Help and questions

Getting started

Add the folders that hold your videos in Settings. x4u finds every video in them and works through them in the background: it reads each one, takes its fingerprint, asks StashDB what it is, and makes a thumbnail and a short preview. The bar at the top of the page shows how far it's got.

A big library takes a while the first time, from minutes to hours, most of it making previews. You can watch anything in the meantime. Afterwards only new videos need this, and x4u looks for them when it starts and every hour.

Naming your videos with StashDB

StashDB is a shared catalogue of scenes. With a StashDB API key, x4u matches your videos to it by their fingerprints and fills in titles, performers, studios, dates and covers.

1. Create an account at stashdb.org.
2. Open your profile page there and copy your API key.
3. Paste it into Settings → StashDB.

When StashDB has more than one possible match, the scene waits in Review for you to pick. When it has none, the scene is listed under Review → Not found, where you can search StashDB for it by name. x4u fills the search in from the file name, and puts results that look like your video first. If you've found the scene on the StashDB website, paste its link instead. x4u also asks StashDB about these videos again each week, since people add fingerprints all the time.

The same scene kept in two files (a copy, or a second download in another quality) shows as one scene with both files, and plays the best one. x4u does this by itself for exact copies and for videos StashDB matched to the same scene. Videos that only look alike wait in Review → Same video? for you to keep together or tell apart. Your files stay where they are either way; x4u never moves or deletes them.

What you're missing

StashDB knows every scene of the performers and studios in your library. Their pages show how much of it you have, and Not in your library lists the rest, newest first, each with a link to the studio's page for it. Tap a scene's bookmark to want it: Tracking → Wanted keeps the list, and a scene leaves it by itself once its video is in your library and identified.

Choose Follow on a performer or studio, and x4u checks StashDB daily for their new scenes. Tracking → New releases shows those from the last 90 days that you don't have. The Performers and Studios lists can show just those you follow, or sort by how complete you are.

Watching

On a computer, the Library shows everything; rest the pointer on a video to preview it. On a phone, the Feed plays previews one after another; tap Watch to see the whole scene. Scenes pick up where you stopped, and the Library's Continue watching row takes you back to them. Tap a performer or studio on a scene to open their page: what StashDB knows about them, and every scene in your library with them. Performers and Studios list them all (on a phone, at the top of the Library); Performers shows women until you pick another choice in its gender menu: everyone, men, trans or non-binary performers. Tap a tag to see its scenes.

Rest the pointer on the timeline, or drag along it, to see frames from that part of the video. x4u makes these in the background after previews; opening a video that doesn't have them yet makes its own within a minute, and Settings → Library can make all the rest now.

On a computer, the player's keys work anywhere on a scene's page, as on YouTube: Space or K to play and pause, J and L (or ← and →) to go back or forward 10 seconds, 0 to 9 to jump through the video, < and > for slower and faster, M to mute and F for full screen. Press ? to see them all. The buttons at the top left of the player choose the speed, and A–B plays part of a video over and over: press it where the part starts, again where it ends, and once more to stop.

To come back to a moment, press Mark at the top left of the player (or B), and give it a name if you like. Your marks are listed under the video as Moments; tap one to go there. They also split the timeline into chapters, named as you scrub. More like this, under each scene, finds others with the same performers, studio or tags.

The Feed starts on For you: shuffled, but showing more of the performers and studios you favourite, rate highly, watch and follow. Tap For you to switch to an even shuffle, and the dice to shuffle again.

VR videos open as a view you can look around in by dragging. x4u works out a video's VR format from StashDB's tags and the picture itself, SexLikeReal's passthrough videos included; if it got one wrong, change it on the scene's page.

In a headset's browser, such as a Quest's, Enter the Theatre in the sidebar opens x4u in VR: your library on a curved wall around you, to pick what to watch. Point at a cover to see its preview and pull the trigger to play it. The magnifying glass on the wall brings up a keyboard to search with. A scene's own Enter VR button, at the top left of its player, goes straight to that scene. Either way the video plays around you at its full quality. Headsets only allow this on a secure page, so open x4u at one of the HTTPS addresses in Settings → Other devices, which also says how to stop the headset's warning about it. Point with a controller and pull the trigger, or pinch with your hands. While it plays there's only the video: point at nothing and pull the trigger, or press B or Y, to bring up the controls below you, the scene on your right and what's up next on your left. Home, on the left of the controls, brings back the library wall, and pressing a performer, tag or studio beside the scene shows the rest of theirs there. Hold the trigger on the timeline to drag through the scene. A or X plays and pauses, the thumbstick left and right skips 10 seconds, up and down jumps between markers (or scrolls the list you're pointing at), and pressing it in turns the video to face you. Hold the grip on a panel and move your hand to swing the controls aside or lower them. Drag a list with the trigger held to scroll it. Hold the grip pointing away from the panels and move your hand to turn or tilt the picture, and push the stick while holding to zoom; x4u remembers it for that scene. Under More you can change the video's VR format or swap its eyes if they look wrong, put the picture back with Reset view, turn the sounds off, show your room around the Theatre (Room, on a Quest), cut the performer out into your room (Passthrough, which SexLikeReal's passthrough videos turn on by themselves), and see how playback is going under Stats. Flat videos play on a big screen.

