Disable & Turn Off Automatic Images Loading in Firefox

Firefox web browser has removed the option to disable or enable the automatic loading of images on web pages from its Options set since Firefox 23. Previously, user can easily turn off or turn on the automatic images loading via a setting in “Content” tab of web browser’s Options menu.

Disabling images loading can potentially speed up loading of web pages, and also minimizes the CPU and memory usage, especially if you’re opening many web pages in a lot of tabs.

Even though the UI to disable automatic images loading has been removed, the support to disable automatic images loading is still built-in in Firefox browser. There are two ways to change the preference on automatic images loading, via about:config or by installing an add-on.

How to Disable Automatic Images Loading in Firefox

Method 1: Via about:config

1. In Firefox’s address bar, type about:config and press Enter.
2. Click I’ll be careful, I promise! button.

   

3. In the search bar, search for permissions.default.image.
4. Double click on the row of preference named permissions.default.image to change the integer value to 2. Alternatively, right click the preference named permissions.default.image and click Modify to change the integer value to 2.

   

5. Automatic images loading is now disabled.

To re-enable setting to load images automatically, repeat above steps and change the value of permissions.default.image preference to 1.

Method 2: Via Add-Ons

SettingSanity is an add-on that was developed directly in response to the removal of options to disable Images, JavaScript, and the Tab Bar in the Options window of Firefox. It re-adds those options, and also the option of toolbar buttons for toggling Images and JavaScript without opening the Options window.