[Firefox Tip] Enable / Disable Auto-Play of Video and Sound on Websites

When you are browsing on Internet, you might encounter a very annoying problem on some websites. This problem is related to the automatic playing of video content and sound. As soon as you open some websites in your web browser, the web page starts playing video clips with sound automatically without your interaction. It might annoy you specially when you are in office or public places.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox web browser, here is a good news for you. The newer versions of Firefox browser come with a built-in option to enable or disable auto-play of video and sound on websites. If you want to prevent websites from automatically playing video and audio clips without your permission, you can block these websites from playing video content with sound.

Once you restrict websites from automatically playing videos and audio, no website will be able to play any video content without your permission. If you want to play a video, you can click on the play button given on the video. You’ll also see a video with sound blocked icon in the address bar telling you that you have blocked autoplay media with sound for the website as shown in following screenshot:

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Website_Blocked_Autoplay_Video_Sound_Icon_Firefox.png

In this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to allow or block websites from automatically playing video content and sound in Mozilla Firefox web browser.

One important thing to note before we start the tutorial. This feature only blocks videos from auto-playing which play in unmuted state. If a video is playing with muted sound, Firefox will not block it from auto-playing.

Let’s start the tutorial:

How to Disable Auto-Play of Video Content with Sound in Firefox?

If you want to restrict/prevent websites from automatically playing video content with sound, following steps will help you in blocking auto-play feature:

1. Open Firefox and click on the Hamburger icon present at the right-side end of the toolbar to open the main menu. Now click on Options menu to open Firefox settings page.

Alternatively, you can direct option this page using about:preferences command in address bar.

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2. Now under “Privacy & Security” tab, scroll down and go to “Permissions” section.

3. Now enable “Block websites from automatically playing sound” option.

Block_Websites_Autoplay_Video_Sound_Firefox.png

That’s it. Now all websites will be blocked from automatically playing videos with sound.

How to Enable Auto-Play of Video Content with Sound in Firefox?

If you want to allow websites to automatically play video content with sound, following steps will help you:

1. Open Firefox and click on the Hamburger icon present at the right-side end of the toolbar to open the main menu. Now click on Options menu to open Firefox settings page.

Alternatively, you can direct option this page using about:preferences command in address bar.

2. Now under “Privacy & Security” tab, scroll down and go to “Permissions” section.

3. Now disable “Block websites from automatically playing sound” option to allow all websites to auto-play video content with sound.

How to Allow Selected Websites to Auto-Play Video with Sound in Firefox?

If you want to whitelist one or a few selected websites only for auto-play feature, check out following steps:

1. Keep the “Block websites from automatically playing sound” option enabled in Firefox Options page and click on “Exceptions” button given next to the option.

2. Now type the website domain or URL in the address of website textbox and click on Allow button.

Whitelist_Website_Autoplay_Video_Sound_Firefox.png

That’s it. The website will be added to the whitelist and it’ll be allowed to auto-play video with sound.

PS: There is another quick way to whitelist a website to allow auto-play functionality. When you open a website and Firefox blocks it from auto-playing video, click on the video blocked icon in address bar. Now select “Allow” option from the drop-down box given next to the “Autoplay sound” listed under Permissions section as shown in following screenshot:

Allow_Website_Autoplay_Video_Sound_Firefox.png

It’ll add the website to whitelist and Firefox will always allow the whitelisted website to automatic playing video and audio.

Also Check:

[Tip] Disable Website Notifications Pop-ups in Chrome, Firefox, Opera

Published in: Mozilla Firefox

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. It doesnt work on this site:
    express.co.uk/news/politics/1104797/brexit-latest-theresa-may-cabinet-coup-indicative-votes

  2. ^^ You must be using Firefox 66 or later version to be able to use this option.

    @Alan
    It’s working fine here. Remember only autoplay videos with unmuted sound will be blocked. If a video is playing with muted sound,it’ll not be blocked.

  3. Firefox from my experience is falling further behind in the browser market. Especially on Linux it has become pathetically slow to load up, and performs terrible compared to Chromium or Chrome. I used to think it was the best for Linux but now I consider just uninstalling it.

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