Going by user comments, most users find Auto-playing Videos being annoying and they are looking for a way to stop Auto-playing videos on Mac Safari browser.
Apart from being annoying, Auto-playing videos end up consuming your Data, slow down webpages and their jarring sound gets in the way when you are listening to music while browsing on the internet.
In terms of content, most of these Auto-playing videos end up being News clips or some irrelevant content that you may not really be interested in.
Luckily, there is a way to stop Auto-playing videos on your Mac and you can find below the steps to stop Auto-playing Videos on Mac, both in Safari and Google Chrome browsers.
Stop Auto-playing Videos On Mac Safari Browser
Follow the steps below to stop videos from Auto-playing in the Safari Browser on your MacBook.
1. Click on the Finder Icon located in the Dock of your Mac.
2. On the Finder Window, select Applications in the left-pane and open the Utilities Folder in the right-pane.
3. In the Utilities Folder, click on the Terminal App.
4. On the Terminal window, type defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1 and press the Enter key on the keyboard of your computer.
5. Once the Command is executed (few seconds), type Exit to close the Terminal screen.
6. Next, right-clicking on the Safari icon in the Dock and click on the Quit option in the menu that appears.
7. After 30 seconds, open the Safari browser on your Mac and you will now see a new menu item called Debug in the Safari top-menu bar.
8. Click on Debug in tab in the Safari top-menu bar > click on Media Flags and select Video Needs User Action option in the side-menu.
After this visit CNN, BBC or any other News related website. You should be able to browse these websites without being bothered by those annoying Auto-playing Videos.
Note: In case disabling Auto-playing Videos on Safari is causing any problems while playing YouTube Videos, you can disable this feature while watching YouTube Videos by clicking on Debug > Media Flags > Video Needs User Action.
Stop Auto-playing Videos in Google Chrome Browser
If you are using the Google Chrome bowser on your Mac, you can stop Auto-playing videos by installing a Chrome Browser extension called Disable HTML 5 Autoplay.
1. Open Chrome browser on your Mac.
2. Click on 3-dots Menu icon located > click on More Tools and then click on Extensions in the side-menu.
3. On Chrome Web Store search for “Disable HTML5 Autoplay” Extension.
4. Install Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension by clicking on Add to Chrome button.
Once this plugin is installed, you should no longer find videos Auto-playing, whenever you visit any website on your Mac using the Google Chrome browser.
Disable Debug Menu in Safari Menu Bar
If you do not want the Debug Menu to be available on your Mac, you can disable this menu item from the Safari browser at any time, by following the steps below.
1. Open the Terminal on your Mac by following steps 1 ~ 3 as described above.
2. On the Terminal screen, type the command defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 0 and press the Enter key on the keyboard of your computer.
3. Wait for the command to be executed (takes a few seconds) and type Exit to close the Terminal screen.
4. Next, right-click on the Safari icon in the Dock and click on the Quit option in the menu that appears.
Now, when you restart the Safari Browser, you will see that the Debug Menu is gone from the Safari Menu bar on your Mac.