How to Mute Sound in Your Internet Browser

So you have your headphones on, and you're grooving along to your favorite music on YouTube while you enter sweepstakes... when it happens. An ad starts blaring on a website you've opened, blasting your eardrums and shaking you out of your groove.

Sound familiar?

There are many good reasons to turn off sounds in your internet browser. Maybe you're listening to music while you work or watching television while you enter sweepstakes, and you don't want to be interrupted. Maybe you don't want to disturb other people in the room with you, or perhaps you just don't want to be scared half to death by unexpected noises blaring at you when you open a new page.

Luckily, you don't have to be at the mercy of ads, news broadcasts, or sweepstakes sites that blast sound when you visit them. These tips will help you disable sound in your browser, allowing you to browse in peace.

How to Turn Off Sound for Individual Tabs in Your Web Browser:

Perhaps you don't want to shut off sound altogether, but only block it in a particular tab. This trick lets you continue to listen to sound playing in other tabs.

You can mute sounds in Firefox by looking for the speaker icon on the tab that's playing music. Click on that speaker icon to turn sound off for that tab. Click the icon again to turn the sound back on again.

Disable sounds in Internet Explorer by opening Advanced Features under Settings. 

Turn off sounds in Chrome by right-clicking on the tab and selecting the Mute Site option. If you aren't sure which tab is making the noise, look for a little speaker icon on the offending tab.

To mute Safari sounds, look for the speaker icon in the address bar. Click on it while on a tab that's playing sound and it mutes that tab. If you click on it on a tab that isn't playing sound, clicking the speaker icon mutes all tabs.

Microsoft Edge lets you mute individual tabs by right-clicking the tab in question and selecting the Mute Tab option.

Now that you know how to mute individual tabs, continue on to find out how you can disable all browser noises.

Disable Sounds in Your Internet Browser Using Windows:

If you want to disable sounds from playing altogether, you can prevent your internet browser from playing any sounds at all. This prevents you from being interrupted at all.

Here's how you do it in Windows:

1. Open Your Control Panel: The easiest way to open the Control Panel is to click the Magnifying Glass icon, then search for Control Panel.
2. Open Internet Properties: Use the search box to find the Internet Properties section of the Control Panel.
3. Select the Advanced tab: This is usually on the far-right side of the Internet Properties screen.
4. Scroll Down to Multimedia: Scroll through the options until you see the Multimedia section.
5. Uncheck the Play Sounds Option: Click to uncheck the option to "Play Sounds in webpages." This will turn off all sounds in your internet browsers.
6. Turn Sounds on Again When You're Ready: If you'd like to resume listening to sounds on your internet browser, go through these steps again, but this time, check the "Play Sounds in Web pages" option.

Disable Sounds in Mac

Mac lets you disable browser sounds in Safari. To find out how, follow these directions from Apple Support: Mute audio tabs in Safari on Mac.

Use Plug-Ins to Turn Off Browser Sounds:

You can also use browser plug-in programs to modify how your internet browser handles sounds. This gives you more control than blocking sounds from your browser altogether, since you can allow some sites to play music (like YouTube, for example). Here are some plug-ins you can try:

• Mute Sies by Default for Firefox blocks sounds from all websites that aren't on a whitelist.
• MuteTab for Chrome helps you find which of your tabs are playing sound, then lets you stop or pause the culprit. It also automatically shuts off the sound for any tabs playing in the background.
• If advertisements are annoying you by auto-playing sound, ad-blocking plug-ins will prevent them from running at all.

As you can see, you have several options to help you control the sounds you hear in your browser. You don't have to be annoyed by unwanted noises as you play, work, or enter sweepstakes.