How to disable auto-play videos on Facebook
Facebook introduced a new form of advertisement recently on the site. While it is not enabled for all users yet, it is enabled for you if you have noticed auto-playing videos in your feed recently.
According to Facebook, videos from individuals, some pages, and Summit Entertainment's content for Divergent start to auto-play on the site at this point in time.
While the videos do not use sound to annoy the hell out of you -- thanks very much Mark -- it is probably something that you do not really like a lot as it can be quite distracting.
Yes, you can scroll by and the videos will stop to play when you, but why keep up with it in first place if there is a way to disable the videos?
So, this guide provides you with all the details you need to turn off auto-playing videos on Facebook.
Turn off video ads on Facebook
If you are using Facebook in a desktop browser, you can turn off the videos in the following way:
- Either load the following settings page directly: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=videos
- Or open the main Facebook website, click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the screen, select settings from the context menu that opens up, and then on the settings page videos listed on the left sidebar there.
- The Auto-Play Videos setting is turned on by default. To turn it off, click on on and switch it to off.
That's all you have to do on the desktop to disable the auto-playing video ads.
If you are using the mobile version of Facebook, you need to disable the ads in the following way. Please note that this is based on the stable Android version, and that versions for other mobile operating systems may differ.
- Open the Facebook application on your device.
- Tap on the "three bars" icon in the top right corner and select App Settings from the context menu.
- Here you find an option to enable video auto-play only when you are connected to WiFi. There does not seem to be an option to disable it completely using the settings the application makes available.
It is not clear why there is no option to disable the automatic playback of videos completely on the mobile version. (via Caschy)
Update: The most recent Android app version of Facebook has an option to turn Video Auto-play off completely.
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.