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.

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

Will there be an option to mute sounds in tabs inividually in Firefox?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

Dear Sir/Madam,

If I'm searching for stuff, I like to open multiple pages in a new tab by clicking on it with the middle-mouse-button. Sometimes, the page loads sounds while doing this. In turn I have to search in what tab the sound is played, which can be quite annoying.

There is a way to say that Firefox won't start flash-programs, but this is quite annoying and doesn't always solve the problem. In another browser that I had to use but don't like, tabs show an icon so that you can see which tab has sound, but so far I haven't found any way to make this happen in Firefox.

Will there be an option to at least see which tab has sound in future updates? And if so, will it be possible to mute said tabs?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kind Regards, Lex van de Wiel

Dear Sir/Madam, If I'm searching for stuff, I like to open multiple pages in a new tab by clicking on it with the middle-mouse-button. Sometimes, the page loads sounds while doing this. In turn I have to search in what tab the sound is played, which can be quite annoying. There is a way to say that Firefox won't start flash-programs, but this is quite annoying and doesn't always solve the problem. In another browser that I had to use but don't like, tabs show an icon so that you can see which tab has sound, but so far I haven't found any way to make this happen in Firefox. Will there be an option to at least see which tab has sound in future updates? And if so, will it be possible to mute said tabs? Hope to hear from you soon. Kind Regards, Lex van de Wiel

All Replies (3)

more options

I looked into this a couple months ago and concluded at that time: Based on information in the bug tracking database, when a plugin (Flash, QuickTime, Silverlight) is playing audio, it is difficult for Firefox to detect that and difficult to track down to a particular tab.

Hopefully this will be possible in the future. Or maybe someone has created a new add-on.

more options

You can try to toggle this pref on the about:config page for HTML5 media:

  • media.autoplay.enabled = false

For plugins you would have to set them to click-to-play (Ask to Activate) if you do not want to use an extension like Flash Block.

more options

Flash block {web link} Never be annoyed by a Flash animation again! Blocks Flash so it won't get in your way, but if you want to see it, just click on it