How to Stop Autoplay Videos in Firefox

How many times have you entered a website in your Firefox browser, only to see an annoying video pop up?  Do you want to disable videos from playing automatically in your browser?

If so, we’ll show you how to stop autoplay videos in Firefox. You’ll also learn how to prevent videos from playing automatically in other desktop and mobile browsers, as well as disabling the autoplay feature in some social media apps.

How to Stop Autoplay Videos in Firefox?

Firefox has a built-in feature that can stop videos from automatically playing every time you enter a website. All you have to do is go to browser settings and block audio and video from playing automatically.

1. Launch Firefox.
   
2. In the top-right corner of the screen, click on the three horizontal lines.
   
3. Click “Options.”
   
4. Go to “Privacy & Security.”
   
5. Scroll down to the “Permissions” section.
   
6. Click “Settings” next to “Autoplay.”
   
7. Click on the small arrow button and select “Block Audio and Video.”
   
8. Click “Save Changes.”
   

Great! Now, pop-up videos shouldn’t play automatically.

Using the Firefox Configuration Editor

If videos keep popping up on some websites, you can use a more advanced method. Firefox Configuration Editor lets you fine-tune your surfing experience in their browser. One of the options it provides is disabling autoplay videos completely.

1. Open your Firefox browser.
   
2. In the search bar at the top of the screen, type in “about:config” and press ‘’Enter.’’
   
3. Click “Accept the Risk and Continue.”
   
4. Type “autoplay” in the search bar.
   

Note: In steps 2. and 3, don’t type in the quotation marks.

Now, you’ll see the list of autoplay preferences in Firefox. You can toggle the true/false value by using the toggle button. As for values that have numbers, use the pencil button.

This is the list of preferences and their supposed values:

You need to edit these specific preferences for all videos in your browser to stop playing automatically.

Note: To check if this is working, go to YouTube and click on any video. If you did everything right, the video shouldn’t start automatically.

How to Stop Autoplay on Firefox With an Extension?

If you don’t want to bother with the Firefox Configuration Editor, you can add an extension to your browser that will prevent HTML5 videos from playing automatically.

1. Go to Disable HTML5 Autoplay page.
   
2. Click “Add to Firefox.”
   
3. In the pop-up menu, click “Add.”
   

Success! The extension will now automatically block HTML5 videos in your Firefox browser.

How to Block Autoplaying Content Automatically?

Sometimes you only want to block social media content. It can be annoying (and embarrassing) when a video suddenly starts playing full blast while you’re casually scrolling through your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Fortunately, Facebook and Twitter give you the option to disable autoplay videos. You can adjust this both in browser and mobile apps.

Facebook (Browser)

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
   
2. In the top-right corner of the screen, click on the small arrow button.
   
3. Go to “Settings & privacy.”
   
4. Select “Settings.”
   
5. In the “Auto-play videos” option, click on the small arrow button and select “Off.”
   

Facebook (Android)

1. Open the Facebook app.
   
2. In the top-right corner of the screen, tap on the three horizontal lines.
   
3. Scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy.”
   
4. Tap “Settings.”
   
5. Scroll down to the bottom and tap “Media and Contacts.”
   
6. Tap “Autoplay.”
   
7. Tap “Never Autoplay Videos.”
   

Facebook (iOS)

1. Launch the Facebook app.
   
2. In the bottom-right corner of the screen, tap on the three horizontal lines.
   
3. Scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy.”
   
4. Tap “Settings.”
   
5. Scroll down to the “Media and Contacts” tab and tap on “Videos and Photos.”
   
6. Tap “Autoplay.”
   
7. Tap “Never Autoplay Videos.”
   

Twitter (Browser)

1. Log in to your Twitter account.
   
2. In the left sidebar, click “More.”
   
3. Click “Settings and privacy.”
   
4. Go to “Accessibility, display, and languages.”
   
5. Select “Data usage.”
   
6. Click on “Autoplay.”
   
7. Choose “Never.”
   

Twitter (Android/iOS)

1. Open the Twitter app.
   
2. Tap your profile picture in the top-left corner of the screen.
   
3. Go to “Settings and privacy.”
   
4. Navigate to “Data usage.”
   
5. Tap “Video autoplay.”
   
6. Select “Never.”
   

Instagram

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram doesn’t have the feature to disable autoplay videos. When you use Instagram in your desktop browser, though, videos won’t play automatically. The only upside about Feed videos in the mobile app is that they don’t include sound. To enable sound, you’ll have to tap on the video.

