Mac Tip: Automatically Play Videos Files In QuickTime Player

This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.


How to: Automatically Play Videos Files In QuickTime Player

You may have noticed when you load a video into QuickTime Player that it doesn’t automatically play.

To make movies automatically play you can use a Terminal command.

In order to do this we will need to use Terminal. To locate Terminal simply navigate to Applications > Utilities. Within the Utilities folder you will locate Terminal.

Simply launch and then enter the following:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1

Press return and then open a video file in QuickTime and you will notice that it will instantly start playing.

To return the settings back to the default settings, simply enter the following then press return:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 0

Mark Greentree

Mark Greentree is the principle blogger and podcast creator of Everyday Mac Support. His aim is to inform users at all levels of experience how to get the most out of the Apple hardware and associated software. He is the lead host of Not Another Mac Podcast, an Apple based round table discussion with Mac users and experts from all over world.