[Fix] Multimedia Keys Not Working in Apps After Upgrading Firefox Browser

Yesterday Mozilla released Firefox 81.0 stable version to public which comes with a new feature called Hardware Media Keys Handling. This new feature allows users to use multimedia keys present on their PC keyboard to control video playback in webpages.

For example, if you are playing a video on YouTube and you press a multimedia key on your keyboard such as Volume up/down/mute, etc, Firefox will display a fly-out or overlay showing video title along with Play/pause, previous, next buttons as shown in following screenshot:

Apart from showing a fly-out on tab, Firefox will also display the same fly-out on Windows 10 Lock Screen. So if you play a video on a web page in Firefox and you lock your PC using WIN+L hotkey, you’ll see the same video information and control fly-out on Lock Screen.

Following screenshot shows Firefox video playback fly-out on Windows 10 Lock Screen:

This feature is a good addition and will help users who watch videos and use multimedia keys regularly.

But it might cause some troubles to other users. Last year, a similar feature was introduced in Google Chrome web browser and the feature caused issues in other audio/video playing software such as Spotify, iTunes, etc.

Users were unable to use multimedia keys in those software programs. We addressed the issue in following article:

[Fix] Multimedia Keys Stopped Working in Spotify, iTunes After Updating Google Chrome

Now the same feature is also a part of Mozilla Firefox browser and if you face similar problems with other software programs and you can’t use multimedia keys in other apps, this article will help you in fixing the issue.

There is a hidden preference/flag to deactivate and disable this new hardware media keys handling functionality in Firefox browser. Once you turn off this new feature, Firefox will stop taking over or hijacking multimedia keys in your PC and you’ll be able to use the keys in other apps.

If you also want to disable new media control feature in Mozilla Firefox, following steps will help you:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

2. Now type mediakeys in Search filter box and look for following preference in the window:

The preference value is set to true by default, which means the media controls feature is activated and enabled in Firefox.

3. To deactivate and disable the feature, double-click on media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled preference and set it to false. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name.

That’s it. Now try to open a video page in Firefox or if you have already opened a video page, refresh it. Now press multimedia keys and Firefox will no longer show any fly-out on screen.

Now open Spotify, iTunes or any other media playing program and play some media files. Now try to use multimedia keys and it’ll work fine without any issue.

PS: To restore the media controls feature, open about:config page again and set the media.hardwaremediakeys.enabled preference/flag to true.

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