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Most issues are either stale thumbnails, incomplete metadata, or media compatibility problems. Start with targeted thumbnail regeneration or a rescan. Treat full cache clearing as a last resort because it resets cached review progress.
1

Check that the folder actually contains videos

VideoCull ignores non-video files.
2

Regenerate affected thumbnails

Shift-click in the grid to select the affected videos, then choose Thumbs in the batch bar. This preserves their decisions and other metadata.
3

Disable hardware acceleration

Some GPU driver setups behave badly with FFmpeg hardware decoding.
4

Reduce parallel work

Lower Parallel FFmpeg processes and, if needed, enable Limit each FFmpeg process to 1 CPU thread.
Blank or zero durations usually mean the cache was written before duration data was extracted, or that a previous scan was interrupted.
1

Rescan the folder

Press F5 to rescan so FFprobe can repopulate the missing duration data.
2

Clear cache only as a last resort

If metadata remains corrupted and saved progress can be discarded, use Clear cache and reload. The confirmation warns that cached manual decisions will be lost.
This can happen with the direct installer because it is not code-signed yet. The Microsoft Store edition does not use this installer.
1

Click More info

Use the More info link on the SmartScreen prompt.
2

Click Run anyway

Continue only if you downloaded the installer from the official GitHub Releases page.
The built-in player depends on Chromium codec support. Open the file in your external player when the format or codec is not supported in-app.If a format you expect to work still fails, check whether the file opens correctly in your system player first.
Restore them from the Windows Recycle Bin, then rescan in VideoCull so the files appear in the grid again.
1

Reduce parallel work

Lower Parallel FFmpeg processes to keep the machine responsive.
2

Enable one-thread-per-process mode

Turn on Limit each FFmpeg process to 1 CPU thread.
3

Disable hardware acceleration if needed

Some GPU drivers behave poorly with FFmpeg hardware acceleration.
Some mounted cloud drives can be much slower to scan than local disks. That has been reproduced on mounted Google Drive setups.If possible, copy the files to a local drive first or switch to a less latency-sensitive cache mode before scanning very large remote libraries.
Restarting the app should clean stale entries automatically. You can also clear recent directories manually from the UI.
The Microsoft Store and direct-download editions share one profile, so VideoCull prevents them from running at the same time.Close the other VideoCull window, then start the edition you want to use. If no window is visible, wait for VideoCull to finish closing or end the remaining VideoCull process in Task Manager before trying again.
VideoCull stops before opening a profile whose storage format is invalid or incompatible with the installed edition. This protects settings, decisions, databases, and thumbnails from being changed by an older build.Update the older edition before switching again. Do not delete or edit storage-format.json, and do not copy one edition’s profile over the other. If both editions are current and the message remains, report the exact message on GitHub.
Rescan the folder first so any cache migration can complete. If the data is still missing after that, file a report on GitHub.
Last modified on September 18, 2026