Use the QuickTime plugin to play audio and video

This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

Support ended for all NPAPI plugins, except for Adobe Flash, in Firefox version 52. See this article for details.

QuickTime for Windows has been discontinued by Apple and has known critical security vulnerabilities. You should uninstall the QuickTime application if you have it installed. The QuickTime browser plugin has been blocked for your protection.

quicktime_logo.png The QuickTime application from Apple, Inc. includes a browser plugin that enables you to play movies and other online media in your Firefox browser. QuickTime is included on Mac systems and is available for Windows. This article explains how to check that QuickTime is installed and working and includes some troubleshooting suggestions if you are having problems with QuickTime.

Note: QuickTime is not available for the Linux platform, but Mplayer is a popular Linux media player that can play back QuickTime media. In order to use Mplayer to play QuickTime stream in Firefox, you must install two programs named gnome-mplayer and gecko-mediaplayer. Your Linux distribution may have these packages readily available to install.

Note: The 64-bit version of Firefox does not recognize or support this plugin.
Important: the QuickTime browser plugin is unavailable by default on Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). Please see this Apple support article for an explanation and steps to make the plugin available in Firefox:
If your web browser says that it's missing the QuickTime plug-in.

Testing QuickTime

To see if QuickTime is installed and working,To see if the QuickTime browser plugin is working, visit this page:

If the QuickTime video plays, the QuickTime plugin is installed and enabled.

Note: To complete the test on a Windows system, you may need to enable some features of Firefox to communicate through your Windows Firewall. To enable these features, click Unblock when prompted by Firefox.

Installing or updating QuickTime

To install QuickTime or to update to the latest version:

Note: The latest version of QuickTime is for Windows 7 or Vista. If installed on other Windows operating systems, it may not offer full functionality. For more information about current and previous QuickTime versions, visit this Apple downloads page.
  1. Go to the Apple QuickTime download webpage.
  2. Download the QuickTime installer file to your computer.
  3. When the download completes, close Firefox.
  4. Find the file you downloaded and double-click it to start the QuickTime installation.

Starting with QuickTime version 7.7.9, the browser plugin is no longer installed by default and will be removed if you have a previous version of QuickTime on your computer.

If you are installing QuickTime 7.7.9 or above you should select the "Custom" install option instead of a "Typical" install, so that you can include the optional QuickTime Web Plug-in. If you have already installed or updated QuickTime, you can add the browser plugin using these steps:

  1. Find the Quicktime Installer file you downloaded previously and double-click it. (Alternatively, open the Windows Control Panel, choose Programs, then Programs and Features, select QuickTime from the list of installed programs and click Change.)
  2. In the "QuickTime for Windows" window that opens, select Modify.
    QT779installer-Modify
  3. In the "QuickTime Product Features" window, choose Optional QuickTime Features and, under QuickTime Web Plug-in chose the drop-down option, Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive.
    QT779installer-WebPlugin
  4. Click the Change button.

The QuickTime installation will complete and the browser plugin will be installed. If you see an installation error, close Firefox (if open) and try again. When you next open Firefox you should see the QuickTime plugin listed in the Add-ons Manager.

QuickTime is pre-installed and can be updated using the Mac OS X Software Update feature.

Enabling or disabling the browser plugin

You can disable or enable the browser plugin in the Firefox Add-ons Manager when QuickTime is installed.
If the browser plugin is disabled, the QuickTime tests linked above and other embedded QuickTime media will not play, even though QuickTime is installed.
  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Add-ons and themes and select Plugins.
  2. In the list of plugins, select QuickTime Plug-in.
    • If you want to disable the plugin, select Never Activate in its drop-down menu.
    • If you want to re-enable the plugin, select Always Activate in its drop-down menu.

Changing how media is handled

When you click on a link to download a media file and the QuickTime plugin can handle that type of file, it will open automatically in Firefox with the QuickTime plugin. You can change this behavior by selecting a different download action in your Firefox Application settings. For more information, see Manage file types and download actions in Firefox.

Embedded media

You can only change the file types that are associated with QuickTime Player. The Internet media types that are handled by the browser plugin are enabled by default for all supported media types and cannot be reconfigured.

The QuickTime plugin enables certain media types by default. If you are having problems with embedded content in a webpage, you can reconfigure the QuickTime browser plugin:

  1. Open the QuickTime Player.
  2. At the top of the QuickTime window, select the Edit menu, select Preferences, and then select QuickTime Preferences…. The QuickTime Preferences window appears.
  3. In the QuickTime Preferences window, select the Browser tab, and then click MIME Settings…. The MIME Types window opens.

    win-quicktimemimesettings.png
  4. In the MIME Types window, you can specify the media formats you want QuickTime to play in Firefox. These settings apply only to online files; they do not apply to files opened through your operating system.

Suggested MIME Types

Audio

  • AIFF audio
  • uLaw/AU audio
  • MIDI
  • WAVE audio


MPEG

  • MPEG media
  • MPEG audio
  • MPEG-4 media


MP3

  • MP3 audio

Uninstalling QuickTime

For information about uninstalling QuickTime, see these Apple Support articles:



Based on information from QuickTime (mozillaZine KB)

These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, jscher2000 - Support Volunteer, novica, Tonnes, Michele Rodaro, Michael Verdi, scoobidiver, Frankie, Swarnava Sengupta, ideato, Joni
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