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These answers cover the short questions that come up during normal culling. For a complete workflow, use the dedicated cache, delete-safety, or feature page instead.
VideoCull can generate thumbnails and metadata for many common formats through FFmpeg.The built-in player is intended for web-playable formats such as .mp4, .webm, .mov, .mkv, .m4v, and .ogv when the codecs are supported.Formats that Chromium does not play well in-app, such as .avi, .wmv, .asf, .flv, .ts, .mts, and .mpeg, can still be reviewed and opened in your external player.
No. FFmpeg and FFprobe are bundled with VideoCull.
VideoCull stores progress in SQLite databases plus thumbnail files under the configured cache location.The app supports three cache location modes:
  • Centralised
  • Per-drive
  • Distributed (.videocull next to your files)
Status, ratings, favorites, bookmarks, metadata, and thumbnails survive rescans.
Change the location in cache settings. VideoCull lets you migrate the existing cache, start fresh at the new location, or cancel without changing anything.Choose migration when the existing thumbnails and decisions are still valuable and the source drive will remain available during the move. See Cache and processing for the storage modes and migration behavior.
Not usually. VideoCull skips videos whose thumbnail set is already complete in cache.If you change thumbnail settings and need a rebuild, batch-select the affected videos in the grid and choose Thumbs. This regenerates their thumbnails without discarding decisions, ratings, favorites, or bookmarks.
Yes. VideoCull supports drag-and-drop folder opening and multi-directory sessions. Recent directories are also tracked so you can reopen them quickly later.
Yes. You can undo decisions before you commit the final delete action.After files have been sent to the Recycle Bin, recovery happens from the Recycle Bin itself.
No. Review keeps the full scope that was active when it opened, including videos already marked Keep, Delete, or Skipped. This makes previous and next navigation useful for checking earlier decisions.Press Tab to jump to the next Pending video. The progress display shows both decided and remaining Pending counts.
Filter the grid to the intended pool, then Shift-click a card to start batch selection. Add individual cards or Shift-click another card for a range, and choose Reset in the batch bar.Reset changes only review status. Ratings, favorites, and bookmarks remain attached to the videos.
Clicking the card body opens Review on that exact video and keeps the current filtered grid as the previous/next navigation scope. Clicking the play overlay does the same with autoplay. Ctrl-click the play overlay to open the external player instead.
No. VideoCull sends marked files to the Recycle Bin when possible. They are not gone forever unless you empty the Recycle Bin or your system cannot use it for that location.If you send files there by mistake, you can restore them from the Windows Recycle Bin and then rescan in VideoCull.See Delete and safety before committing a large batch or using a location without Recycle Bin support.
Yes. VideoCull runs locally and does not require an account or cloud sync. The direct-download edition can check GitHub for updates, which you can turn off in Settings. The privacy policy describes all network access.
Yes. Cache migrations are intended to preserve status decisions, bookmarks, and other local progress across app updates.If something looks missing after an update, rescan the folder first so any pending migration can complete.
Yes. Both editions use the shared %APPDATA%\VideoCull profile for settings, review decisions, databases, and the default thumbnail cache. VideoCull does not copy or synchronize separate profiles when you switch.Close the running edition before opening the other one. VideoCull blocks Microsoft Store and direct-download builds from using the shared profile at the same time.Keep both editions updated before switching. After confirming the edition you used before works, you can remove the other edition without deleting the shared profile or cache. Resetting or uninstalling the Store package also leaves that shared data in place.
This applies to the direct installer, which is not code-signed yet. Windows may flag it as an unrecognized app. Use the official GitHub Releases page and click More info then Run anyway.
Current packaged releases are Windows-first. The app is built with Electron, but there are no official macOS or Linux installers at the moment.
Intro skip delay controls how far into the file the first thumbnail frame is sampled. The default is 3s, which helps avoid black fades or blank lead-ins.You can set it anywhere from 0 to 60 seconds in Settings.
Yes. VideoCull can generate an HTML report from Settings or the app menu. You can scope the export to all loaded videos or just the current filtered results.
Last modified on October 1, 2026