How to prevent videos from autoplaying in chrome

The most annoying thing on the internet these days is the auto-playing videos on websites. These promotional videos are scaled-down and hidden in some corner of a web page. These videos just start automatically, and the most annoying part about them is the audio that can blast your ears out of nowhere.

The videos may be relevant to the content, but you may not want that video to just shoot up automatically. Most of these videos run on the HTML5 Player or the Flash Player. This article is a guide on disabling autoplay feature in HTML5 and Flash players for different browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

Stop Videos from playing automatically

If you want to stop videos from playing automatically in Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, you will have to:

1. Use a browser extension
2. Change the browser configuration settings
3. Disable Flash & HTML5.

Let us see how to do this.

1] Disable video auto-playing in Google Chrome

Google Chrome is the most popular web browser these days, and yes it supports disabling the autoplay feature. You can disable both HTML5 and Flash video autoplay. To disable HTML 5 videos, we are going to use an extension called “Disable HTML5 Autoplay”. Click here and download the extension to install it on Google Chrome. Once installed you can select that red play icon from the address bar and disable autoplay.

Disabling autoplay using this plugin is for sure very easy and can save you a lot of time. Now check out how to disable auto-playing Flash videos:

1. Go to ‘Settings’ and scroll down and click on ‘Advanced Settings’.
2. Under the ‘Privacy’ section, you can find the ‘Content Settings’.

• Open ‘Content Settings’ and scroll down to find ‘Flash’

1. Chose “Ask first before allowing sites to run Flash” from the options available.
2. Save the settings are you are done.

Now you may not see any video auto-playing itself. For any reasons, if you want to revert the changes, simply revert the settings and uninstall the extension. This will work on the Microsoft Edge browser too.

2] Turn Off auto-playing of videos in Mozilla Firefox

The autoplay feature can be easily disabled on Mozilla Firefox as well. To disable automatic playback, you can follow these steps:

1. Type “about:config” in the address bar and wait for hidden configuration settings to load.
2. Now search for “autoplay” and find “media.autoplay.embed” setting and change that setting to false.

Autoplay for HTML5 videos will now be disabled, and the videos will not start automatically. Now to disable Flash videos go the Firefox menu and select Add-Ons. Now go to the Plugins page and find the flash plugin. In the dropdown corresponding to ‘Shockwave Flash’ select ‘Ask to Activate’ and that is it. No more auto-playing videos on Mozilla Firefox.

In later versions of Firefox, type about:preferences#privacy in the address bar and hit Enter,

Scroll down a bit, and click on the Settings button against Autoplay. Here you can allow or block audio or video on websites.

Also, when visiting a website, you can click on the video-play icon next to the URLto change the Autoplay permissions for that particular site.

TIP: This post will show you what to do if you want to ONLY mute the Sound in auto-playing Videos.

3] Stop video autoplay in Edge

Follow this post to disable video autoplay in Edge Chromium. You need to:

1. Open Edge Settings
2. Go to Site Permissions
3. Select Media autoplay
4. Control audio or video autoplay.

Edge Legacy does not support disabling the autoplay feature for HTML5. Also, the browser is not yet open to extensions that can let you do so. Nevertheless, you can disable flash videos autoplay by completely disabling Adobe Flash from the ‘Advanced Settings’.

Go to ‘Settings’, and then hit the ‘Advanced Settings’ button and now you can turn off the Flash Player.

4] Disable Flash & HTML5 in Internet Explorer

You can follow very similar steps to disable Flash in internet explorer so that the videos do not have autoplay.

So this was all about disabling the autoplay feature in different browsers. You can head up to this link to check whether the HTML5 autoplay is working or not. If the video starts automatically then probably you’ve missed out on some step. Follow the steps again to get it right.

Bonus Tip:

Stop videos from playing automatically in Facebook News Feed

You can also turn off Facebook video autoplay settings on or off if you want to stop videos from playing automatically on your Windows computer. Click Settings > Click Videos > Autoplay Videos Drop-down Menu > Select Off.

Want to disable Video autoplay on Twitter? This post will show you how to stop videos from playing automatically on Twitter.

