Automatically Pause YouTube Videos with this Firefox Add-on

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 04 Jun 2013

The YouTube Smart Pause add-on for Mozilla’s Firefox web browser will automatically pause the video you’re watching if you switch to another tab.

Say you’re watching a video on YouTube when something comes up and you have to leave the YouTube page and address whatever came up. If you forgot to pause the video, it will keep playing in the background until you return. And when you return, you’ll have to remember where you left of. Wouldn’t it be nice if the video playback would automatically pause when you minimize the browser window or switch to another tab?

There is a Firefox add-on that does just that: YouTube Smart Pause. When you minimize the Firefox browser, the add-on automatically pauses YouTube videos. If you switch from one tab to another, the add-on automatically pauses the video playback. When you switch back to the YouTube tab, the add-on automatically resumes playback.

You can get YouTube Smart Pause straight from the Firefox Add-ons webpage here. Most add-ons ask you to restart the browser. The nice thing about this one is that it doesn’t. It takes little time to install it and you don’t have to restart Firefox to start enjoying it.

Disabling the add-on can be done from the right click context menu. While on YouTube, right click anywere you want (not on the video though) and you will be presented with this context menu.



From the Add-ons menu you can access the YouTube Smart Pause Options and play with the following:
  • Set a delay time between 0 and 99 seconds for pausing videos. If you set the delay time to 2 seconds, the add-on will wait 2 seconds before pausing the video.
  • Change the favicon according to the start of the player. A countdown will be displayed if you set a delay time.
  • Show a notification when YouTube Smart Pause is enabled or disabled. This works with Windows, Mac OS X using Growl and Linux using libnotify.



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