3 ms·
Ask HN: Did Firefox (63.0.x) just force re-enable autoplay?
One of the many reasons I switched off Chrome in the past couple of years has been the disabling of options to turn off autoplay video. They literally removed the option, because it's part of their ad business model. Of course, attention means impressions means billable ad dollars.
However, my Firefox auto-updated to version 63.01 and now not only is autoplay turned ON again, but searching for 'autoplay' in options shows nothing. Also, a document from the Mozilla foundation about turning it off is outdated (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/block-autoplay) shows options that this new Firefox does NOT have.
Dear HN Community: how do I rid myself of this scourge? I find it egregious that video should autoplay in any capacity at any point anywhere in this ad-filled world, much less on MY computer equipment.
Thanks!
- Steko 8y agohttps://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1238091 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1238091 hi, in firefox 63 the autoplay preferences are reorganised in preparation for this feature shipping out of the box in one of the upcoming versions. in about:config you can set media.autoplay.default to 1 in order to block automatic playback on all pages or set it to 2 to decide on a per domain basis. these hidden autoplay-related preferences have been under development for a long time. If you read past support threads about how they broke the Netflix player, or GIFV "images" on Imgur, etc., you know they needed more work before being unleashed on 300 million Firefox users. Meanwhile, Firefox 58 introduced a new approach to site permissions on the Options/Preferences page. When the feature is fully debugged and ready for prime-time, we expect a new section to appear where you'll be able to manage it like other site permissions, and if you want site-by-site control, a drop-panel from the left end of the address bar. Until it is fully baked, please understand that its behavior and naming will remain in flux. And please report problems as they arise. You can set the first two prefs listed below (or at least user-gestures-needed) to true then to have a setting available in "Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Permissions" that also allows to inspect and modify the exceptions. media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed = true media.autoplay.ask-permission = true media.autoplay.default = 0 [0=Allowed, 1=Blocked, 2=Prompt] You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar.You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue. http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config