Date: March 29, 2020 Tags: Video

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Lavish loves to follow up on the latest happenings in technology. He loves to try out new Windows-based software and gadgets and is currently learning JAVA. He loves to develop new software for Windows. Creating a System Restore Point first before installing a new software is always recommended, he feels.

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When you insert a removable device such as a CD, DVD, or memory card into your computer, you’ll often see Windows’ “AutoPlay” popup. AutoPlay detects the kind of disc or media you have inserted and automatically takes whatever action you request. But if you find the feature annoying, you can disable AutoPlay very simply in Windows 10.

Enable or Disable AutoPlay in Settings

Open the “Settings” app, and click on the “Devices” icon.

Click on “AutoPlay” on the left side, and switch on/off “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.” With this switched off, you will never see the AutoPlay window pop up.

However, you can also leave AutoPlay on, and customize how it works. Under “Choose AutoPlay Defaults”, select the default action you want AutoPlay to perform when you connect each type of media or device. It could be a flash drive, memory card, or your smartphone. For each, you get choices like “Open folder to view files”, “Import photos or videos”, “Configure this drive for backup”, or—of course–“Take no action”. That way, you can “turn off” AutoPlay for certain types of devices by having it take no action, but leaving it on for other devices.

You can also press and hold the Shift key when you insert a device to open an AutoPlay notification, regardless of the default setting.

Enable or Disable AutoPlay in Control Panel

Windows 10’s “Settings” app lets you configure AutoPlay for some types of media but not others. If you want finer control over devices like audio CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, or SuperVideo, you might want to edit AutoPlay settings from the Control Panel instead.

Open the Control Panel, and from the “icons view”, click the “AutoPlay” icon.

Check (or uncheck) the the “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices” box to turn AutoPlay on or off. If you want it on, select the default action for each type of media and device listed below it. You’ll get the same options you get in the Settings app, like “Open folder to view files”, “Import photos or videos”, “Configure this drive for backup”, or “Take no action”. At the bottom of this page is a “Reset all defaults” button to return all the settings to their default state.

The AutoPlay window looks almost identical in Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. In Windows 7, you have a list with all the types of media for which you can set the AutoPlay behavior. In Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, you have the same list, but with a few more types of media available for configuration. For example, you can set AutoPlay behavior for removable drives and camera storage, while Windows 7 doesn’t include these type of media.

Disable AutoPlay Using the Group Policy Editor

Most people can disable AutoPlay from the Settings or Control Panel, and they won’t need any further options. However, if you have Windows 10 Pro and want to disable AutoPlay for multiple users on the same computer, you can disable it through the Group Policy Editor.

Press “Win + R” to open the Run box and type “gpedit.msc.” Under “Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components”, click “AutoPlay Policies”.

In the right-hand side details pane, double click “Turn off AutoPlay” to open the Properties box. Click “Enabled,” and then select “All drives” in the “Turn off AutoPlay” on box to disable AutoPlay on all drives or choose choose “CD-ROM and removable media drives” to disable AutoPlay on these medias.

Turning off AutoPlay is incredibly easy, but if you take the time to configure it, it can be a pretty helpful feature. Note, however, that the most secure option is to set AutoPlay set to “Ask me everytime” if you prefer to keep AutoPlay enabled. This way nothing will automatically open. But if you trust everything you plug into your computer, AutoPlay can be quite convenient.

When you are browsing the web and busy with some important assignment, the thing that annoys the most is the autoplay audio and video in your browser. They are one of the biggest distractions that need to be taken care of instantly. In this article, we will explain how you can stop auto plying audio and video in Chrome browser.

Built-in Chrome Autoplay Blocking

Chrome has a built-in feature to stop autoplaying media content as announced officially in their official product post. However, it works only with the following two scenarios.

• Chrome based on it’s own database blocks 1000 of annoying sites. There are no reference or guidelines for this list.
• You can login to your Google account in Chrome and browser. Chrome will keep your history of autoplay and try to stop the sites you have blocked previously.

In our opinion, neither of these ways works as you can see in the next examples.

Autoplaying Video Examples

Unfortunately even popular sites play popup video or play video in picture in picture mode. For example, open any article in CNN that has video header. It will start automatically playing without your permission with audio. The video will strict to the sidebar when you scroll the page.