If a video stutters or won't play on your phone, open the quality menu at the top left of the player and choose a smaller size. x4u then converts the video as it plays. Phones often can't keep up with 8K, and some can't play certain formats at all. When a device says it can't play a video, or a size stops loading, x4u moves to the next size down by itself.

Search, playlists and picking several

Search finds scenes, performers, studios and tags all at once. Open it from the sidebar, the magnifying glass at the top of the Library on a phone, or Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) or / anywhere on a computer.

Save a scene to a playlist from its page, or tap Watch later in the Feed's details. Playlists (in the sidebar, or at the top of the Library on a phone) can be played straight through or shuffled: the next scene starts by itself a few seconds after one ends, and Shift+N and Shift+P skip on and back. Reorder a playlist by dragging its scenes or with the arrows.

To favourite several scenes at once or save them to a playlist, choose Select in the Library and tap them. On a computer, Shift-click picks every scene between two. The Library also shows New from who you follow: scenes added in the last 30 days from the performers and studios you follow.

Phones and tablets

Turn on Settings → Other devices, set a PIN, and open one of the addresses shown there on your phone, on the same Wi-Fi. Each device enters the PIN once.

Don't make x4u reachable from the internet by forwarding a port on your router: its connection isn't encrypted. To watch away from home, install Tailscale (tailscale.com) on this computer and your phone, and open x4u at this computer's Tailscale address.

Questions

Does x4u change, move or delete my videos?

No. It only reads them. Removing a folder only takes it out of x4u.

Why is my computer busy?

x4u is working through new videos. It runs at most two tools at once, at low priority, so the computer stays usable. The bar at the top of the page says what it's doing, and it goes quiet when it's done.

What does "Missing" mean?

The video isn't in its folder any more. If you moved or renamed it within your library folders, x4u finds it on its next check, and it keeps its details and history. Otherwise x4u forgets it after 30 days. If a whole drive is unplugged, its videos are kept as they are until it's back.

How do I keep track of what I like and what I've watched?

Open a scene and choose Add to favourites, or give it one to five stars; in the feed, tap the heart (F on a computer). The library's Favourites button and Highest rated sort find them again. History lists what you've played, newest first. Remove a scene from it with ×, or clear it all; favourites and ratings stay.

How do I keep my library safe, or move it to another computer?

x4u backs up your library each week. In Settings → Backups you can back up now and download a copy. On the other computer, install x4u, then use Restore from a file. If your videos are in different places there, choose Find it beside each folder in Settings. Thumbnails and previews are made again there.

How much room does x4u need?

Besides your videos, x4u keeps a short preview of each (about half a megabyte), its timeline thumbnails (about as much again), thumbnails, covers, and performers' photos and studios' logos from StashDB. It keeps all of them, so its data grows with your library: a few gigabytes for ten thousand videos. Settings → Storage shows how much each part takes and how much room is left on the drive. When there's less than 5 GB left, x4u says so across the top of every page.

How do I move x4u's data to another drive?

In Settings → Storage, choose Move to another drive, then the drive (or a folder on it). x4u puts its data in an x4u folder there: it copies everything, checks the copy, and restarts from there, then deletes the old copy. It takes a minute or two per few gigabytes; leave x4u open meanwhile. Shortcuts and starting at sign-in keep working, and your videos stay where they are. If that drive isn't connected when x4u starts, x4u asks you to connect it rather than start an empty library; plug it in and start x4u again.

How do I update x4u?

Close x4u, replace its files with the new version's, and start it again. Your library is kept separately, and x4u backs it up before any update changes how it's stored.

Is anything about me sent anywhere?

No accounts, ads or tracking. With a StashDB key, x4u sends StashDB your videos' fingerprints and the searches you type, asks for the scenes of the performers and studios in your library, and fetches covers and photos. Never file names, folders or what you watch. See Settings → Privacy.

How do I stop x4u?

On Windows and Linux, right-click its icon by the clock and choose Quit x4u. On a Mac, close the Terminal window it runs in. It picks up where it left off next time. To have it start by itself, see Settings → Starting x4u.

How do I uninstall x4u?

First turn off starting x4u when you sign in, in Settings → Starting x4u, so nothing is left trying to start it. Then quit x4u and delete its folder. Your library, thumbnails and backups are kept separately, in the data folder shown in Settings → Storage; delete that too to remove everything (and if you moved it to another drive, the x4u folder in its usual place as well, which only remembers where it went). Your videos aren't touched either way.

Something's wrong. What should I send?

The version and the log file, both shown in Settings → About.

Still stuck?