide you need more footage, click Add More Clips to return to the selection screen.

If you navigate away from a scene and come back to it later, the app remembers your trim points. This means the length of that clip in your tray will stay exactly as you left it until you change it again.

At the top of the screen, you will see a summary of your compilation's details. This includes the total number of clips, the final duration of the video, and the export quality which is automatically set based on the lowest-quality clip you included in your selection.

The main focus of this screen is the Compilation Player, which features a continuous timeline of stitched videos, representing the entire length of your compilation, allowing you to jump to any moment across all combined clips.

When you are satisfied with the preview, clicking the Export Compilation button will prompt you to name your project and then begin creating your final MP4 video file.

While the video is being built, a progress bar will appear at the bottom of the screen to show you how much is left. If you spot a mistake, you can simply click Back to Editor to return to the trimming tools and make further adjustments.

One of the best things about saved compilations is that they are never "finished" until you want them to be. You can open your list of saved projects at any time and click load on any of them. This brings your entire project back to life exactly where you left off. If you find a new video with a great scene, you can load your old compilation, go back to the selection screen, and simply add that new scene to your existing project. If you decide the third scene would actually be better as the opening shot, you can simply drag the thumbnails in the tray at the bottom to rearrange the sequence. You can always go back into the Editor for any clip and adjust the start or end points if you decide a scene is too long or too short.

The app is designed to be "smart" about how it handles your files and stays connected to your library. If you use a video in a compilation, a small usage badge will appear on that video in your main grid, letting you know it's part of a saved project.

The most powerful feature of this system is how it handles accidental changes. If you happen to delete a bookmark or even remove a video from your library that is needed for one of your saved projects, the app doesn't just give up. When you load that compilation, the app will perform a silent "Auto-Restore." It will search your computer for the missing video and reinstate the missing bookmark into your library automatically. This ensures that your creative work is protected, even if you're doing some "housecleaning" in your main video folders.

The duplicate feature is a powerful tool for when you want to use an existing compilation as a starting point for a new project. Instead of having to open a project and then remember to use "Save As," the duplicate button allows you to create an exact carbon copy of any saved compilation directly from your list.

When you click the duplicate icon, the app instantly creates a new independent project file. Any changes you make to the copy, such as adding new clips, reordering scenes, or changing the trim points, will not affect the original project at all.

Because the app is smart about tracking your files, the duplicate project will also show its own usage badges in your main video library. This means your videos will correctly show that they are being used in multiple different projects, helping you keep track of which footage is your most popular across all your creative work.

When you finally click Export Compilation to create your new MP4 video file, the app performs one last "safety save" in the background. This ensures that your saved project always matches the video file you just created. If you want to make a different version of your project - perhaps a "Short Edit" and a "Long Edit" - you can use the Save As feature. This creates a duplicate project with a new name, allowing you to have two different versions of the same highlight reel without losing the work you did on the original.

Recommendation: Based on your hardware and where your videos are stored, VidVana suggests an optimal grid size. This is a starting point - you can always adjust based on your actual experience. If videos are stuttering or buffering, try a smaller grid; if playback is smooth, you might be able to go larger.

Main Screen Volume: When you're watching multiple videos at once, you usually want them muted so you're not overwhelmed by competing audio. These settings let you control the default audio behavior.

The swap timer automatically rotates videos in and out of your grid tiles at random intervals, keeping your viewing experience fresh without manual intervention. Each tile swaps independently within the range you set.

Scrubbing lets you quickly jump forward or backward within a video using the scrub bar that appears on each tile. This is different from skip buttons - scrubbing gives you a slider to smoothly seek through a section of the video.

Playback speed controls let you watch videos faster or slower than normal. Faster speeds are great for scanning through content quickly; slower speeds help you catch details in fast-moving scenes.

Smart Start controls how videos begin playing when loaded via the Most Bookmarked option in the Quick Play menu.

Privacy Screen: The Privacy Screen is an emergency feature that instantly hides everything with a single key press. If someone unexpectedly walks into the room, you can make your screen look innocent in a fraction of a second.

Panic Shortcut: Press Shift + Escape to immediately hide all videos behind a cover image. The shortcut is intentionally fixed - in a panic situation, you need reliable muscle memory, not a customizable shortcut you might forget. When the Privacy Screen is active, the app looks like a simple landing page with no indication of what was playing.

The License page shows your current VidVana license status and lets you manage your Pro license.

