video pauses itself if I click on another tab

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Level 1

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video pauses itself if I click on another tab

If I have a video playing in one tab (I usually use Brave browser, which I hear is chrome-based), and I want to read my email in a different tab, I drag the tab that's playing the video off to the left side, then click on a different tab to read my email or surf the web while at the same time paying attention to the video. However, the tab that's playing the video seems to know I've turned my attention to something else and assumes I can't do two things at the same time, so the video freezes itself. I've looked online for the last hour for a solution, and all fixes are way out of date. For example, solutions that ask me to locate certain flags in chrome and disable them. Those flags aren't even there anymore. Sheesh.

I'm on a 2019 macbook pro, using Catalina 10.15.7.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 20, 2021 11:11 AM

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Answer 1

askbarnabas

Level 10

104,214 points

Feb 20, 2021 12:44 PM in response to punzq

What happens when you try that in Safari?

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Answer 2

punzq Author

Level 1

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Feb 20, 2021 2:25 PM in response to punzq

Just finished trying with Safari. Same exact problem. I start a video in one Safari tab, then drag the tab away from the other Safari tabs with the video still playing, but it freezes (pauses) itself as soon as I click on one of the other Safari tabs. So the problem doesn't seem to be browser-specific. I recently did a software update and that's when things changed. I always used to be able to have videos playing while I did stuff in a different window. The software updates were from Apple.

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Answer 3

askbarnabas

Level 10

104,214 points

Feb 20, 2021 2:45 PM in response to punzq

With the browser open, click on help at the top and type "video" several options should appear.

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Answer 4

askbarnabas

Level 10

104,214 points

Feb 20, 2021 2:33 PM in response to punzq

Have you checked your video playback settings?

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Answer 5

punzq Author

Level 1

7 points

Feb 20, 2021 3:06 PM in response to askbarnabas

Solved!! You just led me to the solution. I did what you just said, then selected "Play web videos in Safari on Mac." That takes you to instructions on how to "Play a web video with Picture in Picture." That's exactly what I needed to know. I did what it said and voila. Just what I wanted. So simple. Thank you, askbarnabas!

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