How to Stop Autoplay Videos on Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera

Hi! This post will show you how to stop autoplay video on chrome, firefox, safari and opera browser. Auto play videos suck and unfortunately they are all over web. It's pretty hard to miss them! They steal your internet bandwidth and annoys to no end. And then there's this music too. If you use latest web browsers then they are fully equipped to block flash-based videos by themselves. But websites these days uses HTML5 to play videos and media. And they'll automatically start playing once the page loads.

Luckily you can stop autoplaying videos no matter its Flash or HTML5. Here I have shared some of the methods you can use to stop video autoplay on various browsers like chrome, firefox, opera and safari.

1. Stop Video Autoplay on Chrome

Chrome ships with built-in support to stop auto playing flash videos. But there are complaints about them not working. So if you have such issues then I recommend you to use a chrome extension. Just go to chrome store, download and install flashcontrol extension. Once installed it will automatically stop flash videos from playing.

The extension will simply disable flash on chrome. At any time you can easily enable flash by changing the settings.

To do so right click on the extension and choose 'Allow flash plugins on this site' or any other option you prefer.

If you notice the extension will work only for flash videos. HTML5 videos will still be playing automatically on chrome.

To stop HTML5 video auto-play get this extension instead. Once enabled, chrome will load HTML5 video but won't play it automatically. It's your call to watch it or not.

2. Stop Video Autoplay on Firefox

With Firefox you don't need plugins to stop autoplaying video at start. You can just do it right in the browser settings itself.

To stop flash video auto play in firefox, open firefox, go to 'Tools' > 'Add-ons' or simply hit the hotkey 'Ctrl+Shift+A'.

Navigate to 'Plugins' section and look for 'Shockwave Flash'. By default the dropdown besides the plug-in will show 'Always Activate', means it's enabled.

To disable Flash in Firefox choose 'Ask to Activate' option from the dropdown. This will prevent flash videos from auto-playing.

Next we have to stop HTML5 videos.

To stop autoplaying HTML5 video in firefox, enter 'about:config' in the address bar and click on "I'll be careful, I promise" button.

Now search for the option 'media.autoplay.enabled'. Once you find it double-click on it to turn it off. Else you can simply right-click click and choose 'Toggle' option. This will disable auto play.

From now on HTML5 video won't play automatically anymore on loading.

The only downside to this method is it will also prevent vimeo videos from playing. As a Vimeo user I find it annoying but guess it wouldn't be a problem to others.

Flashstoper Plugin for Firefox

If you don't bother using one more plugin, I recommend get flashstopper plugin for firefox. It will stop both flash and html5 video auto play on firefox but will not get in the way of Vimeo playback.

3. Stop Video Autoplay on Safari

If you use Mac, then there's good workaround to disable playing videos automatically in Safari. 'ClickToPlugin' tends to work earlier but seems it no longer get updates. So we have to go for other method.

First you need to turn on Safari Debug menu. For that open Terminal and type the below lines into it, hit Return and wait for couple of seconds.

defaults write com.apple.Safari
IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

Using option '1' will enable Debug menu in safari browser. Later you can turn off Debug menu by using option '0' like this,

defaults write com.apple.Safari
IncludeInternalDebugMenu 0

But for now you just enable Debug menu so that we can stop auto play videos.

Now quit Terminal and open Safari browser. Find Debug menu and select 'Media Flags' > 'Disallow Inline Video' option (You can also try 'Video Needs User Action' if this raise issues but both options has little difference).

That's it! It will prevent autoplaying videos/audio in safari.

4. Stop Autoplay Video in Opera

And here's the method to turn off autoplay videos in opera browser. It's really very simple. You have to download and install Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension for opera. Once installed you don't have to worry about autoplaying videos anymore.

How to Email Link in Opera Browser

Email Link in Opera - This post shows you how to email link in opera browser. Earlier Opera versions had a useful feature called 'Email Webpage as Link'. This allows you share interesting webpage address with your friends and colleagues via email. But opera has put out this option in later updates. We are not sure why Opera has done it. But the thing is you no longer have 'Email Webpage as Link' feature in opera web browser by default but there are pretty good number of opera extensions available to support email link feature in opera.

Here we have shared three nifty email related opera extensions that help you to send webpage as link and provide access to popular email service providers & notify when you receive new emails. You can use these extensions/add-ons to make opera support email link feature. All of these extensions are handy and you can use one or all of them to get various email related support in opera.

How to Email Webpage Link in Opera Browser?

The first one is the Mailto extension. This will let you email webpage link in opera using the system's email client app.

