This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Gifs in tabs start playing?

  • 5 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Yap783

Throwaway12345
Throwaway12345
more options

Yesterday I bit the bullet and updated Firefox from 18 to the current version (25.0.1). The first thing I've noticed is that when I open new tabs (just open, not focus on them), the gifs in said tabs load and already start playing, even though I haven't visited that tab yet. I then come to the tab and to a gif in mid-animation. On my older version the gifs loaded and then waited until you actually went to the tab before they started playing. I don't see anyone else complaining about this.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and updated Firefox from 18 to the current version (25.0.1). The first thing I've noticed is that when I open new tabs (just open, not focus on them), the gifs in said tabs load and already start playing, even though I haven't visited that tab yet. I then come to the tab and to a gif in mid-animation. On my older version the gifs loaded and then waited until you actually went to the tab before they started playing. I don't see anyone else complaining about this.

All Replies (5)

Meghraj Suthar
Meghraj Suthar
more options

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance). 

   Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window. 

   https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
   https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
FredMcD
FredMcD
more options

Go to the Mozilla Add-ons Web Page and see if anything there looks good to you. The add-on I use is; Flashblock.

Throwaway12345
Throwaway12345 Question owner
more options

Safe mode doesn't help; it's already in the default theme. Gifs still start on unfocused tabs.

Throwaway12345
Throwaway12345 Question owner
more options

Serves me right for updating. FF updates and me are like an abusive relationship; they fuck me up each time, yet I'm still a dumbshit and go back to them. Now it also started to sometimes (rarely, but happens) go to my homepage when I click refresh on random webpages, and removing all the "Back" button options when doing so. It also handles multiple tabs way worse than 18, and 18 handled them worse than 12 or 13, which I had before that. Also I see that ESC no longer pauses gifs - genius "feature". Some sites also don't display until I refreshed them twice, saying there's been an encoding error the first time, but after a refresh it's all good. Every new update makes it worse. SO glad I updated.

Modified by Throwaway12345

Yap783
Yap783
more options

This is bugging me as well. I previously used an older version of Opera (12) where .gifs likewise didn't load before actually being viewed, and it's annoying that this feature seems to be absent in Firefox. Ironically it also appears to have been removed in newer Opera versions. If anyone could come up with some sort of configuration option or system tweak that could fix this I'd be most grateful.