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Meanwhile, Google still hasn't added a way disable auto-playing videos (regardless of whether a video is muted) in Chrome. Safari has easy options to set both

Meanwhile, Google still hasn't added a way disable auto-playing videos (regardless of whether a video is muted) in Chrome. Safari has easy options to set both a default and per-site preferences (https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/stop-autoplay-videos-ibrw29c6ecf8/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/stop-autoplay-videos-...), including a "Never Auto-Play" choice. Despite years of user complaints and a fairly clear resolution to them, Chrome either watered-down their fix or solved the wrong problem entirely.

ceejayoz 9y ago
> Meanwhile, Google still hasn't added a way disable auto-playing videos (regardless of whether a video is muted) in Chrome. This bit is especially infuriating for me, as there seems to be a High Sierra issue with Chrome and videos (for me, at least - it's hard to figure out how widespread it is). They cause massive browser lag when they're on a page for me, to the point of missed characters while typing.
drewg123 9y ago
There is supposedly a way. On Chrome 63 and newer, you can set "Document user activation" in chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy & relaunch. However, it does not seem to do much, if anything, for me. I tend to just use Privacy Badger to block any site that looks like a CDN
- yousir 9y ago
  > you can set "Document user activation" in chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy & relaunch. That won't fix the problem of auto-playing video on CNN or other sites that are not YT. Trying to read news from CNN is still a matter of waiting for the page to load, then wait for the video to load and start playing, then click on the pause button, and voila you can read in peace.
_arvin 9y ago
Chrome has that also. Go to chrome://flags, search for Autoplay policy, and select Document user action is required. Note that if you use the Imagus extension, this could block some videos/gifs/etc from playing when you hover over a link.
- driverdan 9y ago
  It doesn't always work. I have that flag enabled and still encounter videos that autoplay.
  - rowyourboat 9y ago
    Note that Firefox' autoplay blocker breaks some video sites because the Javascript assumes the video is playing when it really isn't. However, with Firefox, videos never autoplay. Chrome's autoplay does not always work, but it doesn't seem to break sites. I can't seem to find the issue, but in the Safari issue tracker, the point was made that given the way HTML5 video and APIs work, it is impossible to reliably prevent autoplay without breaking some sites. It seems that Firefox went for "reliably prevent autoplay" while Chrome went for "without breaking sites". FWIW, I switched from Chrome to Firefox because of the autoplay issue.
- troydavis 9y ago
  Alas, this flag only prevents video that has sound from auto-playing. It’s the inadequate option that my earlier comment was referring to. Here’s more: https://www.chromium.org/audio-video/autoplay https://www.chromium.org/audio-video/autoplay https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-p... Quoting the blog post, Google’s decision that ”Muted autoplay is always allowed” is the problem. If any other Chrome users wondered why videos now auto-play without sound (even with this option set), at least based on the relatively minimal docs about this flag, this is why.
cpeterso 9y ago
You can disable autoplay in Firefox by setting the following about:config prefs: media.autoplay.enabled = false media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed = true This feature is not currently enabled because it can confuse some websites' video players. They can get stuck in a bad state because their JavaScript assumes the video is playing, but because Firefox didn't autoplay it the player buttons don't work correctly.
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I hate these decisions by Firefox where they don't enable something because it would be inconvenient for websites! They should enable it and websites should fix their broken players.
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    Then their naive users would abandon them en masse because Facebook and YouTube won't work right. The thing to hate is that useful settings like this aren't in a more readily accessible preferences dialog for the rank and file to discover. You have to be told it's there or go spelunking through about:config.
blaenk 9y ago
I use Iridium for this and other things: https://github.com/ParticleCore/Iridium https://github.com/ParticleCore/Iridium I tried setting the Autoplay policy at the browser level once but found that it was inconsistent and broke certain players. Iridium works perfectly.

ceejayoz 9y ago

> Meanwhile, Google still hasn't added a way disable auto-playing videos (regardless of whether a video is muted) in Chrome. This bit is especially infuriating for me, as there seems to be a High Sierra issue with Chrome and videos (for me, at least - it's hard to figure out how widespread it is). They cause massive browser lag when they're on a page for me, to the point of missed characters while typing.

drewg123 9y ago

There is supposedly a way. On Chrome 63 and newer, you can set "Document user activation" in chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy & relaunch. However, it does not seem to do much, if anything, for me. I tend to just use Privacy Badger to block any site that looks like a CDN

yousir 9y ago
> you can set "Document user activation" in chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy & relaunch. That won't fix the problem of auto-playing video on CNN or other sites that are not YT. Trying to read news from CNN is still a matter of waiting for the page to load, then wait for the video to load and start playing, then click on the pause button, and voila you can read in peace.

_arvin 9y ago

Chrome has that also. Go to chrome://flags, search for Autoplay policy, and select Document user action is required. Note that if you use the Imagus extension, this could block some videos/gifs/etc from playing when you hover over a link.

driverdan 9y ago
It doesn't always work. I have that flag enabled and still encounter videos that autoplay.
- rowyourboat 9y ago
  Note that Firefox' autoplay blocker breaks some video sites because the Javascript assumes the video is playing when it really isn't. However, with Firefox, videos never autoplay. Chrome's autoplay does not always work, but it doesn't seem to break sites. I can't seem to find the issue, but in the Safari issue tracker, the point was made that given the way HTML5 video and APIs work, it is impossible to reliably prevent autoplay without breaking some sites. It seems that Firefox went for "reliably prevent autoplay" while Chrome went for "without breaking sites". FWIW, I switched from Chrome to Firefox because of the autoplay issue.
troydavis 9y ago
Alas, this flag only prevents video that has sound from auto-playing. It’s the inadequate option that my earlier comment was referring to. Here’s more: https://www.chromium.org/audio-video/autoplay https://www.chromium.org/audio-video/autoplay https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-p... Quoting the blog post, Google’s decision that ”Muted autoplay is always allowed” is the problem. If any other Chrome users wondered why videos now auto-play without sound (even with this option set), at least based on the relatively minimal docs about this flag, this is why.

cpeterso 9y ago

You can disable autoplay in Firefox by setting the following about:config prefs: media.autoplay.enabled = false media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed = true This feature is not currently enabled because it can confuse some websites' video players. They can get stuck in a bad state because their JavaScript assumes the video is playing, but because Firefox didn't autoplay it the player buttons don't work correctly.

dingo_bat 9y ago
I hate these decisions by Firefox where they don't enable something because it would be inconvenient for websites! They should enable it and websites should fix their broken players.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  Then their naive users would abandon them en masse because Facebook and YouTube won't work right. The thing to hate is that useful settings like this aren't in a more readily accessible preferences dialog for the rank and file to discover. You have to be told it's there or go spelunking through about:config.

blaenk 9y ago

I use Iridium for this and other things: https://github.com/ParticleCore/Iridium https://github.com/ParticleCore/Iridium I tried setting the Autoplay policy at the browser level once but found that it was inconsistent and broke certain players. Iridium works perfectly.