How to turn the Disney Plus autoplay feature and background video features on or off to take control

August 2024 · 4 minute read

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Autoplay can be a great feature on streaming apps — when you're binge watching a show, it's much easier to not have to select the next episode to watch every twenty to forty minutes.

However, if you want to discourage binge watching — either for yourself, or for a child who may be using your Disney Plus account — you may want to disable autoplay to stop yourself from getting sucked into another, and another and another, episode.

Luckily for you, Disney Plus has a way to disable the autoplay setting on your account. You can turn this off and on at any time, so you can still choose to binge watch if you want. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Disney Plus monthly subscription (from $6.99 at Disney+)

How to turn Disney Plus autoplay off or on

1. On the Disney Plus mobile app, go to your profile by selecting your profile icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Tap your profile icon in the bottom right corner. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

If you're doing this on your TV and not the app, you will find your profile icon at the top of the sidebar on the left side of the screen.

Select your profile icon from the sidebar on the left. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

If you're using Disney Plus on a web browser, the profile icon will be in the top right corner of the screen. 

2. Under the list of current profiles, select "Edit Profiles."

Select "Edit Profiles." Melanie Weir/Business Insider

3. Choose the profile you want to modify.

Choose your profile from the list. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

4. Toggle the switch next to "Autoplay" to the "Off" position (or "On").

Toggle "Autoplay" to the "Off" position. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

5. Hit "Save" in the top right corner to finish.

How to turn off background videos on Disney Plus

Another annoying, autoplay-related feature that Disney Plus thankfully allows you to turn off is background video. Background videos are those little clips and previews that play automatically when you hover over certain TV shows or movies before you click them. 

This is a good feature if you're not sure what you want to watch. But, if you know what you want or you'd just rather browse silently until you find something, it can be a nuisance.

Some versions of the app don't have this feature listed as an option to turn off and on in your profile menu, because they don't autoplay previews to begin with. But it is consistently available on the TV version of the app, and you can turn it off by following the steps from the section above, with one small deviation:

When editing your profile, toggle the option labeled "Background Video" to "Off." Melanie Weir/Business Insider
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Freelance author Melanie Weir is a freelance author for Insider, mainly focusing on the Tech Reference section, but occasionally contributing to Lifestyle and Entertainment topics as well. She is also a freelance writer for ScreenRant, and is the Lead Weekend News Editor at TheThings.com. In her spare time she writes plays for both stage and screen. She can be reached at melanie.weir1008@gmail.com, or through LinkedIn. Read more Read less

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