Stop auto play HTML5 in Safari?

Question

Level 1

62 points

Stop auto play HTML5 in Safari?

With the upgrade from El Capitan to Sierra, ClicktoPlugin is very much broken. So now videos on sites such as YouTube, CNN, and others are all auto-playing again.

I've read that Sierra has a feature to stop this from happening - it involves going to Safari Preferences:

Go to the Security tab, then Internet Plug-ins. Allow Plug-ins should be checked, then click the Plug-in Settings button.

Then choose QuickTime, set "When visiting other websites" to Ask. HTML5 should then stop auto playing video.

The problem is this doesn't work, as there isn't any QuickTime plugin listed.

So does anyone know how to stop HTML5 from playing in Safari 10, under Sierra?

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 24, 2016 8:30 AM

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Answer 1

robertcoogan Author

Level 1

62 points

Feb 15, 2017 8:49 AM in response to Syth

This doesn't work. Also checking the following in the Safari debug menu has no effect at all:

Disallow Inline Video

Video Needs User Action

Audio Needs User Action

This problem seems to have resolved itself on my iMac (I do not know why), it only persists on my MBP. The issue "resolved" itself on my iMac at the same time another Safari issue went away. That had to do with certain websites not auto-logging in. Sites such as Tumblr, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter all will have me automatically logged in when I go to their sites. On my MBP, it still has me logged out and I have to log back in every time. So it seems that their is some setting on Safari on my MBP that is not working correctly. I haven't changed any settings on either Safari browser, so I am not sure why it has gone away on my iMac.

Also when I click the play button, the video goes to full screen - this happens on YouTube, Apple iTunes Movie Trailers, CNN, etc.

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Answer 2

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,184 points

Feb 15, 2017 8:52 AM in response to robertcoogan

I've tried them, too. Doesn't make one bit of difference for any site I visit. Videos play anyway. Even the post I made for Facebook doesn't always work. It did, but lately, some types of videos automatically play regardless of my setting.

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Answer 3

Mar 11, 2017 2:49 PM in response to leroydouglas

He's not clicking on it. That's the point. it just starts. In YouTUBE here is in the upper right hand corner a slider that says Autoplay on or off. try that. Maddening, I know. I just set the "STOP AUTOPLAY' choices in Chrome an Firefox. Still looking for this answer.

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Answer 4

ron17

Level 1

8 points

Mar 24, 2017 8:41 PM in response to jeffreyv

Thank you ! Just one problem though. Setting this flag seems to disable inline video entirely. The user no longer has the option of playing video. Is this correct ?

I also have to say shame on Apple for making this so convoluted. As has been pointed out, this is easier to do on Firefox and Chrome

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Answer 5

Apr 7, 2017 8:42 AM in response to robertcoogan

This trick worked for me, stopping annoying autoplay of video on news websites:

open Terminal app, paste and enter these two lines of code...

defaults write com.apple.Safari "com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2RequiresUserGestureForMedia Playback" -bool true

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitVideoPlaybackRequiresUserGesture -bool true

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Answer 6

Sep 24, 2016 8:39 AM in response to robertcoogan

Hmm. Quicktime ?

This is all I have in Safari>Security>Internet Plug-ins>Plug-in Settings

I have no issues with auto play; when you click on a video link it is going to play.

Maybe there is a clue here: How do I turn off autoplay of video content in Safari?

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Answer 7

robertcoogan Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 24, 2016 9:30 AM in response to leroydouglas

But the problem I am having is that the videos play anyway - I don't do anything to start them playing.

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Answer 8

Sep 24, 2016 9:46 AM in response to robertcoogan

Try using FireFox instead of Safari. This article may help understand the issue: http://www.howtogeek.com/227669/how-to-stop-auto-playing-html5-videos-in-your-we b-browser/

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Answer 9

robertcoogan Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 24, 2016 11:43 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

This would work except I am heavily dependent on Reading List and Cloud Tabs. Neither which would work as seamlessly in Firefox or Chrome as they do in Safari. There is a (weak) workaround - Autoplay of HTML5 can still be blocked if ClicktoPlugin is left on. If I want to watch a video, I can right-click on the video and chose to turn off the plugin. But in order to turn it back on, I have to restart Safari. A pain, but it works.

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Answer 10

Sep 24, 2016 2:17 PM in response to robertcoogan

robertcoogan wrote:

But in order to turn it back on, I have to restart Safari. A pain, but it works.

Why click on a youtube video if you don't want to watch it.

I would suggest it is easier to leave it as is, and pause the video if indeed you have no interest.

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Answer 11

robertcoogan Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 24, 2016 3:37 PM in response to leroydouglas

Have you been reading the thread? The video plays automatically. I'm trying to prevent that, so I don't have to worry about hitting a pause button.

READ THE THREAD, PLEASE.

😐

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Answer 12

Sep 28, 2016 8:38 AM in response to robertcoogan

I don't have an answer for you, but I do want to say I share your frustrations. I'm not dependent on iCloud, so I'm going to switch to Firefox until Apple fixes this issue. I wish apple would realize how annoying it is, in a tabbed environment, to have autoplaying videos. It's a deal-breaker for me.

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Answer 13

Sep 28, 2016 9:32 AM in response to robertcoogan

Robert, I share your frustration as well.

Very often I open several tabs that I intend to watch or listen to later, so having them all start at once and having to pause them is more than a little inconvenient.

I also miss the download option that ClicktoPlugin provided.

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Answer 14

jeffreyv

Level 1

14 points

Oct 14, 2016 12:51 PM in response to robertcoogan

Open Terminal and enter this command: defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

That will unhide Safari's "Debug" menu. Under that menu, go to Media Flags, and then select Disallow Inline Video. This will stop videos from automatically playing when a page loads.

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Answer 15

Oct 14, 2016 1:04 PM in response to jeffreyv

jeffreyv wrote:

Open Terminal and enter this command: defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

That will unhide Safari's "Debug" menu. Under that menu, go to Media Flags, and then select Disallow Inline Video. This will stop videos from automatically playing when a page loads.

nice work jeffreyv

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