TubeStop

126 Comments

TubeStop is an extension for Mozilla-based Web browsers that disables the autoplay on YouTube videos. This means that you can open multiple YouTube videos in tabs in the background without them all starting to play at once. TubeStop also disables the autoplay on YouTube videos embedded on non-YouTube.com sites (MySpace, for example).

Install TubeStop from Mozilla Add-ons

If you like TubeStop, check out my other YouTube-specific Firefox extension: YouTube Comment Snob. It adds powerful filtering controls to YouTube comment threads.

If you’re having trouble with the extension or would like to see a new feature added, e-mail me at cfinke@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Note: watch the TubeStop section of my blog for information on updates to this extension.

126 comments on “TubeStop”

  1. Avi says:

    Thanks.

    I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything but wouldn’t it be better ( for you and for us ) if this was a greasemonkey script instead of an extension ?

  2. John says:

    Thanks so much for this. It always annoyed me, but I always just dealt with it — I have no idea why now. Just one of the reasons your site is on my “emergency clean install extensions” flash drive!

  3. Lord Rahl says:

    You are a king among kings and a god among gods for creating this glorious extension for us. All praise and glory be heaped upon you. I kneel before the altar I have made in honor of your wisdom. May generations to come remember you as a prophet and sage for the sheer generosity of drawing the light of day upon this most holy of ideas. I have finally found a solution to the hatred I feel when Firefox crashes, and I had five to ten tabs with YouTube videos open and TabMixPlus restoring the session. It was never fun. This is . . . a day which will live in glory.

  4. riow says:

    Could the video be automatically loaded in the background but keep stop autoplay? This would be good and convenient for user to watch the clips without waiting for the download. Thx. :)

  5. Zaphod says:

    Please define in the description that this extension also STOPS the preloading of video. So you still have to do the play+pause dance to load while you browse.

  13. latobada says:

    I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my hears and my patience a few times!

  14. latobada says:

    I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  17. defex says:

    thats great, could you possibly make one which stops ALL types of music players from automatically starting as well?

  18. Mike says:

    Any chance you know of an extension that would BLOCK YOUTUBE embed from loading kind of like ad block? I fucking hate YOUTUBE videos and would like to zap them from the start. Maybe you could develop one? I would definitely pay for that.

  20. Argonaut says:

    How about adding this to addons.mozilla.org? It would save you lots of bandwidth I’m sure, as well as increase its popularity tremendously. Users would also be able to check for updates using the built in mechanism with Firefox. Thanks.

  24. hmm never really though of not wanting the vids to play, but I can see if your surfing all the time on youtube as it can get annoying with 5 different vids playing.

  32. Kevin says:

    Great addon, but it prevents the “watch in high quality” link from working. The user would have to manually add the “&fmt=18” to the URL for high quality videos. Please update when you can. Thanks.

  33. Kevin says:

    Just want to add to my comment above: with this addon, even adding “&fmt=18” to the YouTube URL would not produce the higher quality video. =(

  36. I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my hears and my patience a few times!

  38. Why you don’t put this extension here? [or I can’t find it?]
    I don’t want to register at mozilla only for installing one extension – this is crazy!

    Regards :)

  40. TubeStop originalmente fue creado con el fin de evitar que los videos comiencen automaticamente y así permitirle a los usuarios que abran multiples videos sin que se ejecuten todos al mismo tiempo

  41. Zapp says:

    Not working anymore as of a couple days ago on either of my machines. They must have changed the ad delivery mechanism. Need an update!

  43. YOUTUBE começou a pôr anúncios ontem, mas hoje já está disponível o TubeStop, um plugin do Firefox para bloquear de anúncios do

  44. Why you don’t put this extension here? [or I can’t find it?]
    I don’t want to register at mozilla only for installing one extension – this is crazy!

    Regards :)

  49. john marzan says:

    tubestop is not working anymore. i think youtube has made some changes… might have something to do with that.

  64. James says:

    “TubeStop isn’t compatible with YouTubes new Widescreen formats and places all the vids back to 4:3”

    I’d love a fix to this… it’s a shame because this add-on is one of my favorites… :(

  65. Any chance on an update for Youtubes new WS/HD content? You were on the ball with the last fix hopefully you can figure this one out as well.

