Fix common audio and video issues
Revision Information
- Revision id: 191498
- Created:
- Creator: AliceWyman
- Comment: Fx71 now supports MP3 per release notes
- 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
- 1 Allow autoplay of media with sound
- 2 You may need to install the required PulseAudio software
- 3 HTML5 audio and video
- 4 Clear the cache
- 5 Disable interfering extensions or ad-blocking software
- 6 Check some Firefox settings
- 7 Flash Plugin
- 8 Reset preferences
- 9 Remove specific entries in the hosts file (advanced users)
Allow autoplay of media with sound
Firefox may be blocking media with sound from playing automatically. To allow media autoplay, see Allow or block media autoplay in Firefox.
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. 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 MP3, 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.
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.
- 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 Cookies and Site Data section.
- Verify that cookies are enabled and that the site is not blocked in the Exceptions list.
- History:
- 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.
- Make sure that Firefox is set to .
- 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 and go to the Permissions section.
- Allow the website as an exception to the "Block pop-up windows" setting.
Flash Plugin
The Flash plugin is used for embedded audio and video on some websites. When the Flash 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.
See Install the Flash plugin to view videos, animations and games and Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems.
Note: If Flash 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 enable Flash, click on and select in its drop-down menu.
If you see a Run Adobe Flash 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?.
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.
Reset preferences
See Reset Firefox preferences to troubleshoot and fix problems.
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)