Additional FAQs

How Do I Enable or Disable AutoPlay Video on Safari Browsers?

Safari is your default browser on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Like Firefox, it enables you to configure your AutoPlay preferences. You can set these preferences for a single website or all of them.

Mac

Disabling AutoPlay on a single website (e.g. CNN) can sometimes be a better option if you just want to stop videos from automatically playing on one specific website.

1. Open the Safari app.

2. Go to the website where you want to disable AutoPlay.

3. Click on “Safari” and choose “Settings for This Website.”

4. In the “Auto-Play” setting, select “Never Auto-Play.”

Now you’ve blocked a specific website from playing videos automatically in Safari. To revert this setting, simply go to the same website and follow the path “Safari” > “Settings for This Website” and select “Allow All Auto-Play” in the “Auto-Play” setting.

If you want to disable all websites from playing videos automatically in Safari, do the following:

1. Launch Safari.

2. Click on “Safari” and select “Preferences.”

3. Go to the “Websites“ tab and select it.

4. In the left sidebar, click “Auto-Play.”

5. At the bottom right corner of the dialog box, select “Never Auto-Play” in the “When visiting other websites” setting.

Note: To enable all websites to automatically play videos, go back to step 6. and select “Allow All Auto-Play.”

iPhone/iPad

There is a setting that lets you stop videos from automatically playing in all apps on your device. Unfortunately, this is the only way to disable AutoPlay video in Safari.

1. Go to Settings.

2. Scroll down and tap “Accessibility.”

3. Go to “Motion” or “Motions.”

4. Toggle off the “Auto-Play Video Previews” option.

Note: If you want to revert the Auto-Play setting, go back to step 4. and toggle on the “Auto-Play Video Previews” option.

This setting applies only to apps that are native to your iPhone, like Safari and Camera. If you use a third-party browser (e.g. Chrome), videos will play automatically. So, you’ll need to configure autoplay preferences in that browser.

How to Stop Videos Autoplaying on PC Browsers?

Since we’ve already explained how to disable the autoplay feature in Firefox and Safari, we’ll show you how to disable autoplay videos in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers.

Microsoft Edge

1. Launch Microsoft Edge.

2. Copy “edge://flags/” and paste it into the search bar at the top of the screen.

3. Type “autoplay” in the search bar.

4. You’ll see the “Show block option in autoplay settings”. Click on the small arrow button and select “Enabled.”

5. In the bottom-right corner of the screen, click “Restart.”

6. In the top-right corner of the screen, click on the three horizontal dots.

7. Click “Settings” in the extended menu.

8. In the left sidebar, go to “Cookies and site permissions” or “Site permissions.”

9. Scroll down and click on “Media autoplay.”

10. In the “Control if audio and video play automatically on sites” tab, click on the small arrow button and select “Block.”

Note: In steps 2. and 3, don’t type in the quotation marks.

Google Chrome

Unfortunately, Google Chrome doesn’t let you block videos from playing automatically. All you can do is mute them.

1. Open Google Chrome.

2. Click on the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the screen.

3. In the extended menu, click “Settings.”

4. Go to “Privacy and security.”

5. In the “Privacy and security” tab, click on “Site Settings.”

6. Scroll down and click on “Additional content settings.”

7. Select “Sounds.”

8. Toggle off the “Mute sites that play sound” option.

Note: If you want to hear a sound on a site, right-click on the tab for that site and click “Unmute site”.

Is There Setting to Turn Off Autoplay Videos?

We’ve covered the settings for disabling autoplay videos in most browsers. If you want to prevent videos from automatically playing on a video platform like YouTube, there is a setting that allows you to do this.

1. Go to YouTube.

2. Click on any video.

3. On the video screen, there is a small Autoplay button. Toggle it off.

Note: The principle is the same in the YouTube mobile app.

Disabling Autoplay Videos in Firefox

Nobody likes pop-up videos. They’re annoying and oftentimes distracting. Now you know how to disable them in your Firefox browser. Microsoft Edge and Safari offer the same option, though iPhone and iPad users won’t be able to use some of the features in other native apps on their device. Google Chrome favors this option the least, as you can only mute sound on websites.

Apart from this, you’ve learned how to disable autoplay videos on Facebook and Twitter. While Instagram doesn’t offer this feature, the videos are automatically muted until you tap on them.

How did you stop Autoplay videos on Firefox? Did you use another solution? Let us know in the comments section below.

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