    I can’t live without this add-on, but I have viewing HD content in IE! Help =)

  66. I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  67. Loveityouroxors! says:

    “TubeStop isn’t compatible with YouTubes new Widescreen formats and places all the vids back to 4:3”

    I’d love a fix to this… it’s a shame because this add-on is one of my favorites… :(

  68. Jason says:

    Well the new experimental build seems to enable widescreen just fine. However HD is still not working.

    The “watch in HD” never appears and then for instance like in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzQEjNjlh6U the player never shifts the right column down further to allow for high res content.

    Is this something this extension is going to be able to fix? Or are these new HD changes too difficult to deal with?

  69. I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  70. Great addon, but it prevents the “watch in high quality” link from working. The user would have to manually add the “&fmt=18” to the URL for high quality videos. Please update when you can. Thanks.

  71. Could the video be automatically loaded in the background but keep stop autoplay? This would be good and convenient for user to watch the clips without waiting for the download. Thx. :)

  77. I saw the messages and agreed with I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. Thanks.

  80. I saw that tubestop is not working anymore. i think youtube has made some changes might have something to do with that, probably do.

  86. I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  92. I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  97. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video.

  101. I saw that tubestop is not working anymore. i think youtube has made some changes might have something to do with that, probably do.

  102. tendrá publicidad, guste o no guste. Algunos se han puesto a protestar y otros a buscar maneras de “boicotear“ los nuevos.

  103. Just want to add to my comment above: with this addon, even adding “&fmt=18? to the YouTube URL would not produce the higher quality video. =(

  106. Firefox extension called TubeStop was created to keep YouTube videos from automatically playing on the video-sharing site. A great

  108. I think that it would be better, if it still had, like the original, a fullscreen option, and not just a time countdown, but a X out of X like the original one. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  110. 2x says:

    You got me all exited, but without auto-load, this isn’t worth it. At least for me, the whole point of this is so that I can go through a list of vids, load the ones I want to watch one-by-one in new tabs, then when I’m ready, start watching them.

    Now, I just turn off my speakers, load the tabs then go through each tab, hit pause and drag the slide bar to the beginning.

    This tool prevents the auto-play which is brilliant! thank you, but now after I’ve selected a bunch of vids, I have to go back through each of the tabs and click play/pause, then wait for loading.

    If you allow for pre-loading, this seems perfect. Without pre-loading, I’ll just uninstall.

    thanks for the effort

  111. Please define in the description that this extension also STOPS the preloading of video..So you still have to do the play+pause dance to load while you browse..

  112. Now, I just turn off my speakers, load the tabs then go through each tab, hit pause and drag the slide bar to the beginning.

  113. the fact that I dont know what part of the video I am on (seconds from the begging) frustrates me when I am told to look at certain sections of a video. other than that it has saved my ears and my patience a few times!

  115. Please define in the description that this extension also STOPS the preloading of, video..So you still have to do the play pause dance to load while you browse.

  118. You got me all exited, but without auto-load, this isn’t worth it. At least for me, the whole point of this is so that I can go through a list of vids, load the ones I want to watch one-by-one in new tabs, then when I’m ready, start watching them.

  121. smifT says:

    Wonderful addon, good on you.

    However, I only use it for blocking the annoying pop-up ads, not for stopping the auto play – which I would still like.
    Is there a way to allow autoplay, and not the ads?

  122. This tool prevents the auto-play which is brilliant! thank you, but now after I’ve selected a bunch of vids, I have to go back through each of the tabs and click play/pause, then wait for loading.

    The “watch in HD” never appears and then for instance like in this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzQEjNjlh6U the player never shifts the right column down further to allow for high res content.

  124. chen ming says:

    Doesn’t work on videos that are featured on peoples pages (the ones that autoplay), so everytime i go to a certain channel that has an autoplaying video it still plays

  125. Now, I just turn off my speakers, load the tabs then go through each tab, hit pause and drag the slide bar to the beginning.

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