VLC2 - How did that get on my Mac?

[krs]

I just tried to play an .avi video file on my Mac and VLC2 tries to open to play it.

I had vlc on my Mac as the default app to play videos, but I never downloaded or installed VLC2 - I never even knew VLC2 existed until just now when the app tried to open.
The Mac came back with the message that this was a file downloaded from the internet and would I like to open it, ok, that's fine, but what is the deal with an app just downloading and installing itself,legitimate or not?

 

[chscag]

Actually, the latest version of VLC is 3.011.1 and 64 bit. Have no idea what VLC2 is?

 

[krs]

It shows up like this in my application folder



But when I open the app it says VLC media player version 3.0.11 under "About ..."

Seems the Mac thought it was a new app, so I think the "2" was appended by the Mac.
Just weird that it was downloaded and installed without any action by myself or even notification this was happening.
My previous version was 2.2.6, also 64-bit
If I try to use that version of VLC I get a "VLC quit unexpectedly" message

 

[Lifeisabeach]

That icon doesn't look quite right. I don't think that "VLC2" app is legit. I couldn't tell you where it came from, but it's suspicious, that's for sure.

 

[ferrarr]

At first, I thought it was just a copy of the VLC app, but then I noticed this,

VLC 2.0 Twoflower - VideoLAN

www.videolan.org

.

 

[IWT]

I am in general agreement with my colleagues on this.

I would just say that it is possible to have App and App.2 - if instead of replacing the previous version, an updated version of the App was added to Applications. This happened to me; in most cases at my instigation because I wanted to test the new version for stability or to see if any features had been removed from the old.

This can also happen if you download the App from the Apple Store only to find that certain features are excluded; and then you download the same App from the developer - (eg DaisyDisk).

Ian

 

[krs]

That icon doesn't look quite right. I don't think that "VLC2" app is legit. I couldn't tell you where it came from, but it's suspicious, that's for sure.

That was my concern and that's why I posted here hoping somebody could shed some light on this.
I noticed this morning that the VLC icon is now in the menu bar - that is new
But the "About....'window looks ok to me



No spelling mistakes or funny sentence structure.

On my Mac, VLC2 automatically became the default application when I use 'open with'and the old version of VLC I used up to now quits right away.
I played a video uing VLC2 last night and that worked perfectly.
And this morning I ran Malwarebytes which came back saying my Mac is clean

Other than the logo looking slightly different, which I noticed as well, and it ending up installed on my Mac as VLC2, everything I checked so far seems perfetly legit and raises no red flags.

 

[krs]

At first, I thought it was just a copy of the VLC app, but then I noticed this,

VLC 2.0 Twoflower - VideoLAN

www.videolan.org

.

I saw that last night as well and this prompted me to say 'ok' to open this app.
But when I think about it, and I just checked that page again, this looks like a very old update of VLC with specifc references to macOS 10.5,10.6 and 10.7;nothing later. Unfortunately I can't find a date anywhere on that page.

 

[krs]

I am in general agreement with my colleagues on this.

I would just say that it is possible to have App and App.2 - if instead of replacing the previous version, an updated version of the App was added to Applications. This happened to me; in most cases at my instigation because I wanted to test the new version for stability or to see if any features had been removed from the old.

This can also happen if you download the App from the Apple Store only to find that certain features are excluded; and then you download the same App from the developer - (eg DaisyDisk).

Ian

But have you ever had an app show up already downloaded and installed in your application folder automatically?

I just checked my Firefox download folder,the vlc-3.0.11.dmg file shows as having been downloaded from uwaterloo.ca which is the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
No idea how that happened since I have no reason to visit their website.
Checked some more in Firefox history - download shows as coming from the Computer Sciences Club of the University of Waterloo which is shown as a mirror site for VLC.
Total blank...... but every indication is that this app is perfectly legit and I probably downloaded and installed it and then totally forgot about it.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I would just scrap it. Both versions of the app. Use Find Any File to scour your drive for any traces of VLC. Check your system for any signs of malware with DetectX and/or VirusBarrier just to be sure. Then re-download VLC. I would simply take no chances here that this isn't something masquerading as VLC. This shouldn't have shown up on its own like this.

 

[IWT]

But have you ever had an app show up already downloaded and installed in your application folder automatically?

No. But your keen research has established where it came from and the source of the download.

Interestingly, the name VLC Twoflower etc is not mentioned on the official Videolan website:

VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS! - VideoLAN

www.videolan.org

As you pointed out earlier, there is no date on the linked website for the Twoflower VLC and it may relate to an early version??? Who knows?

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

I saw that last night as well and this prompted me to say 'ok' to open this app.
But when I think about it, and I just checked that page again, this looks like a very old update of VLC with specifc references to macOS 10.5,10.6 and 10.7;nothing later. Unfortunately I can't find a date anywhere on that page.

Yeah, I didn't see a date on the vlc pages, so I looked elsewhere and found this,

VideoLAN Releases VLC 2.0 with Tons of Amazing Features

Good news to all VLC users out there. VideoLAN, the developers of the open source media player has just released VLC 2.0 a.k.a. Twoflower. VLC 2.0 promises faster decoding on multi-core, GPU, and mobile hardware with greater flexibility in handling a wider range of formats. Another major update...

www.megaleecher.net

from 2012.

 

[IWT]

from 2012.

That says it all. Good research, Bob.

Ian

 

[krs]

I would just scrap it. Both versions of the app. Use Find Any File to scour your drive for any traces of VLC. Check your system for any signs of malware with DetectX and/or VirusBarrier just to be sure. Then re-download VLC. I would simply take no chances here that this isn't something masquerading as VLC. This shouldn't have shown up on its own like this.

Yes, no reason taking any chances.

 

[Rod]

I saw that last night as well and this prompted me to say 'ok' to open this app.
But when I think about it, and I just checked that page again, this looks like a very old update of VLC with specifc references to macOS 10.5,10.6 and 10.7;nothing later. Unfortunately I can't find a date anywhere on that page.

Yep, I found the same online reference, surprising its still there. If you read down on that page to where it says "For Mac Users" you will see it lists features such as:
- Available in 2 colors: Lion grey and QTX black.
- Extensions support and better Lion integration.
I think that kinda dates it.