How to Prevent Videos From Auto Playing on Facebook

Facebook’s decision to play videos automatically in the timeline has made many users angry. Not only does it use more data if you’re on a mobile device, it’s takes up space and distracts from other items you may want to see.

Fortunately, there’s something you can do to prevent videos from playing automatically on Facebook. We have tutorials for disabling auto playing videos in Chrome for Desktop, and the Facebook app for iPhone and Android.

Chrome Desktop Version

If you’re using Google Chrome on a Windows, Linux, or Mac desktop computer,  you can disable autoplay for plugins using these steps:

• Open Google Chrome.
• Type “chrome://settings/content” in the web browser, then press “Enter“. Alternately, you could go to “Menu” > “Settings” > “Show advanced settings…“, then choose the “Content settings…” button.
• From the “Content settings” window in the “Plug-ins” section, you have two options:
  • If you want to prevent auto-playing videos on all the websites you visit, select “Click to play“, then select the “Done” button. Note: This setting will require you to click to allow plugins like Flash games every time you want to use them.
    
  • If you only want to change this setting for Facebook, you could leave the “Run automatically” option selected, then choose “Manage exceptions…“. From there you can add Facebook to the list and set the site to “Ask“. You would do this by typing “[*.]facebook.com” in the blank field, then changing the selection menu on the right from “Allow” to “Ask“.
    

Videos on Facebook will no longer automatically play in Google Chrome after changing this setting.

Facebook For Android

1. Open the Facebook app.
2. Select the “Menu”  icon.
3. Scroll down and select “App Settings“.
4. Tap “Autoplay“.
5. Select “Never Autoplay Videos“.

Facebook For iPhone & iPad

1. Open the Facebook app.
2. Select “More” at the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. Scroll down and tap “Settings“.
4. Choose “Account Settings“.
5. Select “Videos and Photos“.
6. Select “Autoplay“.
7. Select “Never Autoplay Videos“.