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How can I Prevent Autoplay for Session Restores but not for Videos Opened in A Background Tab Until Selected?

  • 4 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 3 masɔmasɔ sia le wosi
  • 12 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ Andy

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I want to to autoplay videos after opening them in a background tab only when I select them BUT not autoplay videos on when Firefox starts up and restores my previous session. The problem is that if I want Firefox to automatically load web pages on start-up, the videos will play regardless of what I set "media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground" to.

Is there any way around this? I like having videos not play until I select them, but when Firefox loads up when I start my laptop, all the videos from my previous session start playing at once, which is pretty annoying.

Any help is appreciated!

I want to to autoplay videos after opening them in a background tab only when I select them BUT not autoplay videos on when Firefox starts up and restores my previous session. The problem is that if I want Firefox to automatically load web pages on start-up, the videos will play regardless of what I set "media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground" to. Is there any way around this? I like having videos not play until I select them, but when Firefox loads up when I start my laptop, all the videos from my previous session start playing at once, which is pretty annoying. Any help is appreciated!

Andy trɔe

All Replies (4)

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I think what you're saying is this:

When you restore a previous session and have the default settings of

  • media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground => true
  • browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand => true

then videos do not play in background tabs -- these tabs are in a "pending" state by default, not yet loaded.

But if you set Firefox to load all tabs when your session is restored -- using

  • browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand => false

-- then the restored background tabs start playing because at least for purposes of the media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground preference they behave like you've brought the tabs (at least long enough to allow autoplay to proceed) to the foreground.

Is that right?

Are any session-related extensions involved?

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer trɔe

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jscher2000 said

I think what you're saying is this: When you restore a previous session and have the default settings of
  • media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground => true
  • browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand => true
then videos do not play in background tabs -- these tabs are in a "pending" state by default, not yet loaded. But if you set Firefox to load all tabs when your session is restored -- using
  • browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand => false
-- then the restored background tabs start playing because at least for purposes of the media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground preference they behave like you've brought the tabs (at least long enough to allow autoplay to proceed) to the foreground. Is that right? Are any session-related extensions involved?

Sorry for the late reply, but yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say!

Basically, I have browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand set to false because I like to have all my tabs from my previous session automatically load themselves without the need to click on them, but this also triggers autoplay, so the videos play as well.

As for extensions, I do have Tab Session Manager installed, but I don't use that often.

Andy trɔe

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Hmm, maybe file a new bug and see if a restored tab can be treated as a background tab somehow. It seems as though it should be possible, but I really have no idea how complicated it would be.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

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jscher2000 said

Hmm, maybe file a new bug and see if a restored tab can be treated as a background tab somehow. It seems as though it should be possible, but I really have no idea how complicated it would be. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

Ok, thank you for the suggestion! I've just filed the bug, so hopefully they can find a way around the problem. It's not really a bug, but it is quite annoying to have all the videos start playing all at once when Firefox starts up.

Andy trɔe