Windows 10 reached EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. If you are on Windows 10, see this article.

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

Autoplay blocking not working since "gestures-needed" removed from about:config

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 113 views
  • Last reply by jmccue1984
  • Solved

media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed in the about:config used to block autoplay, but now it's been taken away. So how is it blocked? And why can't this be a setting NOT in the config, since what's available under Privacy and Security has never worked?

media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed in the about:config used to block autoplay, but now it's been taken away. So how is it blocked? And why can't this be a setting NOT in the config, since what's available under Privacy and Security has never worked?

Chosen solution

media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed =true has been replaced by media.autoplay.blocking_policy =1 If this isn't working then try media.autoplay.blocking_policy = 2

See also:

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

Chosen Solution

media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed =true has been replaced by media.autoplay.blocking_policy =1 If this isn't working then try media.autoplay.blocking_policy = 2

See also:

Yes, I'm having this same issue as well.. I've always had success setting "media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed" to "false" for disabling YouTube videos. I thought that feature was great for reading comments on my videos without negatively inflating analytics of adding more views to my content.

I've tried some of the add-ons to block autoplay on YouTube, but many are a mixed bag and not as reliable as manual tweaks in the config.

Edit:

cor-el said

media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed =true has been replaced by media.autoplay.blocking_policy =1 If this isn't working then try media.autoplay.blocking_policy = 2 See also:

Thanks, I'll give this a try! :)

Modified by jmccue1984

media.autoplay.blocking_policy = 2 worked for me. Thank you.

Thanks, media.autoplay.blocking_policy = 2 - works perfect on Windows version of Firefox 78.0.1

Mac Note: I recall that Mac versions could use the same type of configuration, but may also require a separate change to another "autoplay" setting. Hopefully, media.autoplay.blocking_policy = 2 will be the only setting you'll need to change.