• Read: How to Import Chrome Bookmarks to Opera Browser
• Read: Export Opera Bookmarks to Chrome/Firefox/IE Browser
• Read: How to Change Default Search Engine in Opera Android

1. Mailto button Extension

• Go to opera extensions manager and install Mailto button extension in opera browser. Once installed the extension adds an 'Email' button to the toolbar and 'Email Page' context-menu.
• Open the web page you want to send as link in opera and click either on the 'Email' button on the toolbar or right-click on the page and choose 'Email Page' context menu. It opens your default email client window pre-filled with the web page's title & url at the subject and body resp.

2. Mailto: Opera Extension

This one is also somewhat similar to the first extension I have shared and supports most of the popular email providers like Gmail, Yahoo mail, Outlook, Zoho etc.

• Install Mailto: extension in Opera. Once installed the extension adds a context-menu 'Mail this page's URL' to opera browser. Just right-click on the webpage you want to send as email and choose 'Mail this page's URL'. This opens a new tab of the particular email service provider.
• Currently Mailto: extension supports Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail/Outlook, AOL mail, Fastmail and Zoho mail by default. You can also add more email services by yourself. To change the email service provider, click on the extensions 'Options' button and choose the respective email service to which you wish to send mail.

3. Email Notifier

Apart from letting you email webpage link, the extension also notifies you about incoming emails.

• Email Notifier is a pretty-lite Opera Addon that gives you access to top six email providers plus badge notification for the number of new emails received from each of them.
• The extension add a small 'Email Envelope' button to opera toolbar and clicking on it will show you the number of new messages received as a badge for each email service you logged-in through opera. You can directly click on the corresponding email service's logo to access the inbox directly.

Using the Opera extensions I have shared in this post you can easily email webpage link in opera browser at any time. All these add-ons are user-friendly and easy to use with opera. I hope you like this article. Check our Opera section for more how to guides.

How to Import Chrome Bookmarks to Opera Browser

This tutorial will show you how to import chrome bookmarks to opera browser. All major web browsers like Chrome, Opera, Firefox etc. have a Bookmark section where you can store the url (webpage address) of Sites/Webpages you visit often. So that any time you want to browse the specific website you can simply open the bookmarked link instead of typing in the complete web url in the address bar. Opera also have this handy feature and let you create, edit and delete bookmarks in opera using its bookmark manager. Plus if you have the habit of using more than one browser then probably you may want your bookmarks from other browser to be imported to opera.

It's hard to settle for one browser. I generally prefer Opera for general browsing and Chrome for work. So having the same set of bookmarks at both browsers is necessary and saves time. In such case import/export bookmarks comes into play. Say you prefer to switch over from Google Chrome to Opera, then you may want to import bookmarks from chrome to opera. When you download and install opera this will be taken care off. But if you want to do it later then follow the below steps to import chrome bookmarks to opera.

• Read: How to Export Opera Bookmarks to Chrome
• Read: How to Change Default Search Engine in Opera
• Read: How to Email Webpage Link in Opera Browser

How to Import Chrome Bookmarks to Opera?

To import bookmarks from chrome to opera, click Opera menu » 'Settings'. If you are a keyboard person use the key combination Alt+P for windows and Cmd+ on Mac OS X to access settings tab. Once you are on Settings page head over to 'Browser' and navigate to 'Default browser' header.

Under 'Default browser' section, click 'Import bookmarks and settings...' button. This will bring up a popup window. In the popup select 'chrome' from the dropdown, check on the options that you want to import from Google Chrome browser.

You can see that all four importing options will be selected by default. But it's up to you to check/uncheck options based on your preference and click 'Import' button. Done! Now you have successfully imported all your bookmarks from chrome to opera browser.

Opera stores all your imported bookmarks in a special folder called 'Imported Bookmarks'. To access the imported bookmarks from chrome, go to 'Opera menu' » 'Bookmarks' » 'Imported bookmarks' folder. Look for a folder with name 'Imported from Chrome' and double-click on it. You can find all your chrome bookmarks inside this one.

That will import bookmarks from chrome to opera. By this way you can not only import bookmarks from chrome but from other browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari too. The reverse process is also possible. That you can export opera bookmarks to chrome or other browsers. As for exporting you have to simple export the entire bookmark section as html and later import the html file in the browser you want. Most of the browsers will support import and export bookmark features and you can also try plug-ins that makes the process more easier.

Change Default Search Engine in Opera for Android (Mobile Browser)

This post will show you how to change default search engine in opera for android. Opera for Android is the popular mobile browser from Opera with options to save data, ad blocker etc. Like Opera desktop browser, Opera for Android & Opera Mini ships with built-in search engines like Google, Wikipedia, IMDb, Dictionary.com.

