X

How to disable autoplay for Facebook videos

Learn how to disable videos from playing automatically in your Facebook news feed for both the mobile app and on the desktop.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
Matt Elliott

fb-autoplay.jpg
Matt Elliott/CNET

The Ice Bucket Challenge has been wildly successful in raising money for ALS research, but the resulting videos that undoubtedly have been showing up in your Facebook news feed may be raising your data charges. By default, videos are set to autoplay in Facebook. When we looked at the disabling this feature last year, you could disable when on a cellular connection, now you have the option of disabling autoplay altogether.

facebook-autoplay-ios.png
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

On an iPhone, go to Settings and scroll down until you find Facebook. Tap on it and then tap Settings. Next, tap on the Autoplay setting and choose either Wi-Fi only or Off so you don't use a big chunk of your monthly data allotment on Facebook videos.

On Android, you will find the auto-play settings within the Facebook app itself. Tap the menu button and then choose settings.

facebook-autoplay-desktop.jpg
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

You can also disable autoplay videos on the desktop should you find it an interruption to have videos play as you leisurely scroll down your Facebook feed. To do so, click on the downward arrow in the upper-right corner and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Next, click on Videos from the left-hand navigation panel and choose Off.