Firefox: Disable Flash Autoplay
Since Firefox version 23, Flash videos start automatically. We'll show you how to turn off annoying autoplay. So videos on YouTube or other video portals only start at your command.
Step 1: Turn off autoplay in the Firefox registry
To deactivate the autoplay function, you first have to make some settings in the registry. But these are done quickly:
- Enter the "about: config" command in the address bar. Then confirm the warning by clicking on "I am aware of the dangers".
- Now navigate to the "plugins.click_to_play" entry. You can easily reach this via the search field.
- Set the value to "true" here by double-clicking on the entry.
- Also change the value of "media.autoplay.enabled" to "false".
- Then restart Firefox. The changes are now applied.
Step 2: Adjust the settings of the flash plugin
Now check whether the flash videos are still playing automatically. If this is the case, continue to the plugin settings:
- To do this, enter the "about: addons" command in the address bar.
- Then navigate to the "Plugin" tab. There you will find the "Shockwave Flash" extension.
- Set the controller here to "Ask whether to activate" (see screenshot).
- Flash autoplay is now completely deactivated. However, you can reactivate the feature for individual websites. To do this, press the blue plugin symbol next to the URL and select "Always run plugins on this website" in the dropdown menu.
Emergency solution: prevent autoplay via addon
Unfortunately, the way described above does not work with all Flash and HTML5 videos. Some still start automatically, especially with the newer versions of Firefox.
- In this case, install the free add-on "Disable AutoPlay".
- Then reload the affected pages with autoplay content if the video no longer starts. Instead, a red frame appears around the blocked autoplay clip.
- The video only starts when you click the button above the blocked video.
For security, you should always keep the Flash plugin up to date. We therefore show you how you can automatically update extensions in Firefox. This article applies to Firefox 63.0.3.