USER MANUAL

The landing screen is your control deck before any videos are playing. Three cards across the screen give you different ways to start:

All three paths use the same playback and privacy features; they differ in whether you are doing a quick one-off watch, growing your library, or batch-importing from folders you have queued.

The Single Player card on the left is for watching one file without saving it to your library or loading the multi-video grid.

Click it to open a file picker, choose a video, and it plays in a dedicated fullscreen-style window. You still get VidVana controls for that session — bookmarks, speed, volume, screenshots, and the rest of the fullscreen toolbar — but nothing is added to your library unless you import it separately.

Use this when you want a traditional "open a file and watch" experience, similar to VLC or QuickTime, without managing a collection.

The center card on the landing screen is how you work with your VidVana library. Its label changes depending on whether you already have videos saved.

When your library is empty, the card reads Build Your Library. Click it to pick folders on your drive. Selected folders go to the Drop Folders Here queue on the right — nothing is imported until you click Done on that card and review results in the import portal. In the folder picker, Shift-click to select multiple folders at once.

Once you have a library, the same card reads Load from Library. Click it to open the Library window in bulk-load mode and choose videos to send to the grid.

After a scan, the import portal (see Video Loading in this manual) shows the folder tree and pills row. Add to Library saves videos to your collection only; loading the grid is a separate step.

The Drop Folders Here card on the right is a folder queue for bringing videos into VidVana. It works with the center Build Your Library card when your library is empty, or on its own whenever you want to batch folders before importing.

While folders are queued, the card lists each folder name. Remove any row with the × button.

Click Done to open the import portal and scan every queued folder. Review the results, then add what you want to your library. Videos are saved to the library only; they do not auto-play on the grid.

Click Clear to empty the queue without importing.

Only folders are accepted — not individual video files. Use Single Player for one-off viewing.

Folder drag-and-drop on the landing screen requires the VidVana desktop app.

You reach this screen after scanning folders — from Add Folder in the menu or library, or by clicking Done on the Drop Folders Here queue on the landing screen (see Getting Started).

Skipped and Unsupported pills appear only when those counts are greater than zero.

Very large scans stay responsive by loading folder rows as you expand them, rather than building the entire list at once.

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 have checked the folders you want, the Add to Library button shows the final count. Click it to save those videos to your library. Import does not start the grid — open the Library and load videos when you are ready to watch.

You can also reach this portal from Add Folder in the VidVana menu (Mac and Windows) or from Add Folder in the library footer.

The Tags tab is not shown in the screenshot above — it appears only after metadata import is connected and synced in the desktop app.

Each tab lets you browse, search, sort, and filter your videos. The Filter button always opens the filter modal; use Clear All inside the modal to remove active filters.

Videos on the grid show Already in Grid; videos waiting in the queue show Already in Queue; available videos show Load to Grid.

The footer holds your bulk actions: Load Selected sends checked videos to the grid, Clear Selected empties your current selection without deleting anything, Delete from Library removes the selected videos from your library only (files on disk are not deleted), and Add Folder opens the import portal. The tile size dropdown in the top-right (XS through XL) controls how large cards appear in grid view.

On the Folders, Sessions, Ratings, and Playlists tabs, each group row includes a Popular column with a trophy icon and a score. This tells you how much you actually use that folder, session, rating group, or playlist — not just how many videos it contains.

The score blends how often you play videos in the group, your average star rating there, and how many videos have bookmarks. It is not the same as total watch count alone.

You can click the Popular column header to sort by this score, choose Popular in the Sort by dropdown, or filter by popularity tier (gold / silver / bronze) in the filter modal. In Settings → Library, Folders Start Sorted By can default to Popular if you want folders you use most to appear first.

Frozen videos are a Regular tier feature. Pro and trial users do not see this — they can use their full library without a playable cap.

What "frozen" means: Your video files stay on disk and stay in your VidVana library. They are not deleted. They are locked — you cannot load them to the grid, edit thumbnails, or use them in playlists until they become playable again.

Why they exist: Regular tier limits how many videos you can actively use at once. When your library grows past that limit, the newest overflow is frozen so your earlier collection stays playable. Pro removes the limit entirely.

Where to find them: Open the Library and select the Frozen tab (it appears only when you have frozen videos). Your other tabs — All Videos, Folders, and so on — show only your currently playable videos, so frozen items never clutter normal browsing. The Frozen tab includes a short banner explaining how many videos are locked and an Upgrade to Pro option.

