How to disable animated pictures in Internet browsers

Updated: 02/07/2022 by Computer Hope
Computer Hope animated GIF

Animated pictures (GIF89a) like the one shown to the right can sometimes become annoying or unnecessary. To disable animated GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) in your Internet browser, this page gives you instructions for all the major browsers.

Note

This page only covers disabling animated GIFs and not Flash or Java animations. Disabling those types of animation require disabling Flash and Java altogether.

Chrome logo

Disabling animated pictures in Google Chrome

At this time, there is no option for turning off animated GIFs in Google Chrome. Several people have developed extensions (add-ons) that sometimes accomplish the task of "pausing" the animated GIFs, but they do not turn off the animated images completely.

Firefox logo

Disabling animated pictures in Firefox

In the Firefox address bar, type about:config. Click the "Accept the Risk and Continue" button. In the Search bar, type image, then find the entry for image.animation_mode in the search results. Double-click this option, set the value to none, and click the checkmark button. Close and restart Firefox for the setting change to take effect.

Disable Firefox animated gifs

Internet Explorer logo

Disabling animated pictures in Internet Explorer

In the Internet Explorer menu bar, click Tools and then Options. In the Internet Options window that opens, click the Advanced tab, then scroll down about halfway and find the option for Play animations in webpages. Uncheck the box next to this option and click the OK button. Close and restart the browser for the setting change to take effect.

Disable animated GIF in Internet Explorer