Google is the default search engine of Opera Android but you can change default search engine to something else other than Google if you want. Setting a search engine as default has its advantage as you can perform search directly from your browser without going to that particular search engine website.

If you are a first-time user of Opera for Android then you may find it difficult to change the search engine. Here's how to change default search engine in opera android and add custom search engines to it.

How to Change Default Search Engine in Opera Android/Opera Mini?

1. Launch Opera for Android or Opera Mini app on your Android Phone/Tablet.
2. Now go to the top search bar and tap on it, and tap again on the small icon placed right next to the search box.
3. You will see a list of search engines supported by opera mobile or mini browser.
4. Choose a search engine provider from the list which you want to use as your default search engine for opera android.

That should change default search engine in opera android.

Must Read: How to Export Opera Bookmarks to Chrome / Firefox / IE

If you don't find your preferred search engine in the list, then you can add it to opera mobile as custom search engine.

How to Add Custom Search Engine to Opera Android or Opera Mini?

1. Launch Opera for Android or Mini and open the search provider you want to add as custom search engine.
2. For example, if you want to add Youtube as custom search engine then type 'youtube.com' in the search field and tap go.
3. Then long press on the search bar and hold. It will open a context menu. Tap on 'Add search engine' option, then edit the name of the search engine and tap on 'Add' button.
4. Done! You have successfully added custom search engine to opera android. To use this as your default, set it as the default search engine as described earlier. So the next time you want to search some videos on youtube you don't have to open youtube and search. Just search it directly from your opera mobile browser.

Don't Miss: How to Change Default Search Engine in Opera Desktop

Just like that you can change default search engine in opera for android. This method works with opera mini too so you can change search engine in opera mini in the same way.

Add Custom Search Engine to Opera Browser

This post will show you how to add custom search engine to opera browser. Opera ships with built-in support for six popular search engines namely Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Amazon, Bing, and Wikipedia. But even those are not enough and having several more would be handy and adds to a greater level of browser customization.

You can add any website as custom search engine to opera and it will let you stay within opera and search for the specific site without going to the site itself. Let's see how to add 'Youtube' as custom search engine to opera but you can pretty much add any websites of your choice.

How to Add Custom Search Engine to Opera Browser

1. To add custom search engine in opera, go to 'Opera' menu and choose 'Settings'.
2. In settings tab click on 'Browser' and navigate to 'Search' header.
3. Under 'Search' click on 'Manage search engines...' button to open a popup window, then click on 'Add new search' button.
4. In the provided form, enter Youtube against the 'Name' for the search engine.
5. Next provide yt for the 'Keyword'. This can be of one or more characters and make sure it is unique. This is a kind of shortcut to use before your search query in Opera address bar to search for that particular website.
6. For 'Address' you have to provide the site's search url with '%s' in place of query. To get this url, go to 'youtube.com' and type 'aerobics for beginners' in the search box. Now get the url of the results page shown. It reads something like, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=aerobics+for+beginners
7. Please note that '+' sign will be added instead of space character in your query. Remove the entire query from the url and add '%s' instead. It should look like, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s. Now add this url to the address text box and hit 'Save'.
8. That's it! You have successfully added YouTube as your custom search engine to opera. Let's check if it works. Go to opera address bar and type your query preceded with 'yt' (e.g. yt aerobics) and hit enter. Yey! The search page you see will be from youtube.com. From now on you can search for YouTube videos directly from opera search bar without leaving it.

Also Read: Change Default Search Engine in Opera

Likewise you can easily add custom search engines to opera browser. Follow the similar steps for any website you want to add as custom search engine in opera. It's a pretty nifty feature indeed!

Edit/Delete Bookmarks in Opera Browser

Let's see how to edit or delete bookmarks in opera browser. Generally web browsers allows you to store urls of webpages you visit often as bookmarks and let you edit, delete or organize them as per your choice.

With Opera browser you get 'Bookmarks Manager' which allows you to organize all your bookmarks at one place. At any time you can visit this bookmark manager and easily add, edit or delete bookmarks in opera browser. Here are the steps on how to edit or delete existing bookmarks in opera.

Edit Bookmarks in Opera Browser:

1. To edit an existing bookmark, open the bookmarked page in opera, click on the 'Heart' icon to the right of the address bar and then on 'View in bookmarks' button.
2. This will show the page's thumbnail under the 'Bookmarks' tab.
3. Alternatively you can directly go to 'Bookmarks' and search for the bookmark to edit using the search bar located at top. You can also use the hotkey Ctrl+Shift+B on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Option+B on Mac operating system to access 'Bookmark Manager' Tab.
4. Move the mouse over a bookmark thumbnail and you can see three icons/buttons on top. The 'Tick mark' to select the page, 'Pen' icon to edit the bookmark and 'X' icon to move existing bookmark to trash folder.