What you can do on the Frozen tab:

For your current tier and limit details, see License in Settings.

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 screenshot above is one full card. The sections below explain each part from top to bottom — starting with the thumbnail, then the title, metadata row, stats row, and action buttons.

Scrub to the frame you want, then click Use This Frame to replace the library thumbnail for that video only. This does not create a bookmark or change the video file on disk.

The camera button appears only when the video already has a generated thumbnail, the file is available on disk, and the video is not frozen. It is hidden in row view, where thumbnails are too small to scrub usefully.

When browsing from the Landing Screen, hovering the thumbnail also shows Quick Play for a one-off watch without loading 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 — loading to the grid, creating playlists, or deleting from the library.

Click a checkbox, or click the card itself, to toggle one video. Your selection is a single cart shared across tabs: a video you check on Folders stays selected when you switch to Playlists.

Shift+click a second card to select every video between your last click and this one, in the order shown on screen. This works on All Videos, Folders, Sessions, Ratings, and Frozen — not on the Playlists tab. The same eligibility rules apply: frozen, unavailable, and already-loaded videos are skipped.

You can also drag across multiple cards to paint-select a range (hold and sweep). Paint-select follows the same rules as clicking.

Clear Selected in the footer empties the cart. Delete from Library removes selected videos from the library only.

The X on an individual card removes that one video from your library. The file stays on your computer. For removing many videos at once, select them and use Delete from Library in the footer.

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

The footer Clear All button removes every video from the grid and queue at once.

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.

On the Playlists tab, a playlist whose videos are all offline shows a greyed-out group checkbox — you cannot bulk-select that row until at least one video is available again.

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 is designed to grow with your collection and supports efficient filtering and search across thousands of videos.

Select videos by clicking cards or checkboxes, or drag across cards to paint-select a range. Selected cards highlight in orange. Videos already on the grid or in the queue cannot be selected.

Your selection persists across tabs — switch from All Videos to Folders without losing what you picked. Load Selected in the footer (and in the upper-right menu) shows how many you have ready.

While searching or filtering, Add Search Results bulk-adds matching videos to your selection, and Add to Playlist creates a playlist from the results.

Clicking Load Selected checks whether you have at least four videos for a 2×2 grid. If not, a warning offers Add More Videos or Continue Anyway.

By default, the Review Selected Videos modal opens next so you can trim the list before loading — see Review Selected Videos for details.

If you enabled Skip review modal in Settings → Library, that review screen is skipped. VidVana sends your selection to the grid right away: it verifies enough files to fill visible tiles first so the grid responds quickly, then quietly checks the rest and adds them to your queue in the background. You may see a message like "Started loading X of Y — queue will keep filling" while the queue grows. This is especially helpful for large selections on NAS or network drives.

The modal checks file availability and marks missing files in orange. With very large selections (especially on NAS or network drives), this opening check can take a few seconds before the list appears. Search, sort, and All/None toggles let you trim the list before loading. Cancel closes the modal and restores your selection in the Library.

Done runs availability checks again, optionally offers to save the selection as a playlist, warns about network drives if needed, then loads checked videos to the grid and closes the Library.

If Skip review modal is enabled in Settings → Library, this screen is bypassed entirely — VidVana loads straight to the grid using the fast path described in Loading Videos to the Grid.

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.

Press Escape while on the grid (not in fullscreen) to open the Library. If some videos fail to load — for example from a disconnected drive — Clear Failed Videos removes only the failed tiles and refills them when possible, keeping the rest of your grid playing.

Pro unlocks every size from 2×2 through 5×5. On Regular, the playback grid is limited to 2×2 (four tiles); larger layouts require Pro. If you downgrade while on a bigger grid, playback continues until you restart the app, then the grid returns to 2×2.

For a seamless edge-to-edge layout with no gaps between tiles, enable Borderless Grid in Settings → Grid Player → Appearance.

These appear on every tile without hovering:

You can fade out the duration, heart, star, and status indicators after a few seconds of mouse inactivity — pin and volume indicators stay visible. See Auto-Hide Tile Overlays in Settings → Grid Player → Appearance.

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 collapse button (compress icon) that exits fullscreen and returns you to where you came from — the grid, the library, or the landing screen depending on how you entered. Hover for the exact label. You can also press Escape to exit fullscreen, or double-click anywhere on the video. When you exit from the grid, the video continues on its tile from wherever you left off and the other grid videos resume.

