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I often play videos and like to select multiple files. The problem is, if the files are not on the main drive, say in the 'video' or 'download' directories, I don't see a way to access them.
I go to the file menu and select to open multiple files, but don't seem to be able to navigate to my usb drive. I have a drive connected to my usb port but I can't navigate to it. Anyone know how that's done?
Thanks

P Simdars
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    Is your VLC video player installed via DEB or via snap? Snaps have known issues with accessing files outside of the home directory because of sandboxing. Uninstall the snap version and install the DEB one. – raj Aug 04 '22 at 16:00
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    Or just enable access to mass storage device permission, much simpler and faster. – ChanganAuto Aug 04 '22 at 16:20
  • Thanks. I removed it and then went to look for how to install vlc deb, but couldn't find anything about that but did find that great command, something like-- "sudo apt install vld -y" ( I think that was it) and you were absolutely right, it displays all my drives. Thanks again. – P Simdars Aug 04 '22 at 16:22
  • Which version of Ubuntu are you running? It works for me in Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 LTS without any tweaks to access files from a USB drive. – sudodus Aug 04 '22 at 16:29
  • @ChanganAuto, Please write an answer describing how to enable access to mass storage device permission for the snap version of vlc (or if you are lazy, edit it into my answer). – sudodus Aug 04 '22 at 16:46

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You can check if vlc is installed via apt

apt-cache policy vlc

or via snap

snap list vlc

I have checked and it works for me in both cases to play a file in a USB pendrive or USB SSD drive.

The partition, where you have the video file(s), must be mounted. Directories in USB drives are often automatically mounted, when you connect a USB drive. Check if it is mounted with the following command,

df

or if you want more details the following command in a wide terminal window,

lsblk -o name,size,fstype,label,mountpoint,model

The ownership and permissions of Microsoft file systems might prevent access, and you should unmount and mount again with suitable permissions. It is also possible that the partition with video files is not mounted.

In such cases you can mount it manually, for example with a mount command.

sudo umount /dev/sdxn            # unmount if necessary
sudo mkdir /mnt/usbxn            # create mountpoint only once

sudo mount -o rw,user,uid=1000,dmask=007,fmask=117 /dev/sdxn /mnt/usbxn

where x is the drive letter and n is the partition number. Modify if necessary, for example the uid number if not the 'first user'.

See a detailed description in this link to an answer to another question at AskUbuntu.

Edit: If you still have problems, when running the snap version, please remove it and install the apt version.

sudodus
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