Another annoying example is on CNET. The advertisement video will start autoplaying on the lower right sidebar screen. However, you have an option to hover over the video and disable autoplaying on further articles.

What Can I Do with Autoplaying?

Well, you have multiple options.

• Each time mute or stop autoplaying manually.
• Disable the audio settings from Chrome.
• Disable autoplaying video in Chrome.

The last choice is not using the site anymore, however this is hard to follow as you may rely on getting information from the site.

Remember you can’t block these videos with ad blocking Chrome extensions.

5 Ways to Stop Autoplaying in Chrome

1. Mute sound settings of a site
2. Mute or unmute from tab menu
3. Completely stop autoplay using Chrome flag
4. Use Chrome extension
5. Stop autoplaying in Chrome mobile apps

1. Mute Audio Settings in Chrome

Open the site in Google Chrome that you want to mute the annoying and autoplaying sounds.

• Click the pad lock icon on the address bar and choose “Site Settings” option.

• This will take you to the site-specific settings on Chrome. Look for “Sound” option and select “Mute” from the dropdown.

• Chrome will ask you to reload the webpage for the changes to take effect. You can either close and reopen the window or refresh the page.
• Now, click on the pad lock again. Chrome will show the “Sound” setting as “Mute”.

• This will stop the autoplaying audios on the site completely.

2. Mute Volume from Chrome Tab Menu

Some of us have the habit of listening to audio or FM radio while surfing. You can quickly mute the volume, when audio that plays distracts you.

• Chrome will show a loudspeaker icon on the tab when it plays an audio. This will help you to quickly click on the tab that plays audio.
• Right click on the tab and choose “Mute Site” option. The audio will stop instantly, however it continues to play on the backend of the browser.

• Whenever you want, you can right click and “Unmute Site” again.

This is quick fix option to stop audio for short term and unmute again.

3. Disable Autoplay Audio and Video Using Experimental Feature

Both of the above methods will only mute the audio. It will not stop it completely from playing on the browser. Apple has an option to stop autoplaying video on Safari, however Google does not offer any option for Chrome. You need to use an experimental feature to disable the autoplaying audio and video on the browser.

1. Go to the Chrome and open “chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy”.
2. Chrome will open the experimental flags and highlight the autoplay policy.
3. In the drop down box that appears, change the setting of browser from “Default” to “Document user activation is required”.
4. Click “Relaunch” button and relaunch the browser windows.
5. Now, go to the pages that were playing audio or video to check all autoplaying stuffs are blocked.

4. Using Chrome Extensions

In order to stop playing video, Chrome also gives you third party extensions. As mentioned earlier, most of the popular ad blocking extensions will NOT block autoplaying audio or video. However, there are few extensions like “Mute Tab” to help you out.

• Open the URL “chrome://extensions/” in the address bar.
• Click on the hamburger icon and open “Chrome Web Store”.

• Search for “mute” and install “Mute Tab” extension.
• Click on the extension icon next to the address bar and choose your preferred action.
• You can only mute the currently playing tab, background tabs or all tabs with single click.

Instead if hovering over to the tabs that has audio and then muting, this extension automatically turns the sound off.

5. Stop Autoplay in Chrome Android App

Unfortunately you can’t use Chrome experimental features on Android mobile app. Follow the below instructions to stop autoplaying on specific sites on Chrome Android app:

• Open the site and tap on the three dots button.
• Go to “Settings” and then to “Site Settings”
• Tap on “Media” and then “Autoplay” option.
• Turn the switch off to disable.

There are no settings on Chrome iOS app. However, follow the below instructions at device level.

• Tap on “Settings” app and go to “iTunes & App Store” option.
• Again tap on “Video Autoplay” and turn it off.

Conclusion

There are many sites that continue to push their audio and video content forcefully. Some companies will offer you discount and amazing gift hampers if you listen to full audio or hardly find the x button to close the audio. We hope with the above explained steps and tricks; you can avoid any unnecessary noise without wasting your time.

Last updated: April 23, 2019

For a long time, automatic pop-up windows were the scourge of internet users. Today, most web browsers block useless pop-ups by default before they have a chance to interrupt your day. Apart from being an annoyance, pop-up windows often carried misleading content that led to malicious websites. There is a new bane in town — autoplay audio and video.

