Audio or Video Not Playing? How to Fix Autoplay Blocking
If your background music or audio hints suddenly aren’t playing in your Hint Control Panel and browser, don’t worry — this is almost always caused by your browser blocking autoplay with sound, which is a standard security feature.
This typically happens after browser updates or when using a new device or new browser profile.
Why This Happens
Modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) do not allow websites to autoplay audio or video with sound unless the site is explicitly trusted.
Because your escape room controller runs from a secure, third-party URL (e.g., https://console.offthecouch.io/), the browser requires you to whitelist it before any audio can play.
Nothing is broken — the browser is just blocking sound until you give permission.
Whitelist the URL
Step 1 — Open the escape room console
Open the page where your game normally runs, a pop-up asking for your permissions should appear.
Step 2 — Change autoplay permissions manually
If the permissions pop-up by the URL doesn't appear, follow the steps below.
Chrome
- Click the icon next to the URL > Site settings.
- Find Sound, the drop down with options to the right defaults to Automatic (default).
- Set it to Allow.
Firefox
- Click the hamburger (icon with 3 lines) > Settings.
- Click Privacy & Security.
- Find Autoplay.
- Set to Default for all websites to Allow Audio and Video. This will enable it for all websites, however will save you the trouble of getting the pop-up to appear; please configure accordingly.
- Alternatively, if Firefox has already blocked https://console.offthecouch.io/, set the Status to Allow Audio and Video.