Plenty of new features are available for iPad users with the release of iPadOS. This includes improved text formatting in the Mail app and per-site settings for Safari. One more feature that hits the Photos app on iPad is the auto-playing of live photos and videos.
What does this mean exactly? Well, as you scroll through photos and videos on the Photos tab, your live photos and videos will start playing automatically. Apple believes this will bring “your photo library to life.”
While this may be true, the feature isn’t for everyone. If you’re on the hunt for a specific photo or video, having these automatically play might be distracting. If you fall into this group, then we’re here to help. Here’s how to disable the auto-play feature for videos and live photos on iPadOS.
Once you update to iPadOS, this is one of those features that will be enabled by default. So, be sure to check it out just in case you decide that you like it.
If it still doesn’t do it for you, you can disable it in just a few steps.
Open the Settings on your iPad.
Scroll to and select Photos.
Under Photos Tab, turn off the toggle for Auto-Play Videos and Live Photos.
Disable auto-play in Photos on iPadOS
That’s it! When you head back to the Photos tab in the Photos app and scroll through, you should no longer see your vidoes and photos come to life.
And since the setting is only a few taps away, you can always enable it again later if you want to give it another try.
Auto-play isn’t for everyone
This is a nice feature if you happen to just be browsing through the Photos tab. It could be a cool way to enjoy reminiscing. But thankfully Apple has made it easy to disable if you don’t like it.
What are your thoughts on the auto-play feature? Do you think it will be cool and convenient or distracting and annoying? Let us know in the comments below and remember you can also message us on Twitter or Facebook.
Sandy worked for many years in the IT industry as a project manager, department manager, and PMO Lead. She then decided to follow her dream and now writes about technology full-time. Sandy holds a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology.
She loves technology– specifically – terrific games and apps for iOS, software that makes your life easier, and productivity tools that you can use every day, in both work and home environments.
Her articles have regularly been featured at MakeUseOf, iDownloadBlog and many other leading tech publications.
This article presents information that doesn’t work in iPadOS. Despite disabling every possible autoplay option in settings, my iPad still aggravatingly will auto play videos whenever I surf Safari in desktop mode. Even using content blockers is not enough to stop the auto play videos on every website I encounter.
There is NO apparent fix to this.
If the author wishes to update this outdated information or provide a more comprehensive approach to prevent entirely all auto play on an iPad including Safari, I’m listening.
I know how to turn off auto play in Photos. I know how to turn it off on the App Store. I know all of the settings that have to do with video and auto play because I have found all of them. And I am telling you that none of them address the failure of Safari desktop on an iPad and that there is no way to turn off auto play.
I have auto play videos turned off in the Photos tab in settings but they still play – even on this page. How can I make all videos in various browsers stop playing sutomativally?
This article presents information that doesn’t work in iPadOS. Despite disabling every possible autoplay option in settings, my iPad still aggravatingly will auto play videos whenever I surf Safari in desktop mode. Even using content blockers is not enough to stop the auto play videos on every website I encounter.
There is NO apparent fix to this.
If the author wishes to update this outdated information or provide a more comprehensive approach to prevent entirely all auto play on an iPad including Safari, I’m listening.
I know how to turn off auto play in Photos. I know how to turn it off on the App Store. I know all of the settings that have to do with video and auto play because I have found all of them. And I am telling you that none of them address the failure of Safari desktop on an iPad and that there is no way to turn off auto play.
I have a question . How do I shut off Auto play and whydo I need it On >
I have auto play videos turned off in the Photos tab in settings but they still play – even on this page. How can I make all videos in various browsers stop playing sutomativally?