How to Turn Off Auto-Play Videos in Safari on Mac

Browsing the modern web can often feel like navigating a minefield of aggressively loud advertisements and embedded news clips. You click a link to read a simple text article, and suddenly a video player hidden halfway down the page begins blasting audio, forcing you to frantically scramble to find the mute button.

Fortunately, Apple engineered the Safari browser on macOS to be highly protective of user experience. You do not need to download third-party extensions or ad blockers to stop this behavior. Safari includes a built-in, system-level toggle that allows you to permanently disable all autoplaying videos—both video and audio—across every website you visit.

How to Turn Off Auto-Play for ALL Websites

If you want absolute silence when browsing, you can implement a blanket ban on autoplaying media. This is the most popular setting.

1. Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
2. Click the word Safari in the top-left corner of the Apple menu bar (next to the Apple logo).
3. Select Settings… (or Preferences… on older macOS versions) from the dropdown menu.
4. A new window will open. Click on the Websites tab at the top.
5. Look at the left-hand sidebar and scroll down until you see Auto-Play. Click on it.
6. Look at the bottom right corner of the window for a dropdown menu labeled “When visiting other websites:”
7. Click that dropdown menu and select Never Auto-Play.

From now on, when you visit a news site, the video player will remain completely paused with a “Play” button over the thumbnail. It will not start until you explicitly click it.

Understanding the “Stop Media with Sound” Option

If you look at that dropdown menu, you will notice an option called “Stop Media with Sound.” If you choose this, Safari will allow silent videos (like background animations on a corporate website or silent GIF-like ads) to play automatically, but it will ruthlessly block any video that attempts to play audio.

How to Allow Auto-Play for Specific Websites (Whitelisting)

A blanket ban is great for news sites, but it breaks the functionality of video-centric platforms. If you set Safari to “Never Auto-Play,” and then click a video on YouTube or Netflix, the video will load but remain paused. You will have to click “Play” a second time, which is annoying.

You can create exceptions (a whitelist) for the websites you actually trust.

1. Ensure the website you want to whitelist (e.g., youtube.com) is currently open in a Safari tab.
2. Return to the Safari > Settings > Websites > Auto-Play menu.
3. Look at the main panel on the right. You will see a list of “Currently Open Websites.”
4. Find youtube.com in the list.
5. Click the dropdown menu next to it and change it from the default setting to Allow All Auto-Play.

Now, YouTube videos will start instantly the moment you click them, while CNN or ESPN articles will remain completely silenced.

A Quick Note on iOS and iPadOS

If you are trying to stop videos from playing automatically on your iPhone or iPad, the settings are not located inside the Safari app itself. Because Apple manages accessibility at the system level on mobile devices, you must open the main iOS Settings app > Accessibility > Motion, and turn off the toggle for Auto-Play Video Previews.