Guides & common issues
The knowledge base we wish existed when we started — including the exact problems people hit on the MakeMKV forums, and how to fix them.
Click any guide for the full walkthrough. These are written from our own bench experience and the official MakeMKV forums, and dated when we review them.
The complete guide to ripping 4K UHD Blu-ray
Discs, drives, firmware, MakeMKV settings, software and storage — the whole pipeline, start to finish.
MakeMKV drive & firmware compatibility 2026
Which drives still flash to LibreDrive, which revisions to avoid, and how to read your own drive's status.
Ripping 3D Blu-rays (the MVC track)
Enable the MVC stream in MakeMKV, keep frame-packed 3D, and pick a player & display that will actually show it.
"The volume key is unknown" on a new disc
Why brand-new 4K releases sometimes won't decrypt yet, and how to submit the key dump so it works in a few days.
Burning & write errors, explained
Common causes of failed burns, why the very latest 4K discs can't be re-authored yet, and reliable settings.
Playing discs in VLC on a Mac (and why to rip instead)
Adding libaacs + KEYDB.cfg, the limits you'll hit, and why ripping once is faster, better and easier on the laser.
Read errors, power & the sleep-bug fix
The #1 support topic, solved: powered hubs, USB selective-suspend, and consistent reads on a laptop.
Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi & NAS: building your library
From MKV to a polished server with correct metadata, direct play, tidy naming — and where to store it all on a NAS.