5. To edit the existing bookmark, click on the 'Pen' icon. Now change/edit the bookmark page title and url and click anywhere on the window and you are done editing opera bookmark.

Remove/Delete Bookmarks in Opera Browser:

To delete/remove bookmarks in Opera browser follow the below steps.

1. To get started, open any of the existing bookmarks in Opera web browser.
2. Click on 'Heart' icon next to the address bar and then click again on the 'Trash can' icon at the bottom.
3. This removes the existing bookmark and moves it to 'Trash' folder which is similar to 'Recycle bin' in Windows OS.
4. From this trash folder you can either restore the bookmark by undoing or delete it once for all.
5. To access 'Trash' folder, open opera menu and select 'Bookmarks'. Under the bookmarks menu, select 'Trash' and it shows the list of pages as thumbnails.

6. Move over a thumbnail and click on 'Undo delete' button to restore the bookmark or click on 'X' button to delete opera bookmark permanently.

Read Also: How to Export Opera Bookmarks to Chrome/Firefox/IE Browser

By following the above steps you can easily edit or delete bookmarks in opera web browser.

Change Default Search Engine in Opera Browser

Here is the way to change default search engine in Opera browser. Default search engine is the one the browser uses to search for the query you type in the address bar or with search context menu. Opera's default search engine is Google and ships with additional support for five more popular search engines.

Though Google is immensely popular people do like choices. Also it's not that difficult to go to the corresponding search engines site and start typing query. But if you have the habit of sticking on to a particular search engine, then setting it as your default search engine makes sense. Follow the below steps to change the default search engine of your choice in opera web browser.

How to Clear History and Cache in Opera Browser?

Wonder how to clear history, cookies and cache in opera browser? Well! Web browsers keeps tab of all your browsing history, cookies, downloads, searches, cache and other private details but do provide some sort of ways to delete those sensitive details.

Opera similar to other browsers stores information related to your browsing sessions and clears them when you ask to do it. Erasing browser history and cache is easier in opera. All you have to do is to follow the procedure given here and you are done!

How to Change Language in Opera Browser

How to change language in Opera browser? Opera's default language option will be set at the time of installing Opera browser. But do you know you can change the language preference at anytime without re-installing Opera web browser? Also you can set multiple languages in order as your preference too?

Well! You can. And Opera provides three sorts of options for users to set as their language preference. You can change language in Opera for User Interface (UI), Dictionaries (spell check) and preferred language for web pages. Follow the below steps to change the language in Opera web browser.

Download & Install Opera Browser in Windows 7/8/10

Let's see how to download & install Opera browser in Windows 7/8/10. Opera web browser is fast & secure and uses the rendering engine similar to Google Chrome and Apple Safari browsers. The browser's user interface is modern and slick and no wonder it gives a very good browsing experience.

The latest Opera version is rich-in features and comes with built-in ad blocker and available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems. If you want Opera for Windows 10 or earlier versions you have to download and install on your own. Here's how you can do it.

How to Download & Install Opera Browser in Windows 7/8/10?

• Go to Opera for Windows download page and click on 'Download now' button.

• Save 'OperaSetup.exe' installer file and double-click to launch opera installer.
• Click 'Accept and Install' and opera web browser will be installed in your windows pc.
• Once the installation is over, double click on the Opera shortcut on your desktop and enjoy surfing net.
• If you have Opera installed already on your PC/Laptop, then the installer will show you 'Accept and Upgrade' button.
• Before clicking on Install/Upgrade you can change settings. Click on 'Option' button placed on the lower right corner of the window.
• Choose 'Language' from the dropdown and this will be the opera's default language. You can change default language anytime later.
• If you want to import bookmarks from your default browser to opera then check 'Import bookmarks and data from the default browser' option. You can do this later too.
• Leave the rest of the settings as it is and click on Install or Upgrade button and Opera will be installed on your Windows 7/8/10 OS.

Also Read: How to Export Bookmarks from Opera to Chrome/Firefox/IE

By following the above steps you can easily download and install Opera web browser in Windows 7, 8 and 10 OS.

Export Opera Bookmarks to HTML File for Chrome/Firefox/IE

How to Export Opera Bookmarks to HTML file for Chrome /Firefox /IE: Earlier versions of Opera browser allow you to import/export all your saved bookmarks to html file. By this way you can easily export opera bookmarks to Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. But exporting bookmark feature has been knocked off from Opera later.

Luckily, there is a nice extension named 'Bookmarks Import & Export' which exports bookmarks saved in opera.