How to block/disable all videos from automatically loading in Chrome?

How about HTML Content Blocker, it is different than HTML 5 Autoplay. [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/html-content-blocker-js-c/nobnkgabkebhhlgfddbemmefjnjnahoe?hl=en]

In conjunction with your current Flash blocking it should solve your problem.


First of all, what you ask may not completely be achieved as you please. If the case is that you want no video playing on websites because you are on metered connections, and regardless of using Google Chrome, I believe this can only be possible with Firefox and NoScript

But using NoScript may effect your browsing experience, since it blocks many websites' functions.

Try to install Tampermonkey and search for a script that changes the 'preload' attribute of the <video> tag from 'auto' to 'none'. However, changing this attribute would only stop auto-playing instead of blocking the element entirely, as NoScript does, which means Chrome may still buffer some small parts yet without playing them (BTW, Firefox has a feature to stop auto-play videos).

If someone wonders whether NoScript is available for Chrome, then it is not, unfortunately. But there are fork projects of NoScript for Chrome.

You can use AdBlockPlus to hide elements you don't prefer by user specific filters. Note you can use this option if you have few websites to block videos and after you discover the <dev> tags that hold them, e.g. the filter ##div.hero__background hides the background video on airbnb.com. Otherwise, you can hide every video tag on every website you visit by using the filter ##video.

UPDATE:

I still say that you won't get something that block every video on every website. So AdBlockPlus sometimes fail to block with the filter ##video. However, if you visit a website frequently and you know it has videos, use ContentBlockHelper that will identify common elements, like images and video, as icons sorted by their URL sources. Block videos by clicking on the video icon as indicated below, and repeat with the other URL sources (on airbnb.com, videos may not load by default so the screenshot below may differ):

enter image description here

I repeat, this is not a global solution. But it does give you some control on websites you visit frequently until you switch to Firefox (honestly I'm not a fan of Firefox but it's the only browser that should provide a satisfying solution for you).


While none of the solutions on the 'net seemed to work for those increasingly annoying news sites that throw media in your face, I was overjoyed that chrome #61 finally allows us to control this - though it is a lab and will unceremoniously disappear on us one day.

Use this flag: Autoplay policy - worked like a charm on usatoday.com !!

chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy

Update: Doesn't work on some sites; and since switching to Vivaldi, this switch is not honored at all, so I use uBlock Origin instead, which seems to work well for most sites, except it doesn't block that darn subscribe to newsletter pop-ups which 75% of sites throw at your face. I hate HTML5 for the increased powers it has given these sites, instead of us.