As the world’s most popular web browser, you would think Google Chrome would offer some recourse in Settings to thwart autoplay video. The Chrome Web Store offers a few extensions that perform this function. To natively disable autoplay video in Chrome, however, users must dive into the browser’s experimental features.

Disable autoplay video in Chrome

Flags are Chrome’s hidden experimental features. As Google warns, “by enabling these features, you could lose browser data or compromise your security or privacy.” So now you’re living on the edge because you don’t want to autoplay videos. Follow the steps below to disable autoplay video in Chrome by default.

Step 1. Launch Chrome and copy/paste this address into the address bar: chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy

Step 2. Next, under Autoplay policy, click the Default drop-down menu. Choose Document user activation is required from the list.

Step 3. Finally, click the Relaunch Now button at the base of the page so your Autoplay policy change takes effect.

This effort stops autoplay videos in Chrome forever, right? Not so fast. Chrome uses a Media Engagement Index (MEI) as a signal to determine desktop user media interaction on a site. A site’s MEI score may allow it to bypass Chrome’s autoplay policy as it learns a user’s preferences.

Further, according to a blog post by John Pallett, Chrome’s Product Manager and Media Muter, “If you don’t have browsing history, Chrome allows autoplay for over 1,000 sites where we see that the highest percentage of visitors play media with sound.” This built-in “whitelist” of 1000+ sites may also bypass the autoplay policy.

If all else fails, use an extension

As stated earlier, the Chrome Web Store offers a few extensions that disable autoplay video in Chrome. Video Autoplay Blocker blocks the tag used by native HTML5 videos. The extension automatically whitelists both YouTube and Vimeo. Disable HTML5 Autoplay (Reloaded) works in a similar way but also hooks into the media’s JavaScript API. It also includes a whitelist feature and automatically buffers media when necessary.

Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to learn how to disable autoplay video in Chrome.

Henry Irvine, Contributing Technology Writer, translates more than a decade of internet technology experience in product and customer relationship management into practical help and how-to content. Look for him on Bay Area trails, music venues, or sausage shacks when he’s not writing. Don’t call him Hank if you see him. Seriously. Hank on Twitter

Fed up of noisy videos? We show you how to use Google Chrome to disable autoplay videos, even after Google removed the setting.

Almost everyone who uses the internet is familiar with the frustration of auto-playing videos. When you visit a site, they start, using your bandwidth and potentially interrupting your music or other media. Google Chrome used to have a disable autoplay videos setting to address this, but Alphabet Inc. is primarily an advertiser and owns the world’s largest video site, so it soon went back on that decision.

As well as removing the stop autoplay videos setting, Google removed the developer flags, meaning many older guides no longer work. Though Chrome still disables some autoplay videos by default, it’s far from all of them and is dependent on its autoplay policies.

First, the browser enables autoplay without sound at all times, even if you’re on a metered connection. It also allows autoplay with sound if the user has interacted with the domain, with a simple click on the webpage being enough. Any site that has been added to the home screen or installed as a PWA also has permission.

On desktop, the video’s Media Engagement Index (MEI) also comes into play. Google Chrome measures how often a user interacts with media on any given site. It counts a ‘significant media playback’ as a time when a user watches an audio and video stream for more than 7 seconds in their active tab at a resolution of more than 200×140 pixels. If the score is high enough, it enables autoplay. You can check your own MEI navigating to the address chrome://media-engagement .

As you can imagine, all of this leads to plenty of instances where Chrome still autoplays when you don’t want it to. Thankfully, there’s still a way to stop HTML5 autoplay on a lot of videos, and you can easily mute them automatically for the ones that slip through. Here’s how to turn off autoplay in the browser:

How to Mute All Autoplay Videos in Google Chrome

As mentioned, Chrome no longer has block video ads or stop autoplay settings, but you can mute every webpage, then enable audio for the ones you use regularly. For many users, this is enough.

In Chrome, press the three dots in the top right corner and then click “Settings” in the drop-down menu.

Open Site Settings

In the left-hand menu, click “Privacy and Security”, then “Site Settings”.

Click “Additional content settings”

Toggle “Mute sites that play sound”

Unmute the sites you enjoy

If you watch videos on a site a lot, you can unmute them by right-clicking the tab and selecting “Unmute site”.

