I-Firefox Community Forum

I'm on a Mac using Mac OS Big Sur, 11.7.10.

Videos will not play on Firefox, whether on Youtube, in social media, on websites, or whatever. Sometimes the video will play with no audio, sometimes I just getting a rolling wheel.

I have other functionality issues that may be related.

I don't want to close and restart all the time. I am considering changing to a new default browser over the issue.

If I switch to Chrome or Safari, the videos play fine. Which seems like my answer.

Context

While playing YouTube videos in Firefox, intermittent crackling appears after a few minutes of playback. This report documents detailed testing that demonstrates the issue is not related to the DAC, USB interface, or system hardware, and is exclusive to Firefox.

2. System Configuration

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X @ 43 °C

RAM: 64 GB DDR4 dual-channel (16-20-20-38 @ 1572 MHz)

Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 (AM4) @ 54 °C

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (audio drivers disabled, audio hardware off)

Monitors: LG HDR WFHD 2560x1080@60Hz and IPS236 1920x1080@60Hz

Storage: Multiple SSD and HDD SATA drives (500 GB – 2 TB)

Audio: Realtek High Definition Audio disabled; iFi nano/UNO DAC connected via USB with power filtering, using Exclusive Mode / ASIO

3. Tests Performed 3.1 DAC and USB Validation

Continuous playback of PCM 384 kHz/24‑bit and DSD256 via Roon/ASIO.

Duration: over 25 minutes of uninterrupted DSD256 playback.

Result: no crackling, pops, or errors.

Conclusion: DAC, firmware, USB cables, ports, and power supply are fully operational; heavy data load does not cause errors.

3.2 Browser Comparison

Chrome (YouTube, identical conditions): continuous playback without crackling.

Firefox (YouTube, identical conditions): crackling progressively appears minutes into playback, temporarily disappearing when the video is paused.

3.3 Isolation of Variables

USB motherboard ports and original drivers fully tested.

GPU audio drivers and hardware disabled.

Windows Shared Mode off, Exclusive Mode enabled.

Predefined audio formats set according to DAC preferences.

USB power management disabled.

DAC temperature stable; no overheating observed.

4. Technical Conclusion

Hardware: DAC, USB, cables, power, firmware, and GPU are not the cause of the crackling.

Operating System: Windows 11 is correctly configured; Exclusive Mode / ASIO works without errors.

Browser: Firefox is the only element consistently reproducing the issue.

Most Likely Cause: Firefox’s buffer management and audio sandboxing interacting with Windows, causing intermittent interruptions in audio flow.

Summary: All hardware and OS factors have been tested and validated: DAC, USB, cables, power supply, firmware, GPU, and temperature do not produce crackling. The only consistent factor is Firefox, making this a software-bound issue.

Engineering Note: This diagnosis conclusively demonstrates that the intermittent audio crackling on YouTube is caused exclusively by Firefox on Windows 11, independent of DAC or USB hardware. The issue should be investigated at the browser level, specifically how Firefox handles continuous digital audio streams and buffers on Windows.

In Firefox, I have audio and video autoplay blocked globally, and added an exception for one particular website (Discord). However, Discord now only autoplays videos once, but doesn't loop them as it should (they implemented GIFs as videos, but now they don't loop).

Of course this could be interpreted as a bug in Discord's web client. However, there shouldn't be a difference between a website that got an exception and autoplay being globally allowed. Therefore i suspect that there is a bug in firefox where some property, state, or hint is set differently depending on whether a page has been added to exceptions or autoplay is allowed globally.

Is there anything i can do to work around this? I really want an autoplay exception to actually work as expected (the website doesn't need to know that it's special)

Reposting until I get help from someone. Windows/desktop. On Google Chrome, any streaming website I used with autoplay enabled would KEEP full screen mode ON after changing episodes. It would automatically go to a new page with the following episode and remain full screen. Why doesn't Firefox have this feature?? I'm seriously considering going back to Google Chrome for this one small feature. Every time I had any streaming service playing with autoplay enabled, I didn't have to manually select the full screen option every time. I am having to stand up and manually click full screen function. Every. Single. Time. Somebody please help me if there's a way to active that function.

This started almost a month ago at this point. I had been using Picture in Picture for a while and then I went to watch a new video and noticed the size was messed up.

Default view, the first picture is much larger and if there's anything on the side of the video like playlists, chat or recommended vids, the video will play under it

Theater mode has the video be pretty much the right size

Full screen is pretty much the default view but the rest is black

Sometimes if I wait a while and go back to the tab it'll be fixed but refreshing or changing the size starts it up again.

Did I break something? How do I fix this?

When I play YouTube videos in Firefox, the video stutters and drops frames, even when set to 480p. The audio continues to play normally. This issue does not happen in Chrome on the same laptop.

The problem started about a week ago. I’m using Firefox on Windows 11. Restarting Firefox did not resolve the issue. I’ve attached screenshots for reference.

When I listen to music via Firefox, my computer goes into sleep mode after 15 minutes (windows close and password is required)^)^. I've looked everywhere to find a solution to this problem, but I can't find one... Can you help me?

Started this afternoon, December 27. When viewing Facebook videos, the audio is not working. This is a random event, sometimes the audio will not start with the video, sometimes the video is good, but when the video ends and restarts, the audio doesn't come on. The volume indicator at the top of the Facebook video shows that the audio is on, but there is no sound. Is this a Firefox issue or a Facebook problem?

Particularly on US news sites, inline / spot videos still auto-play despite the FF preference set to block audio and video. Mercifully, audio isn't playing. This seems to be a fairly recent problem since the last couple / few updates; not really certain.