License Status: Displays your current tier (Trial, Pro, or Regular) and relevant details. During a trial, you'll see how many days remain. Pro users see an "Active" badge confirming their license is valid.

Activate License: If you've purchased VidVana Pro, enter your license key here to unlock all features. Your key was emailed to you after purchase from license@vidvana.app. If you can't find it, check your spam folder or contact support.

Upgrade to Pro: Opens the VidVana website where you can purchase a Pro license. Pro unlocks unlimited videos, 5×5 grid sizes, smart favorites, compilation exports, and all other premium features with a one-time purchase (no subscription).

Manage License (Pro users only): Once you have Pro, this section appears showing your license key with a Copy button and a Deactivate option. Your Pro license works on up to 2 personal devices. If you need to move Pro to a different computer, click Deactivate to free up a slot, then activate on your new device.

VidVana uses native application menus that follow platform conventions. On Mac, you'll see the standard macOS menu bar; on Windows, the menu bar appears at the top of the application window. Most features are accessible through these menus, and many have keyboard shortcuts for quick access.

Keyboard Shortcut Notation: Throughout this section, shortcuts are shown as Mac / Windows. For example, "⌘+O / Ctrl+O" means Command+O on Mac or Control+O on Windows.

On Mac, the first menu is named "VidVana" and contains app-level commands. On Windows, these items are distributed across the File, Edit, and Help menus instead.

The File menu contains commands for managing your video library and app session.

The Edit menu contains standard text editing commands plus Settings on Windows.

The View menu provides quick access to different parts of the app and display options.

The Quick Play menu provides one-click loading of videos based on different criteria. Each option clears your current grid and loads a fresh set of videos.

The Playback menu provides controls for the video grid and fullscreen playback.

The Window menu contains standard window management commands. These differ slightly between Mac and Windows.

The Help menu provides support resources and app information.

VidVana was built from the ground up with a "Privacy First" philosophy. Your video collection, viewing history, ratings, bookmarks, and all other personal data are encrypted and stored locally on your device. Nothing is uploaded to the cloud, no usage data is collected, and the app works completely offline.

All your data is protected with AES-256-GCM encryption - the same encryption standard used by banks, governments, and military organizations worldwide. AES-256 is considered unbreakable with current technology; even the world's most powerful supercomputers would take billions of years to crack it.

How Your Data is Protected:

The GCM mode provides both confidentiality (data can't be read) and authenticity (data can't be tampered with without detection).

Your PIN is the key to your entire VidVana experience. Without the correct PIN, your encrypted data is completely inaccessible.

Security Questions: Security questions provide a backup way to reset your PIN if you forget it. VidVana offers questions designed to have answers only you would know. Your answers are normalized (trimmed, lowercased) and hashed - they're never stored in plain text.

VidVana includes several features specifically designed to protect your privacy in real-world situations.

Lock When Minimized: When enabled, minimizing the app window (or switching to another app on Mac) automatically locks VidVana. When you bring the window back up, you'll need to enter your PIN.

Everything. VidVana stores all data locally in your app data folder:

We don't collect or transmit any of your video data. Specifically:

License Verification: The only network communication VidVana performs is a license check to verify your trial/Pro status. This check sends only a device fingerprint (a hash of your hardware characteristics) and app version. It does NOT send video filenames, paths, thumbnails, viewing history, ratings, bookmarks, or any other content from your library.

Application Logs: VidVana maintains logs for troubleshooting purposes. These logs contain only technical app activity (start times, errors, feature usage). Logs never contain video filenames, file paths, thumbnail data, or any content that could identify what you're watching.

Summary:

1. Your data is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before touching the disk 2. Your PIN is never stored - only a salted hash 3. Your videos stay on your device - nothing is uploaded anywhere 4. No tracking or analytics - we don't monitor how you use the app 5. Privacy Screen lets you hide everything instantly with one keystroke 6. Duress PIN shows an empty library if you're forced to open the app 7. Auto-lock protects you if you step away 8. Logs contain no video info - your viewing history is private

VidVana is built for people who value their privacy. We believe your personal video collection is nobody's business but your own.

VidVana checks both the container format (file extension) and the codecs inside each video during import. Videos with incompatible codecs are automatically excluded and can be exported to a report for conversion.

Important: Videos with unsupported audio will be excluded even if the video codec is compatible. You can use free tools like HandBrake to re-encode the audio to AAC while keeping the original video quality intact.

To ensure a smooth experience when playing dozens of videos simultaneously and handling real-time encryption, your computer should meet the following specifications.