How to disable Autoplay for Videos with a Special Shortcut

If you have reason to be more aggressive, such as a data cap, there are no Chrome flags autoplay settings anymore, but you can halt them via a desktop shortcut.

Right-click your desktop and choose “New > Shortcut”.

Browse to Chrome’s .exe-file

In the next screen, click the “Browse…” button and find Chrome’s exe. It should be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe . Select it and press “OK”. Do not press Next yet.

Add the “disable autoplay”-argument

Next to the file location under “Type the location of the item”, add the parameter –autoplay-policy=user-required . Make sure it’s after the quotes and a space , then press “Next”.

Name the shortcut

Call the shortcut whatever works for you, but make sure you can differentiate it from the normal Chrome. We’ve chosen Chrome (no autoplay), but you could also name it ‘Chrome disable autoplay’, ‘video blocker Chrome’, or anything else. Once you’re done, press “Finish”.

Check an autoplay site

Go to whatever site you’ve been having issues with and make sure the changes have worked. CNN’s autoplay is notoriously annoying, so we recommend that as a starting point. Note that these changes may not squash every video, but it should work on a lot more than webpages than Chrome’s default setting.

How to Disable Autoplay with Chrome Extensions

The final option is to use a Chrome autoplay extension, but it’s last for a reason. Extensions can be hit and miss, with some working well, some only working on a handful of sites, and some not at all. As a result, it’s best to combine them with the shortcut-solution above.

1. Download and install an extension from the Chrome Web Store

Visit the Chrome Web Store and search for “autoplay”, or follow the link to one of our recommended plugins:

• Disable HTML5 Autoplay
• HTML5 Autoplay Blocker
• Disable HTML5 Autoplay (Reloaded)

Bear in mind that the way Chrome works changes often, and they may have stopped working now if the developer hasn’t kept up. After checking reviews, click “Add to Chrome”.

Autoplay videos are one of the most irritating things on the internet. Often, some sites play these autoplay videos with full sound blasting our ears as soon as we land on the webpage. Thankfully, modern browsers have some effective methods to block these autoplay videos. Here’s how you can stop autoplay videos in browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

The most common culprits of autoplay videos are the new websites. For some reason, these news websites automatically play videos about interviews and/or article topics without user permission or intervention. Add to that, there will be no settings whatsoever to block or stop these videos. Not only this behavior is annoying but the autoplay videos consume a lot of data. This may not be a problem if you are on a broadband or Wi-Fi connection. However, when using mobile data, it will quickly become expensive.

If you consume a lot of news via these websites, then you might want to consider blocking autoplay videos on news websites.

Jump to:

Stop Autoplay Videos in Chrome

Chrome provides easy options to disable autoplay videos. However, those options are not available in the traditional settings page. Rather, you need to access the autoplay settings in Chrome via the Flags page.

Note: In latest versions of Chrome, Google removed the AutoPlay Policy flag.

1. Open the Chrome browser.
2. Type chrome://flags and press Enter to open the Flags page.
3. Here, search for “Autoplay policy“.
4. From the drop-down menu set Autoplay Policy to “Document user activation is required“.
   
5. Click on the “Relaunch Now” button to restart the Chrome browser and apply the flag.
   

Chrome is still working on blocking the autoplay stuff and there is no clear cut way to outright disable them. However, with the above setting, you are forcing Chrome to stop autoplay videos on background pages. Those videos will only play when you are actively interacting with the web page.

If you want to, you can use extensions like Video Autoplay Blocker or HTML5 Autoplay Blocker. However, these extensions are not that reliable, at least for me, and may even block legitimate sites like YouTube.

Block Autoplay Videos in Firefox

Just like Google Chrome, Firefox also offers advanced options to block autoplay videos. All you have to do is set a flag.

1. Open the Firefox browser.
2. In the browser, type about:config in the address and press Enter to open the config page.
3. If you see a warning message, click on the “I accept the risk” button. Don’t worry, we are not going to make any destructive changes.
   