On Windows, if you use F11 for OS-level fullscreen, a brief hint appears: Press F11 or Alt to exit. Moving the mouse to the top edge also reveals the menu bar.

When Auto-Advance in Fullscreen is enabled in Settings, the current video advances to the next grid tile when it ends instead of looping. See Full Screen Settings for details.

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; while files are saving, Export shows Saving… and Cancel is disabled until the batch finishes. 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 the chevron to expand a row, 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.

The Start Editing button shows your selection count as soon as you pick at least one bookmark, but you need at least two clips to continue — if you click with only one selected, the app asks you to add another. With two or more selected, Start Editing takes you to the clip editor where you can trim each scene.

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.

Exporting the final MP4 requires Pro. On Regular, you can still build, preview, and save compilation projects — only the export step is locked.

When you are satisfied with the preview, click Export Compilation. The system save dialog opens with a suggested filename; choose where to save and the app begins creating your MP4.

While the video is being built, a progress bar appears at the bottom of the screen. If you spot a mistake, 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. Loading always returns you to Screen 1 first so you can review your Scene Tray, add or remove bookmarks, and click Start Editing when you are ready to continue. If you find a new video with a great scene, load your old compilation, add that scene from the selection screen, and keep going. If you decide the third scene would actually be better as the opening shot, 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.

Videos used in saved compilations show usage counts inside the Compilation Maker — on each video row and on bookmark cards (hover for which projects use them). These do not appear on grid tiles.

When you load a saved compilation, VidVana tries to put missing pieces back if you removed them from the library since saving. If a source video was deleted from the library but the file still exists on disk, it is re-added and you see a notification. Missing bookmarks for that project are restored quietly. If the file is gone from disk, you get a warning and that clip cannot be restored.

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.

When you finally click Export Compilation to create your new MP4 video file, the app performs one last save in the background using the export filename. This keeps your saved project aligned with the file you just created. If you want a different version of the same project — perhaps a "Short Edit" and a "Long Edit" — use Save As to create a duplicate with a new name without losing 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.

Appearance:

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.

The MIN and MAX values set the range available on the swap timer slider in the bottom menu — they do not randomize each tile independently. On Regular, the slider minimum is locked at 5 minutes; Pro can go down to 2 minutes. Allow Persistence (No Swap) is Pro only.

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. Middle-click anywhere on the grid also activates the Privacy Screen. 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.

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 larger grid sizes (up to 5×5), smart favorites, compilation exports, and no library cap. Regular tier keeps full playback within a library size limit set for your account — videos beyond that limit are frozen in the Library until you free a playable slot or upgrade. See Frozen Videos in this manual for how that works.

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.

The Settings sidebar includes External Libraries for connecting third-party media managers to VidVana. Integrations and setup steps are maintained in the desktop app's Help Center — open Help from the VidVana menu inside the app — where you'll find what's currently supported and how to connect them.

This website covers core Settings only. If you're browsing here and see External Libraries in a screenshot, use in-app Help for the up-to-date list and instructions.

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. For large libraries, the grid usually appears within a few seconds and the queue keeps filling in the background while videos play.

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 with your privacy as a top priority. Your video collection, ratings, bookmarks, and library data are encrypted and stored locally on your device. Your actual video files never leave your computer, and day-to-day playback works fully offline.

From time to time, the app may share a small amount of anonymous summary usage information — such as app version and general usage counts — for license verification and to help us improve features. That never includes the names, paths, or content of your videos. See What VidVana Does NOT Do for more detail.

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:

Your private video library is yours alone. VidVana is designed so the things that matter most stay on your device:

Summary usage information: To verify your trial or Pro status, and to understand in general terms how the app is being used, VidVana may occasionally send small, anonymous summary numbers — for example, library size, playlist count, or how often certain features are used — along with a device identifier and app version. This summary usage information supports license verification and helps us improve features over time. It does not include video filenames, file paths, thumbnails, or which specific videos you opened or watched. When you are offline, the app continues on your last verified license status.

Application Logs: VidVana keeps logs on your device for troubleshooting. These contain technical activity only (start times, errors). They never include video filenames, file paths, or anything that could reveal what you were 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. We may receive anonymous summary usage information for license verification and feature improvement — never your video files or what you watched 5. Privacy Screen hides everything instantly with Shift+Escape or middle-click on the grid 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 on your device 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.