Fix common audio and video issues
Revision Information
- Revision id: 158699
- Created:
- Creator: AliceWyman
- Comment: Check some Firefox settings: (Cookies) updated for fx60
- Reviewed: Yes
- Reviewed:
- Reviewed by: AliceWyman
- Is approved? Yes
- Is current revision? No
- Ready for localization: Yes
- Readied for localization:
- Readied for localization by: AliceWyman
Revision Source
Revision Content
Sometimes, the video or audio content in a web page cannot be properly downloaded and displayed in Firefox. This article will help you solve these problems.
Table of Contents
You may need to install the required PulseAudio software
If you see a notification saying "To play audio, you may need to install the required PulseAudio software", it means that Firefox cannot find or use PulseAudio. Starting with Firefox 52, the PulseAudio software is required to play any audio from Firefox. Most Linux distributions now come with PulseAudio pre-installed.
Use your system's software package manager and ensure that PulseAudio is correctly installed.
HTML5 audio and video
Firefox has built in support for open media formats usually associated with WebM, Ogg and Wave containers. However MP3 and MP4 containers usually depend on platform decoders for MP3, AAC and H.264 audio and video streams. For more information, see Fix video and audio problems on Firefox for Windows N editions and HTML5 audio and video in Firefox.
Plugins
Install missing plugins
Although Firefox is able to handle certain HTML5 audio and video content on web pages, it may need the help of media players and browser plugins for other content. Although you may have the correct media players installed to play video and audio files, you may be missing the necessary plugins when the media is embedded within the web page itself.
When a plugin is missing, a message will appear in place of the content:
- "A plugin is needed to display this content" indicates that the plugin is not installed on your machine.
If a link to download the plugin does not appear, install the plugin manually by visiting the instructions for the plugin:
- Flash plugin: See Install the Flash plugin to view videos, animations and games and Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems
- The Flash plugin is used for embedded audio and video on many websites.
- Java plugin: Use the Java plugin to view interactive content on websites
- Silverlight plugin: See Use the Silverlight plugin to play audio and video
- Windows Media Player plugin: See Play Windows Media files in Firefox with the Windows Media plugin
- The Windows Media Player plugin will only play a specific few Windows media formats (.asf, .asx, .wm, .wma, .wax, .wmp, .wmv, and .wvx) unless the web page is specifically designed for Firefox and other Mozilla browsers.
- QuickTime plugin: See Use the QuickTime plugin to play audio and video
- The QuickTime plugin can handle many different types of embedded media. On older operating systems, the QuickTime plugin may not be configured to handle some common file formats found online, such as embedded .mp3 audio on Windows XP. In such cases, you need to select the media formats you want QuickTime to play in Firefox in your QuickTime Preferences.
For other, less common, media players and their plugins, see these websites:
Enable or activate plugins
If a plugin is disabled in the Add-ons Manager, you won't be able to use it.
- Click the menu button , click and select .
- Review the list of plugins to see if any of them are disabled.
- To enable a plugin, click on and select either or in its drop-down menu.
If you see an Activate (name of plugin) icon on web pages, where the plugin content should be, you'll need to click on the icon to activate the plugin:
For more information, see Why do I have to click to activate plugins?.
Update your plugins
Check that you have the latest versions of all your plugins and update any plugins that are out of date.
Allow Plugin Container in your Internet security program
Allow your Internet security software (including firewalls, antivirus programs, anti-spyware programs, and more) to trust Plugin Container for Firefox. For detailed instructions, see Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet where in that case Firefox means Plugin Container for Firefox.
Disable a conflicting plugin
If you have more than one plugin installed that can handle the same media type, this can cause a conflict that prevents some embedded media from playing. You may be able to fix the issue by disabling one of the plugins.
- Click the menu button , click and select .
- In the list of plugins, select the plugin you wish to troubleshoot.
- If you want to disable the plugin, select in its drop-down menu.
- If you want to re-enable the plugin, select in its drop-down menu.
For example, you may need to disable the VLC plugin to play embedded QuickTime or Windows Media content. For more information about troubleshooting problems caused by plugins, see the Troubleshoot issues with plugins like Flash or Java to fix common Firefox problems article.
Other solutions
Clear the cache
See How to clear the Firefox cache.
Disable interfering extensions or ad-blocking software
- Ad-blocking software, such as anti-banner filters of your Internet Security program, or extensions, such as Flashblock or Adblock Plus, can prevent audio or video content from playing. If the site works with ad-blocking disabled, you may want to add the site to your whitelist in your adblocker filter.
- Any Firefox extension can also block plugins. If the video or audio plays when you disable all extensions, then one of your extensions was causing the problem. For more information, see Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems.
Check some Firefox settings
- Cookies:
- In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
Select the
panel and go to the History section.- In the drop-down menu next to Firefox will, choose .
- Verify that cookies are enabled and that the site is not blocked in the Cookie Exceptions list.
- In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
- Select the panel and go to the Cookies and Site Data section.
- Verify that cookies are enabled and that the site is not blocked in the Exceptions list.
- Pop-up windows:
- In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
- Select the panel. panel and go to the Permissions section
- Allow the website as an exception to the "Block pop-up windows" setting.
Remove specific entries in the hosts file (advanced users)
If you use a hosts file, you can temporarily disable it by renaming it Xhosts. Or, you can edit the hosts file to remove specific entries such as ad.doubleclick.net that can cause videos on certain sites to fail (for more information, see this MozillaZine forum thread). To apply changes to your hosts file, you may need to flush the DNS cache by entering the command: ipconfig /flushdns
in the Run dialog box on Windows.
Based on information from Video or audio does not play (mozillaZine KB)