4. Type “media.autoplay.default” in the search bar.
   
5. Double-click on the “media.autoplay.default” flag and enter one of the following values.
   • 1 = Block all autoplay videos
   • 2 = Let the browser ask your permission to play autoplay videos

Disable Autoplay Videos in Edge

Compared to Chrome and Firefox, Edge is much easier to configure for blocking autoplay videos.

1. Open the Edge browser.
2. Click on the menu icon appearing on the top right corner and select the “Settings” option.
   
3. Got to the “Advanced” tab.
4. One the right panel, select “Block” from the Media Audioplay section.
   
5. Restart the browser to apply the settings.

From now on the autoplay videos are blocked in your browser.

Last updated: April 23, 2019

For a long time, automatic pop-up windows were the scourge of internet users. Today, most web browsers block useless pop-ups by default before they have a chance to interrupt your day. Apart from being an annoyance, pop-up windows often carried misleading content that led to malicious websites. There is a new bane in town — autoplay audio and video.

As the world’s most popular web browser, you would think Google Chrome would offer some recourse in Settings to thwart autoplay video. The Chrome Web Store offers a few extensions that perform this function. To natively disable autoplay video in Chrome, however, users must dive into the browser’s experimental features.

Disable autoplay video in Chrome

Flags are Chrome’s hidden experimental features. As Google warns, “by enabling these features, you could lose browser data or compromise your security or privacy.” So now you’re living on the edge because you don’t want to autoplay videos. Follow the steps below to disable autoplay video in Chrome by default.

Step 1. Launch Chrome and copy/paste this address into the address bar: chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy

Step 2. Next, under Autoplay policy, click the Default drop-down menu. Choose Document user activation is required from the list.

Step 3. Finally, click the Relaunch Now button at the base of the page so your Autoplay policy change takes effect.

This effort stops autoplay videos in Chrome forever, right? Not so fast. Chrome uses a Media Engagement Index (MEI) as a signal to determine desktop user media interaction on a site. A site’s MEI score may allow it to bypass Chrome’s autoplay policy as it learns a user’s preferences.

Further, according to a blog post by John Pallett, Chrome’s Product Manager and Media Muter, “If you don’t have browsing history, Chrome allows autoplay for over 1,000 sites where we see that the highest percentage of visitors play media with sound.” This built-in “whitelist” of 1000+ sites may also bypass the autoplay policy.

If all else fails, use an extension

As stated earlier, the Chrome Web Store offers a few extensions that disable autoplay video in Chrome. Video Autoplay Blocker blocks the tag used by native HTML5 videos. The extension automatically whitelists both YouTube and Vimeo. Disable HTML5 Autoplay (Reloaded) works in a similar way but also hooks into the media’s JavaScript API. It also includes a whitelist feature and automatically buffers media when necessary.

Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to learn how to disable autoplay video in Chrome.

Henry Irvine, Contributing Technology Writer, translates more than a decade of internet technology experience in product and customer relationship management into practical help and how-to content. Look for him on Bay Area trails, music venues, or sausage shacks when he’s not writing. Don’t call him Hank if you see him. Seriously. Hank on Twitter

While browsing the web, the one thing that annoys me no end is the autoplay videos. They are a big distraction. We have already made a quick guide on how to disable autoplay video in Safari on Mac. And now it’s time to stop the autoplay video in Chrome on any computer.

So, if you no longer want to be distracted by those unsolicited videos or audios, head over to prevent them from disturbing you while browsing the web peacefully in Chrome.

How to Stop Autoplay Video in Chrome on Mac and Windows PC

Unlike Safari, disabling videos automatically in Chrome is not so straightforward. Besides, Google cautions you to do it at your own risk as it may harm your user-experience.

“These experimental features may change, break or disappear at any time. We make absolutely no guarantees about what may happen if you turn one of these experiments on, and your browser may even spontaneously combust. Jokes aside, your browser may delete all your data, or your security and privacy could be compromised in unexpected ways. Any experiments that you enable will be enabled for all users of this browser. Please proceed with caution.” – Google

Step #1. Launch Chrome on your computer and type: chrome://flags the URL bar.

Step #2. Next, hit Return/Enter.

Step #3. Now, you need to locate autoplay policy. To do so, simply enter Control+F and then type Autoplay.)

Step #4. Next, locate “Autoplay policy” and select submenu. Next up, you have to select “Document user activation is required.”

