Browser Troubleshooting
Can't See New Content? | Browsing Issues | Troubleshooting
Browser Help: Firefox | Chrome | Edge | Safari | Opera
If you're having trouble viewing content properly or if your browser stops working, these browser-specific resources can help you to recover.
If you can't see any content, check to see if the issue is with a specific website or if your connection to the Internet is broken.
Is it Browser-specific?
Google Chrome is now the world's dominant browser. Many browsers have been rebuilt using Chromium.
If you're using an older browser, upgrade to something current. Using unsupported software is dangerous.
Can't See New Content?
Sometimes you'll have problems viewing what you expect on a webpage. Either updated content isn't showing or something is displaying incorrectly.
This is usually because the browser is displaying cached (locally-stored) content rather than refreshing the content from the website. Browsers use caches to avoid having to repeatedly download similar content from the Web such as style sheets, graphics, etc.
If reloading the page doesn't work try clearing the cache or a hard reset (forced refresh).
- How to clear Internet cache in every major browser.
- 8 Ways to clear your browser's cache.
- How to force refresh in your Internet browser.
Browsing Issues
This section looks at some browsing issues that may be simply annoying or threaten your privacy and security.
Disable Annoying Video Autoplay
You land on a site and all of a sudden a video is playing. You're annoyed for many reasons including
- clicking on the pause button distracts you from the reason you went to the site in the first place;
- these unwanted videos waste your bandwidth (especially when using expensive cellular data); and
- videos can be disruptive late at night or in your work environment if your sound isn't turned down or off.
Stop HTML5 Autoplay
HTML5-based video initially lacked the capability to control HTML5 video (Firefox was the first to block video autoplay in 2015). Older versions required you to go into the advanced settings (e.g., entering “about:config” into Firefox's address bar) — not recommended for most users.
See Stop HTML5 Autoplay for details.
Disable SSO
Single sign-on (SSO) uses your Google, Facebook, Windows or Apple ID to log into third-party sites. Google calls this “third-party sign-in.”
- Using SSO is a security risk: if your SSO account is hacked, so is every other account using it.
- Vendors employing SSO may obtain information about your primary SSO account.
Google Chrome offers the ability to disable SSO (third-party sign-in):
- Settings ⇒ Privacy and Security ⇒ Site Settings ⇒ Additional Content Settings ⇒ Third-party sign-in.
Microsoft's Work & School Accounts
Windows offers the ability to log in to your work or school account instead of using a personal account.
- Settings ⇒ Accounts ⇒ Access work or school.
Firefox disables Windows SSO option by default.
- Settings ⇒ Privacy and Security ⇒ Logins and Passwords ⇒ Allow Windows single sign-on for Microsoft, work, and school accounts.
