Firefox for Android Support Forum

The picture-in-picture function no longer works on my phone when viewing YouTube videos on my Android Firefox app.

In previous versions, I was able to enter full-screen mode while playing a YouTube video, then click the "home" button on my phone, and the video would play in picture-in-picture mode while I scrolled through other apps.

I am fully updated as of today (4/11/2023), I have tried the functionality with no add-ons and with the "Video Background Player" add-on, and I have double-checked to make sure that the "picture-in-picture" permission is checked for the app (it is).

My device specs are attached in the image below.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Firefox won't play videos in the background all of a sudden anymore. It doesn't show up in the control panel at all as playing or paused. If I set my phone into desktop mode on YT the videos will play for a few minutes, then stop. I tried reinstalling the app and can't find a solution.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Have "Video Background Playback Fix" addon installed
2. Open a video on Youtube
3. Lock phone (video keeps playing)
4. Wait ~5 minutes

Actual results:

1. Video stops playing after ~5 minutes
2. Unlocking the phone resumes video

Tried rebooting phone and reinstalling the VBPF addon, also tried reinstalling Firefox, these did not fix the problem.

Expected results:

1. Video should keep playing in background

In addition to the above, playback controls are no longer shown for Youtube in the notification area. They still work for other media, eg. Soundcloud.

This used to work for me in the past few years. Phone is on Android 10, I have not updated it or changed any settings recently.

(Reported as https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1827045 , but maybe this is not a bug but a hidden setting somewhere that I accidentally changed?)

I have a Shokz headset with volume and pause/play buttons. I watch videos on my Samsung s21+ using Firefox (more privacy, and easier to have multiple videos up with tabs comparedto YouTube app.

It worked fine up till today, when the pause/play button no longer does anything. I tried restarting the phone, closing and opening the Firefox (Ff) app, force-stopping the Ff app, and turning the headset off amd on. The headset functions correctly in other apps, just not Ff.

I don't want to uninstall and reinstall Ff if I can avoid it, but would that even work? I've done all I can short of that, but it still doesn't work.

Recently, the banner that usually appears when playing a video with Firefox (such as from youtube.com) has stopped appearing. I also cannot pause or play a video by clicking the controls on my headphones, which used to work. And finally, when playing a video or song from another app (eg. Newpipe), the video on Firefox does not automatically pause, which it used to to. I've tried updating both the app and my version of Android, but neither have helped. I would add images demonstrating what the media banner used to look like, but the "Browse" button simply does not work. Please help

Hello, suddenly when I try Mozilla and play youtube in this favourite browser, I can t have picture and picture anymore and play a video and do other things with my Redmi 5G phone. I looked in the settings and it s set on firefox the picture and picture, but as I said now it s not working anymore

Hi i have the video background play fix add on for Firefox but as of the last few days it stops working after a minute or so. I'll play a youtube video and turn off my phone's screen and after a short while it will stop playing, when i switch on the screen and open the app the video will play. This seems to only be with youtube though i tried with a vimeo video and it was fine so i assume this issue is only with youtube on firefox

No media notification while watching youtube videos (since Firefox 111 or earlier).

It was availabe recently, it was possible to play video in the background. Now it's no longer possible.

i checked on two different Android devices - the same issue.

Any tips?

Thabk you for help.

I have tested this on multiple devices, it seems youtube has broken their site on firefox for android. I can no longer fullscreen properly, it doesnt auto rotate. It defaults to the 244p resolution for every video, making me have to manually change the resolution everytime i want to watch something, It no longer allows the miniplayer or PIP, and you can no longer press play through the notifications widget as it no longer shows, thus not allowing us to listen to a video while minimized or on another tab. These features all work on other sites without issue which makes me think its a thing youtube did to circumvent adblockers. It's like this on my friends phone too it started at the same time.

Dear friends,

My mobile phone is OnePlus 8 Pro. ColorOS 13.0/Android 13. Firefox ver 111.1.1.

I like playing YouTube video in floating windows over other apps as shown in 1st pic. Therefore I can open other app on phone while still watching video.

Here is my trick: Step 1: access m.youtube.com in browser then play a video. Step 2: Tap the full screen button (the square in bottom-right corner of the video screen ). The video screen enlarges and rotates from portrait to landscape full screen mode. Step 3: Use 3-button navigation. tap 'Home' button then mobile phone go to home page with the YouTube video displaying in a small window over other apps. The browser could be firefox or chrome. Both works fine for me for years. I prefer firefox.

However since last week, I can't play this trick in firefox. Chrome still works fine.

In firefox, the weird thing happened in step 2: after tapping the full screen button, the video displayed in portrait mode. It didn't rotate to landscape full screen mode. Please refer to pic 2.

Anyone has idea how to fix this? Many many thanks!

Lately Full Screen to Landscape mode for YouTube and other websites is not working (Screen doesn't rotate to Landscape Mode screen stays at Portrait Mode at Full Screen) Please fix this issue.

Although New Build Claims -- Fixed the problem that caused full screen YouTube videos to exit and switch to portrait mode when changing quality or speed. But issue still persist screen doesn't rotate to Landscape mode in full screen mode. It stays in portrait mode with caption below entering in Full Screen. Works Flawlessly in Firefox Nightly

Version 112.1.0 does not show media control when playing YouTube and stops playing in the background. For example, with DTUBE playback, media control is present and background playback works as before. I activated the "video background playback fix" add-on, but it didn't help. On iOS, the version 112.1.0 has no issue with playing in background. What is the problem with Android?

Steps to reproduce problem. 1. Navigate to YouTube with Firefox for Android. 2. Open page of any video which has comments. 3. Switch webpage display mode to 'version for PC'. 4. Now the page layout top-to-bottom should be like: - player with main video - list of videos that may interest you - comments section 5. Expected behavior: load comments section below list of recommended videos, like Chromium based browsers do. 6. Actual behavior: Firefox fails to load comments section, perhaps some script doesn't fire up.

Hello, for the past month when watching youtube through the firefox app, I am unable to use the media output feature of my phone (galaxy S21 FE) to stop/play videos. So for e.g. I used to be able to minimise the browser and listen to the audio only output. But now the audio stops when I minimise. Other applications are able to trigger the media output so that's not a problem with my phone.

Until recently (sorry, I don't know which version I upgraded from), it was possible to let media play the background with Firefox for Android. Media would show up on the lock screen and could be played/paused from there when open in the browser. Now, I have found no way of playing media from Firefox without having the window in focus.

I'm wondering if this was an Android change or a Firefox change that broke Android detecting media playing in Firefox, and whether this is/was intended, a known issue, or a bug?

I'm on Android 13 (Oxygen OS 13 on OnePlus Nord 2T), with Firefox version 112.2.0 (release April 24 on the play store).