Watching videos on the internet is one of the mainstream entertainments for current people. it’s a good way to relax, study, and even work. However, unexpected headaches could be brought to you while you’re using Mozilla Firefox: it may fail to play videos for you. This is much depressing, so I provide several fixes for it in this post.

Though may not know the full name – Mozilla Firefox, you must be very familiar with Firefox – one of the most popular web browser around the world. Developed by Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary Mozilla Corporation, the Firefox is an open-source web browser. It shows the web pages to you on the basis of the Gecko layout engine, and this makes it comparable with the most popular browsers like Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge.

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Users Find Firefox Not Playing Videos

Videos play an important role in our daily life; it displays things more vividly than words. Users prefer to watch videos since it’s more relaxing. However, more and more users have the same experience: they find Firefox not playing videos sometimes. Definitely, it’s much frustrating.

But I’m here to bring the good news to you – videos not playing in Firefox is not a big deal; there are several useful ways to fix it. You should try the following ways to play videos or use MiniTool Software to recover data.

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How to Fix When Firefox Won’t Play Videos

Videos not playing on Firefox or other browsers is not a big problem, actually. You can do things to help when firefox wont play video. Please follow the methods below to fix the problem yourself.

  1. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  2. Disable Add-ons & restart Firefox.
  3. Open Firefox, update, and restart.
  4. Clear browser cache and cookies.
  5. Check Allow Audio and Video for Autoplay.
  6. Etc.

Let’s dive into the steps you should finish.

Method 1: Do Not Use Hardware Acceleration

The first way to try when the Firefox problem occurs – videos won’t play is disabling the hardware acceleration feature from the browser settings.

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Click on the menu button at top right.
  3. Select Options.
  4. Select Advanced.
  5. Choose General.
  6. Look for Use hardware acceleration when available and uncheck it.
  7. Restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

If you’re using Firefox 55 and above, step 4 is not necessary. Meanwhile, you still need to uncheck Use recommended performance settings under the Performance section between step 5 and step 6.

Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available

If you’re using Adobe Flash Player, you should also disable hardware acceleration in Flash.

  1. Go to the help page of Adobe Flash Player.
  2. Find the Flash Player logo and right click on it.
  3. Select Settings from the context menu.
  4. Click on the lower left icon to open the Display panel.
  5. Uncheck Enable hardware acceleration and restart your Firefox.

Method 2: Disable Add-ons

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Click on the three bars button.
  3. Choose Add-ons from the list (also, you can press Ctrl + Shift + A in an opening Firefox to open it).
  4. Shift to the Extensions option in the left sidebar.
  5. Click on the Disable button at the end of each Add-on to disable them all.
  6. Restart Firefox.

Method 3: Update Firefox to the Latest Version

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Click on the three bars button.
  3. Select Help from the drop-down menu.
  4. Select About Firefox.
  5. Wait for the Firefox to check for updates and download them automatically.
  6. Click on the Restart to update Firefox and follow the instructions.

Restart to update Firefox

Method 4: Clear Firefox Cache And Cookies

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Click on the three bars button.
  3. Once again, select Options.
  4. Shift to Privacy and Security in the left sidebar.
  5. Scroll down to find Cookies and Site Data section.
  6. Click on the Clear Data… button.
  7. Check Cookies and Site Data and Cached Web Content.
  8. Click Clear and wait.

Clear cache and cookies

Method 5: Enable Autoplay to Fix Videos Won’t Play in Firefox

  1. Type the URL into the address bar in an opening Firefox.
  2. Click on that padlock located on the left side of certain URL.
  3. Click the Arrow Button in the drop-down menu.
  4. Click on the More Information button.
  5. Select Permissions from the menu bar.
  6. Look for the Autoplay option under permissions.
  7. Uncheck User Default.
  8. Check Allow Audio and Video.
  9. Restart your Firefox.

Method 6: Refresh Firefox

You can also fix the Firefox videos won’t play problem by refreshing the browser.

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Click on Firefox’s menu icon (represented by three horizontal lines).
  3. Select Help.
  4. Select More Troubleshooting Information.
  5. Click on the Refresh Firefox button.
  6. Click Refresh Firefox again in the pop-up confirmation window.
  7. Click Finish when it’s finished or just wait.

Besides, you can try the following methods for fixing Firefox not playing videos:

  • Update graphics driver.
  • Un-mute Firefox and plug-ins.
  • Disable Ad-blocking extensions.
  • Downgrade Firefox.
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About The Author

Sarah

Position: Columnist

Sarah has been working as an editor at MiniTool since she graduated from university. Sarah aims at helping users with their computer problems such as disk errors and data loss. She feels a sense of accomplishment to see that users get their issues fixed relying on her articles. Besides, she likes to make friends and listen to music after work.