Step #5. Finally, click on Relaunch Chrome for the change to take effect.

From now onwards, videos won’t play automatically on the web. You will need to click on them to play.

How To Re-enable Chrome Autoplay Video and Audio on Computer

At any time, you want to go back to the default option, you will be able to easily re-enable Chrome autoplay video on your computer.

Step #1. Open Chrome on your computer and type chrome://flags Then search for Autoplay Policy. Once you have found it, click on the submenu.

Step #2. Now, you have to select “Default” in the menu.

Step #3. Next, click Relaunch Chrome to let the change take effect.

When the app relaunches, embedded videos will play automatically on the web.

So, that’s one of the easiest ways to enhance your web browsing experience. Have any feedback? Do let us know that in the comments below.

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Whether it’s a music clip on YouTube, a Flash ad on a news site or the latest viral sensation on Facebook, most videos you come across on today’s web want to get going without any input from you—and that can cause problems with bandwidth as well as audio output you weren’t expecting. Here’s how to tackle the issue in your browser of choice.

One of the difficulties in addressing the problem is we’re right in the middle of a transition between old and clunky Flash and the new, streamlined HTML5 as far as video formats go. The momentum is definitely behind the latter, but you’re still going to come across plenty of sites using Flash, so you really need to block both types to be safe.

After following the steps below, the problem should be minimized for the most part. But even after applying these changes, you can’t be completely sure you one or two videos won’t slip by—some publishers use custom-made code to fool your browser into thinking it isn’t dealing with a video.

Google Chrome

As far as HTML5 is concerned, you’re going to need some third-party help to stop playback. From the extensions we’ve seen, Disable HTML5 Autoplay seems to be the most comprehensive and effective option, though a small number of users report that it doesn’t work. It effectively stopped clips from playing on YouTube and Facebook when we tested it.

For the older Flash technology, you can block this at source, as it’s built into Chrome. Head to the Settings tab, open the advanced settings selection, and then click on the Content settings button. Under the Plugins heading, tick the checkbox next to “Let me choose when to run plugin content”.

On some sites, this should be enough, but we found plenty of adverts getting through the net. To completely stop the flow, click Manage individual plugins. and untick the “Always allowed to run” entry next to Adobe Flash Player

This does mean you’ll have to activate Flash on sites that rely on it to work (like Rdio, for example), but this should be a one-time thing you can take care of via the blocked plugin icon that appears in the address bar—it’s a small price to pay for some peace and quiet. You can always go nuclear and disable Flash completely if you prefer.

Mozilla Firefox

In Firefox, HTML5 that can be disabled through the browser’s own settings. Type “about:config” into the address bar, click through the warning and search for “autoplay” options—double-click on media.autoplay.embed and the value changes to false.

As for Flash, open up the Firefox menu and choose Add-ons; if you click on Plugins from the subsequent screen you can select Ask to Activate from the drop-down menu next to Shockwave Flash. Any Flash videos will then need to be clicked on before they play (as with Chrome, this may interfere with some perfectly useful sites as well).

That should be enough to stop videos from playing, but sites and advertisers change their code on a constant basis and browsers don’t always manage to keep up. A variety of third-party extensions are available for Firefox too, from FlashStopper to Stop YouTube HTML5 . The former replaces both Flash and HTML5 content with a thumbnail, and you may prefer it to the rather rudimentary blocking features in Firefox itself.

Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer

With Microsoft Edge still at such an early stage in its development—and with third-party extensions not yet supported—there doesn’t appear to be any way yet for you to stop video content from automatically playing. If you go into the advanced settings for the browser, you can supposedly turn off Adobe Flash Player, but it had no effect on the sites we visited (your mileage may vary).

As for the old-school joys of Internet Explorer, you can choose Safety and tick ActiveX Filtering to block some kinds of content; another option is to choose Tools then Manage add-ons to get access to the Shockwave Flash plugin. Right-click to disable it, or choose More information to remove it from one site in particular.

The steps for IE described above are the ones most commonly recommended, and they stopped some auto-playing content, but plenty still got through—it seems that Chrome and Firefox are much more effective at blocking this behavior than either the old or new browsers from Microsoft. If you know of a foolproof way that works, let us know.