14 DAY TRIAL // The Internet learned a lot from using Flash all of this time, and now moved and embraced HTML5 as the new ruler of multimedia content. However, this doesn’t make it less annoying when it suddenly starts to play as soon as you land on a specific page.
Although creators of a website intended for that particular one video to start playing whenever it’s in sight, it puts considerable pressure on bandwidth usage, and might even scare your headphones off because of sudden sound.
Popular web browsers give you the possibility to handle when plugins get triggered, but with Flash out of the way, there’s little left to be done. However, the workaround here doesn’t actually prevent the video from buffering, which means it’s only going to stay on pause until further notice, but still being downloaded in the background.
Unfortunately, none of the browsers Microsoft delivers as a default way of accessing the information superhighway can be tweaked in this regard. Internet Explorer can be configured, but doing so disables media content completely, without providing any playback options. As for Edge, it still lacks support for extensions as promised, but updates are on their way, and there’s hopefully going to be one to stop autoplay, in case you haven’t given up on it yet.
As such, we’re only going to cover the required steps to stop autoplay features for other popular browsers. The process is easy, and mostly requires you to download and install a specific extension.
Stop HTML5 Videos from automatically playing
| In Google Chrome |
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The extension in question is Stop Autoplay for Youtube and you can get it here. You’ll be happy to know that there is also an extended version that keeps the video on pause until focus is on the specific tab. Download Stop Autoplay for Youtube Extended here.
| In Mozilla Firefox |
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Launch Firefox and write down “about:config” in the address field. You immediately get prompted by a warning message, stating that stability is put at risk if any options are changed beyond this point. Kindly acknowledge the warning through the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button, and write down “autoplay” in the upper search field. When you spot the “media.autoplay.enabled” preference, double-click it so that its value turns to False.
| In Opera |
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After it’s deployed, a small icon is added next to the address field, where you can view a number of attempts, and function toggle. Blocking rate is impressive, and even manages to stop YouTube videos from playing.
In conclusion
The Internet has become the primary source of entertainment, which automatically attracted ads and other intrusions that most individuals find frustrating. However, more and more websites tend to bully you with content that automatically triggers, but now you know there’s a way to guard yourself from this forced playback.
