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Disabling Autoplay: Why is this such a dismal failure?

  • 14 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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First of all, there are so many articles on this site and others that don't update reflecting the huge changes recently in Autoplay options. So many settings from the past don't work or aren't even there anymore. Why are these pages not updated? Who even uses old version of this browser? 99% of the info online is irrelevant because of this sloppiness. Just go to Yahoo.com and see if anything works. Good luck with that. I did find one extension that did work (so far): Disable HTML5 Autoplay But we shouldn't need an extension to do something so basic, so intrinsic to web browsing. We all know distractions impeded our ability to get things done and cost billions every day as people's productivity sharply drops. There is nothing more distracting than a video! So its the number one thing to control. As long as you're over about 4 years old of course. Under that and we're fascinated by unfamiliar shiny objects.

So I'm curious about all the autoplay options I have in about:config and if any of these settings matter anymore, now that I have an extension that does what Firefox seems incapable of doing. When I search for autoplay, this is what I get, sorted alphabetically. I noticed that some are in bold. Why is that? And why is Mozilla so out of touch with us that they can't explain what each of these things actually does? I wonder if they even know. You should be able to hover your mouse cursor over an item and a popup should tell you what it does. Is that so difficult? Guess so.

true dom.media.autoplay.autoplay-policy-api true extensions.webextensions.ExtensionStorageIDB.migrated.disable-html5-autoplay@afnankhan false media.autoplay.allow-extension-background-pages true media.autoplay.block-event.enabled true media.autoplay.block-webaudio 1 media.autoplay.default false media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed true media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground false services.sync.prefs.sync.media.autoplay.default

First of all, there are so many articles on this site and others that don't update reflecting the huge changes recently in Autoplay options. So many settings from the past don't work or aren't even there anymore. Why are these pages not updated? Who even uses old version of this browser? 99% of the info online is irrelevant because of this sloppiness. Just go to Yahoo.com and see if anything works. Good luck with that. I did find one extension that did work (so far): Disable HTML5 Autoplay But we shouldn't need an extension to do something so basic, so intrinsic to web browsing. We all know distractions impeded our ability to get things done and cost billions every day as people's productivity sharply drops. There is nothing more distracting than a video! So its the number one thing to control. As long as you're over about 4 years old of course. Under that and we're fascinated by unfamiliar shiny objects. So I'm curious about all the autoplay options I have in about:config and if any of these settings matter anymore, now that I have an extension that does what Firefox seems incapable of doing. When I search for autoplay, this is what I get, sorted alphabetically. I noticed that some are in bold. Why is that? And why is Mozilla so out of touch with us that they can't explain what each of these things actually does? I wonder if they even know. You should be able to hover your mouse cursor over an item and a popup should tell you what it does. Is that so difficult? Guess so. true dom.media.autoplay.autoplay-policy-api true extensions.webextensions.ExtensionStorageIDB.migrated.disable-html5-autoplay@afnankhan false media.autoplay.allow-extension-background-pages true media.autoplay.block-event.enabled true media.autoplay.block-webaudio 1 media.autoplay.default false media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed true media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground false services.sync.prefs.sync.media.autoplay.default

All Replies (14)

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Where is the edit option on this page? I see nothing!

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For editing, look to the right of your post for a link.

Support articles should always be up-to-date, especially compared with older forum posts. If the following doesn't match what you see, expand the Editing Tools in the left column and make sure it is set to your version of Firefox and your OS:

Allow or block media autoplay in Firefox

There probably are some sites that have figured out workarounds for autoplay blocking, so please share URLs of those sites as you discover them.

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Well as I said, Yahoo seems to be pretty adept at pissing their own readers off. Well done Yahoo. Not giving people options is just about the most brain dead move anybody can do in this day and age. Right away someone will come along and offer more options and the first person will die off, just like they should in this ruthless online world. You either are aware and care about your users or you don't. Yahoo clearly doesn't. Probably run by some out of touch, white haired, old money fossil.

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I noticed the edit option after I came back to it but it wasn't there initially, when you really need it. Mozilla - are you listening to any of this? Do you care at all? How can you possibly have such glaring deficiencies? How can you expect people to trust your competancy when you can't even display a webpage with a modicum of logic?

Ironically, now I can see it right after I posted. Maybe its not displayed right away when you make the initial post.

Modified by moz2u

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Hi moz2u, maybe the Question Tools section next to the original question is closed by default?

This site is undergoing a makeover, but there was a long period of deferred maintenance because the site was moving to the Lithium platform. And then a few months later it moved back because of some inflexibilities over there. So there is quite a backlog of things to be fixed.

Are you a developer? You could pitch in if you like. Especially if you are good at responsive layouts that work well on both mobile and desktop since that major change will need to happen before the next round of cosmetic fixes.

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No I'm not a developer. I just like to complain! Thank you for that update. It makes perfect sense. I should be more patient.

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> If the following doesn't match what you see, expand the Editing Tools in the left column and make sure it is set to your version of Firefox and your OS

I cannot see anywhere where it allows me to set the version of Firefox and OS. At the top I see: Pick a Product Pick a topic and try some solutions Fill in Details

But I can't seem to get to Pick a topic.

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moz2u said

> If the following doesn't match what you see, expand the Editing Tools in the left column and make sure it is set to your version of Firefox and your OS I cannot see anywhere where it allows me to set the version of Firefox and OS.

You might need to scroll down. The Editing Tools panel has a lot of links, and the selectors are at the bottom.

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Ah yes, I see it now. Its set perfectly for me. Win7 and latest Firefox. That's a fantastic feature for a forum. I've never seen anything like that implemented but it makes perfect sense for discussions on things that are constantly changing. Hat's off to Mozilla for taking a lead in this area. That is really impressive. Others may not realize the significance of this but the ramifications of forum design like this, actually they could design entire websites around this principle. Quite incredible. Its all about relevance. And the more variety of information you have the less relevant most of it will be to most people. This is really crucial. Of course it will take years for others to wake up to this! The downside is getting the reader to input their info but if they're registered you can make it part of the registration process. Just a few clicks and now the website will be far better for them. Who wants to see inapplicable data? Nobody!

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Hi :-)

With video streaming being a major contributor to CO2 emissions as analyzed by The Shift Project recently wouldn't it be a good idea to have all autoplay disabled by default? It seems to me autoplay is a feature that annoys many users, while many others might not care and a few find it convenient.

It would take just a small change in the default properties to save a lot of energy and a gazillion tons of emissions. I think that would be a very rexponsible thing for mozilla to do. What do you think about that?

Regards D

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A terrible culprit is https://sfgate.com. I have tried every Firefox configuration I can find, but the only thing that worked for me was the Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension.

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For what I've seen so far, the autoplay policy in Firefox 74 is a total failure. Lots of sites ignore my settings to block audio&video, and autoplay video. I too tried all config in about:config with no result. The only way to block video is the Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension.

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Ironically, I've now gone so far in the other direction that Firefox resolutely refuses to play pretty much any embedded video. I can't quite figure out what I did, and even resetting Firefox to defaults didn't fix it, but, on balance, it's a small price to pay. I can always watch video in another browser, but not having video involuntarily inflicted upon me is priceless.

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Hi tomaddox

What operating system are you running ?

Do you get the auto-play icon in the location/address bar that Firefox would show normally ?

You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.