Videos that start playing on their own — in the App Store, in Photos memories, or in your social feeds — are annoying and eat mobile data. Autoplay is enabled by default on most phones, and it follows you everywhere — from the App Store’s preview clips to the videos that start rolling in your social feeds. The good news: iOS lets you turn off most of them. Here’s how to silence autoplay across the iPhone’s built-in apps and the third-party apps you use most.
Turn off autoplay in the App Store
- Open Settings > App Store.
- Tap “Video Autoplay”.
- Choose Off.
This stops the preview videos that play automatically on app pages and in the Today tab — a big data saver when you’re browsing on cellular. You can also choose “Wi-Fi Only” if you want previews on Wi-Fi but not on cellular — a good middle ground.
Turn off autoplay in Photos
- Open Settings > Photos.
- Turn off “Auto-play Videos and Live Photos”.
This stops Memories and albums from playing motion automatically as you browse your library. This also affects the Memories feature, which assembles automatic slideshows from your library.
Turn off video previews system-wide
- Open Settings > Accessibility > Motion.
- Turn off “Auto-Play Video Previews”.
This is the master switch that affects video previews across iOS, including the App Store — turn it off and previews stop everywhere at once. This Accessibility setting is designed to reduce motion for sensitive users, but it doubles as a convenient global autoplay kill-switch.
Turn off autoplay in third-party apps
Most apps have their own autoplay setting that ignores iOS switches. In YouTube: open the app, tap your profile picture > Settings > General > “Playback in feeds” and choose Off. For a quieter YouTube experience overall, see our guide to watching YouTube without watch history. TikTok, Instagram, and X (Twitter) also have autoplay or data-saver options in their settings — look under Data Usage or Playback. These in-app settings usually live under Privacy, Data Usage, or Playback — and they’re worth hunting down, since third-party apps are the biggest autoplay offenders.
If it still doesn’t work
Some apps ignore iOS settings and autoplay anyway — check each app’s own settings. Restart the app after changing a toggle, and update the app if a setting seems missing. For more iOS 16 customization, see how to add an empty widget to the iOS 16 lock screen. Apple Support documents the autoplay controls, MacRumors covers iOS media settings, and discussions on X share app-specific workarounds.
Frequently asked questions
Will turning off autoplay save battery and data?
Yes. Fewer auto-playing videos means less data usage and slightly better battery life, especially on cellular.
Does this affect videos I tap to play?
No. Manually tapping a video always plays it — these settings only stop automatic playback.
Conclusion
Between the App Store toggle, the Photos setting, and the Accessibility master switch, you can silence nearly every auto-playing video on your iPhone. For the rest, check each app’s own playback settings — and enjoy the quiet. Your iPhone will feel calmer, your data plan will thank you, and you’ll still never miss a video you actually want to watch.
