How to Stop Videos from Autoplaying on Facebook and other Websites

how to stop video autoplay firefox
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If you are like countless other users who are tired of autoplay videos on Facebook (and other websites), here is how to stop videos from automatically playing on Facebook and other sites, on your iPhone or Android phone, and in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and even Internet Explorer (IE).

How to Stop Videos from Autoplaying on Facebook (specifically)

As of the writing of this article, you are able to stop videos from autoplaying specifically on Facebook, however we also include instructions below for turning off video autoplay in your browser, which will take care of Facebook and other sites.

If you are on your computer, go to your Facebook page and from the menu dropdown (accessed by clicking the upside-down triangle) select “Settings”:

facebook settings

 

At the very bottom of the left-hand side, click on “Videos”:

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facebook video autoplay settings

 

Change the setting for “Auto-Play Videos” to “Off”:

turn off video autoplay facebook

 

Note that this is only for using Facebook on a computer, not for using the Facebook app on an iPhone or Android phone! So read on!

How to Stop Facebook Videos from Autoplaying on Your iPhone

Go to your iPhone settings:

iphone settings icon

 

And go to the Facebook settings:

iphone facebook settings

 

And tap ons “Settings”:

facebook app settings

 

Scroll down to the Video section; depending on which version of iOS you have, you will either have the choice of “Auto-play on WiFi only”, or of choosing between Auto-play on WiFi only or turning it off completely.

turn off video autoplay facebook iphone

 

How to Turn Off Facebook Video Autoplay on an Android Phone

Stopping Facebook videos from autoplaying on your Android phone is similar to doing it from your desktop.

Open the Facebook app on your phone, and in Facebook go to “Settings”. From there, you can change your video settings to either Autoplay on WiFi only, or to off.

How to Stop Video from Autoplaying in Firefox

Go to your address bar in Firefox and type “about:config”, and hit ‘return’:

how to disable video autoplay firefox 1

 

This will likely give you this pop-up warning:

how to stop video automatically playing firefox

 

Click on “I’ll be careful, I promise!”.

This will take you to what may be a scary looking page (don’t worry):

how to stop video autoplay firefox

 

In the search box, enter “plugins.click_to_play”:

how to stop autoplay in firefox plugins.click_to_play-2

 

Click (or double-click – we’ve had one work at times, and the other work at times) on the entry, which will toggle it from “false” (which equals “off”) to “true” (which equals “on”).

 

Now search for “autoplay” and do the same thing, only this time you want it set to “false” because the setting is for “media.autoplay.enabled”.

turn off autoplay firefox

 

Some recommend, instead, installing the Firefox plugin / add-on called “Flash Block”.

How to Disable Video Autoplay on Facebook and Other Sites in Chrome

Disabling autoplay in Chrome is similar to doing it in Firefox.

In the browser address bar, type “chrome://chrome/settings/content”. Search for “click to play’ and disable it.

How to Disable Video Autoplay in Safari

To stop videos from autoplaying in Safari, download and install the Click to Plugin Safari extension from MacUpdate.com.

How to Stop Video from Autoplaying in Internet Explorer

To stop video autoplay in IE, go to Tools -> Safety, and then turn on ActiveX filtering.

And there you have it! No more (or at least a whole lot less) autoplay!

 

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2 thoughts on “How to Stop Videos from Autoplaying on Facebook and other Websites

  1. Agree with Stanley – No Click to Play in current version of Chrome.

    Couldn’t find anything in Microsoft Edge.

    Was really looking forward to disabling these videos as I am using expensive 3G.

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