Firefox Community Forum

I like to use picture-in-picture mode to watch a YouTube video in the corner of my screen while editing an image or playing an online game (since I like having something to keep my brain active while I'm doing something). Recently, however, this has resulted in my computer locking up. I don't really know how to describe it succinctly, but audio becomes super stuttery and it takes a second or more to render a single frame. Last night this resulted in the loss of an in-progress image (don't worry, I took photos of my screen so I could recreate the image), so I want to figure out how to stop this.

Just to cover my bases, here's my specs:

Device name LAPTOP-AI6N0TEJ Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-1215U (1.20 GHz) Installed RAM 40.0 GB (39.7 GB usable) Device ID BDD80B46-B5E1-4B25-9FA0-3F833BD30C05 Product ID 00356-07436-33870-AAOEM System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display Edition Windows 11 Home Version 25H2 Installed on ‎11/‎7/‎2025 OS build 26200.7840 Serial number PF4RQKQJ Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.291.0 Manufacturer Lenovo

System Configuration

• OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS (Clean install).
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050.
• Driver: system76-driver-nvidia (Enabled).
• Graphics Mode: Hybrid (Command: system76-power graphics hybrid).
• X11 Scaling: Optimized for gaming/full-screen apps.

Firefox Picture-in-Picture (PiP) Issue

• Problem: PiP window loses "Always on Top" focus or vanishes when switching workspaces/tasks.
• Config Changes: Set 'focusmanager.testmode' to true and 'media.videocontrols.picture-in-picture.video-flips-visibility-on-focus-change' to false.
• Window Settings: Focus set to "Click" via GNOME Tweaks/Settings.
• Environment Test: Tested launching via 'MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0' to bypass Wayland focus logic.

Software & Tools

• Tweaks: Installed for font hinting (Slight) and window behavior management.

Recently, whenever I put a video in PiP, the whole browser freezes. I'm not sure what causes it. The PiP player itself is playing and working fine, it's the browser as a whole that freezes completely. I can play/pause and even pop it back to its tab, but when I do, the browser is inaccessible to me because it freezes, despite the video still playing normally. I can only terminate the browser with Task Manager, otherwise the video will continue playing and the Firefox process goes on the background.

I have tried Googling for a way to fix it, but nothing seems to work. Some of the recommendations were to turn Hardware Acceleration off, allow autoplay, upgrade GPU drivers, and test in Troubleshoot Mode. I have autoplay completely off (including in about:config) and gave an exception to YouTube. I don't think this is the problem though, because I've had it set up this way for a long time, and the browser freezing only started happening recently. I have had Hardware Acceleration off for a while too, so it's not because of that. My GPU drivers are up-to-date (Nvidia). The browser still freezes in Troubleshoot Mode.

The problem is not limited to YouTube. Wherever I can pop the player off with PiP, it will freeze the whole browser (like Twitch or any other site with video player capabilities). I tried playing a video in a different browser and it worked just fine with no freezing, it only happens in Firefox.

I noticed that the common issue people report is the PiP player itself freezing, but my case is the exact opposite. The PiP plays fine while the rest of the browser freezes. I really like this feature and don't want to turn it off if possible. I like to pop the video out and watch it play while I scroll around on my desktop.