Last updated: January 15, 2019
The latest version of Safari web browser stops auto-play media with sound by default. Thank you, Apple. If you lap up written content on the internet with any vigor, you know the sites that are the worst offenders. One blaring interruption after another may be enough to condition you to mute your volume when you visit such sites. It is ridiculous, however, to expect visitors to endure auto-play content of any kind for very long. At some stage, the mission moves from avert to avoid.
As invasive as auto-play videos are in almost every case, there may be sites where you prefer to have them auto-play upon your arrival. The level of expectation for auto-play video is different for certain media outlets. Much like when you turn on the television or radio, you expect to hear and/or see something. When you open a magazine or newspaper, you don’t. Either way, auto-play content should never be thrust down a visitor’s throat without permission. This tutorial shows you how to allow websites to auto-play video in Safari if that is your choice.
Step 1. Launch Settings for This Website
To modify the Auto-Play settings on a per-site level, right-click in the address bar when visiting a site, and choose Settings for This Website.
If easier, you can also access the same settings from Safari > Settings for This Website.
Step 2. Configure an Auto-Play preference
The default setting for every site is Auto-Play: Stop Media with Sound. To change the setting for a site you are visiting, click the Auto-Play menu to expand it.
Choose Allow All Auto-Play to allow the website to auto-play video when you visit it. Conversely, if you never want media to auto-play on a site, choose Never Auto-Play instead.
Step 3. Manage Configured Websites (optional)
To bulk manage the websites you have configured to Allow All Auto-Play, click Safari > Preferences. In the Preferences window, click the Websites icon, and choose Auto-Play. Highlight a website under Configured Websites, then click the Remove button.
Websites currently open in Safari also display in the Auto-Play preferences window so you can modify their auto-play settings if needed. You can change the default Auto-Play setting for all other websites from here, too, by setting When visiting other websites to Allow All Auto-Play or Never Auto-Play.
The option to stop auto-play media alone is reason enough to use Safari. Hopefully auto-play content of all kinds will soon go the way of the Tecopa Pupfish, and librarians everywhere will rejoice.
Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to learn how to allow websites to auto-play video in Safari.
Henry Irvine, Contributing Technology Writer, translates more than a decade of internet technology experience in product and customer relationship management into practical help and how-to content. Look for him on Bay Area trails, music venues, or sausage shacks when he’s not writing. Don’t call him Hank if you see him. Seriously. Hank on Twitter
