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Does Firefox 22 no longer permit autoplay of audio/video?

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  • Last reply by j_pruett

j_pruett
j_pruett
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I built some websites using <embed src="xyz.mp3" autostart="true" loop="false" hidden="true"></embed> to autoplay some audio, and it used to work in Firefox up until release 21 or 22 -- my audio no longer plays. Is my code now obsolete or does Firefox now disallow autoplay? Notes: (1) other browsers still autoplay; (2) not all sound is blocked in Firefox -- I can still play and hear Youtubes, for example.

I built some websites using <embed src="xyz.mp3" autostart="true" loop="false" hidden="true"></embed> to autoplay some audio, and it used to work in Firefox up until release 21 or 22 -- my audio no longer plays. Is my code now obsolete or does Firefox now disallow autoplay? Notes: (1) other browsers still autoplay; (2) not all sound is blocked in Firefox -- I can still play and hear Youtubes, for example.

Chosen solution

If the embed has a hidden attribute then Firefox will not play the file, so you need to use other ways if you really want to hide the player (CSS: style="height:0; width:0;")
You may also need to use autostart="1" instead of true.

  • Bug 890516 - Embedded audio stopped working after installing FF 22
  • Bug 614825 - <embed> should be display:none; when hidden attribute is set

Please DO NOT comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

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All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

If the embed has a hidden attribute then Firefox will not play the file, so you need to use other ways if you really want to hide the player (CSS: style="height:0; width:0;")
You may also need to use autostart="1" instead of true.

  • Bug 890516 - Embedded audio stopped working after installing FF 22
  • Bug 614825 - <embed> should be display:none; when hidden attribute is set

Please DO NOT comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

Modified by cor-el

j_pruett
j_pruett Question owner
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Tried your suggestion and found that in order for Firefox to autoplay, height="0" is OK, but width had to be set to "1" -- "0" resulted in NO autoplay. This results in 1 off-color pixel at the point of player placement, but it's a cheap price to pay for functionality.

Thanks for the help and the quick response.