MKV Cleaner is an easy-to-use GUI for tidying Matroska (.mkv) files. You can quickly remove unwanted audio or subtitle tracks, choose which track should be default or forced and even process many files at once.

• Batch processing – clean groups of files with the same track layout all at once
• Drop unneeded tracks – remove audio or subtitle tracks you don't want
• Quick toggle – click and drag the Keep column to switch multiple tracks on or off
• Control default and forced flags for audio and subtitle tracks
• Faded flag icons show the original default/forced state from the file
• Subtitle preview lets you inspect text before processing
• Flexible backend – work with either MKVToolNix or FFmpeg (FFmpeg is the default)
• Self-contained bundles ship with all required dependencies

When running from source the application will try to download missing command line tools and install Python packages automatically. You only need to ensure pip can install packages. The following tools are used:

• Python 3.10 or later
• PySide6
• tomli (for Python < 3.11)
• MKVToolNix (mkvmerge and mkvextract on your PATH) (optional if using FFmpeg)
• FFmpeg (ffmpeg and ffprobe on your PATH if selected)

Missing binaries (mkvmerge, mkvextract, ffmpeg, ffprobe) will be downloaded to the application directory on first launch if they cannot be found, and Python packages will be installed automatically.

The prebuilt bundles published in the GitHub releases already include PySide6 and FFmpeg so no additional installation is required. Copies of their licenses are distributed alongside the bundle.

If you want to create your own MKVCleaner.exe, run the build_exe.py script. It uses PyInstaller to bundle the Python dependencies while leaving the backend tools (mkvmerge, mkvextract, ffmpeg and ffprobe) on the system PATH.

python build_exe.py

The resulting executable can be found in the dist directory.

Install MKV Cleaner with pip after cloning the repository:

pip install .

For development you can use an editable install:

pip install -e .

1. Install the dependencies above.

2. On Windows, simply double-click mkv_cleaner.py to launch the program. If you prefer the command line, run:

   python mkv_cleaner.py

3. Click Open Files to select one or more MKV files.

4. For each group of files with the same track layout you can:

   • uncheck tracks you wish to remove
   • set a default audio or subtitle track
   • toggle the forced subtitle flag
   • preview subtitle text
   • wipe all subtitles if desired
   • the status bar shows which track became default or forced

5. Use Process Group or Process All to create cleaned files in the output directory (by default cleaned/).

Paths to the command line tools, the output directory and the preferred backend (MKVToolNix or FFmpeg) can be configured via the Preferences dialog (⚙️ icon).

Run the unit tests with:

pytest

Set the environment variable MKVCLEANER_SKIP_BOOTSTRAP=1 to disable automatic downloads and package installation when running tests or using the application in offline environments.

This project is licensed under the MIT License.