It’s also worth mentioning that auto-playing videos on your timeline are just purely annoying to some people. So, even if you have the resources to spare, you might want to disable auto-play settings where you can.
Modify Social Network Autoplay Settings
Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all now push auto-loading videos, whether you like it or not. Here is how you can disable it or minimize its impact on your data.
Facebook:
Log into your account and go to Settings > Videos, and under Video Settings, turn Auto-Lay Videos off and set the video quality to default or SD.
Twitter:
Log into your account and go to Settings > Click Account > under Content, uncheck Video Autoplay > click Save Changes > enter your password, then click Save Changes again.
YouTube:
Log into your account and go to Settings > Playback, and select I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video, and make sure to click Save.
For other websites, it’s a tricky situation since the code for these websites gets updates continually. So, a workaround today might not work a few months from now. But, here is what you can do to block auto-play videos in your browser for what works at the time of this writing.
Firefox
In the address bar, type: about:config (click through the void warranty gag if it comes up). In the search field, type autoplay, right-click media.autoplay.enabled then click toggle. That’s it!
Google Chrome
A little more effort is required; you will need to download an extension to disable autoplay videos. I recommend Disable HTML5 Autoplay that will disable both HTML5 audio and video automatically when you load a web page.
I should also note that Adobe Flash is beginning to see its last days as a critical part of your web experience, but it’s still used by millions of websites for delivering video; check out our article for instructions on how to disable it. How about you? Are you on a limited bandwidth connection and see your bits and bytes get gobbled up by auto-play videos? Leave a comment below and share any tips we may have missed. Comment Name * Email *
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