How to Get the Pause Button Back on Facebook Reels: 8 Methods

Are you suddenly unable to pause reels on Facebook anymore? This is a bug that comes up from time to time on Facebook's mobile app on iOS and Android. While this is certainly a frustrating issue to come across, don't worry—we've gathered some tricks you can use to fix this issue. However, most of these fixes are anecdotal from other online users, so you may have to simply wait for Facebook to fix the bug before you can pause reels again. To learn the tips we've gathered for fixing this bug, keep reading this article.

Things You Should Know

You can delete Facebook's cache in your phone's settings on both Android and iOS, which some users said helped them get their reel pause button back.
Other users said that tapping the comments icon brings up a pause button you can then click to pause the reel.
If nothing else works, you should report the bug to Facebook so they can hopefully get a fix for you ASAP.

Method 1

Method 1 of 8:

Delete the Facebook Cache

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1
Delete the Facebook cache on Android. Some users have had luck getting the pause button back on reels by clearing their Facebook cache. To clear this cache, however, you'll have to go to your phone's settings:
- Open your Android's Settings.
- Tap Apps or Apps & notifications.
- Tap Facebook.
- Tap Storage and cache or Storage.
- Tap Clear cache.
2
Delete the Facebook cache on iOS. If you have an iPhone or iPad, there's no option to clear the Facebook cache. Instead, you'll need to offload the Facebook app and then reinstall it to bring back the ability to pause reels:
- Open Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap iPhone (or iPad) Storage.
- Tap Facebook.
- Tap Offload app and then Offload app again to confirm.
- Tap Reinstall app.

Method 2

Method 2 of 8:

Restart Your Phone

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1
Turn your phone off and back on to refresh it. Sometimes phones can exhibit weird behaviors if they've been on for a while, so restarting your phone could help fix the issue of the pause button missing from your Facebook reel.
- Each phone is restarted a little differently but usually involves a combination of button presses with the power button and the volume up or down button.

Method 3

Method 3 of 8:

Disable Autoplay

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If you're using the Facebook mobile app, turning off autoplay often restores your ability to pause reels.
This icon looks like three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other.
This menu item has a small rectangle with a triangle play button in the middle.
This will turn off autoplay when you open a reel, which may bring the pause functionality back to you.^{[1]
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Research source}

Method 4

Method 4 of 8:

Tap the Comments Icon

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The comment icon is on the right side of the screen and looks like a speech bubble. Some users state that tapping the comment icon will bring up a pause icon, which you can then tap to pause the video.^{[2]
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Research source}

Method 5

Method 5 of 8:

Update the Facebook App

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1
Go to your phone's app store. It's possible that not being able to pause reels on Facebook is a bug and Facebook has already pushed a fix in an update.
- On Android, open the Google Play Store.
- On iOS, open the App Store.
2
Go to your profile.
- On Android, tap your profile picture in the upper right-hand corner.
- On iOS, tap the blue
  user button in the upper right-hand corner.
3
Update the TikTok app. How to update varies based on phone type:
- On Android, click Manage apps & device in your profile. If there are updates available, you'll see Updates available. Tap See details to see if TikTok has an update available, and then hit the Update button next to TikTok if it does.
- On iOS, scroll until you see TikTok and select the blue Update button.
If there is no Facebook update available, you will need to try another method to fix the pausing issue.

Method 6

Method 6 of 8:

Tap and Hold to Pause

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1
Tap and hold a reel to pause it. This is how you pause a reel on Instagram, and it may work on Facebook as well if the normal method to pause videos doesn't work.^{[3]
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Research source}
- If the reel pauses, lift your finger to unpause it.

Method 7

Method 7 of 8:

Report the Problem to Facebook

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1
Tap the three-dot icon in the bottom-right corner of a reel. This will bring up the reels menu.
- Some users reported getting their pause functionality back right after submitting a bug report to Facebook, but this is anecdotal.
This will begin the bug report process.
You can either opt to provide logs to Facebook or not, but providing logs can help Facebook engineers solve bugs more quickly.
In the box that says What went wrong? type out the issue you are having by not being able to pause reels.
5
Click Send in the upper-right corner when you're done. This will send the bug report to Facebook.
- You may or may not get a response if Facebook sees your report and if they fix it.

Method 8

Method 8 of 8:

Reinstall the Facebook App

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1
Delete and reinstall the Facebook app. If you still can't pause reels, deleting and reinstalling the mobile app will often fix the problem.
- On Android, tap and hold the Facebook app on the Home screen, then select Uninstall or drag it to the trash icon. On other Androids, you'll need to tap the X or Delete after tapping and holding the icon. Then, download the Facebook app again from the Play Store.
- On an iPhone or iPad, tap and hold the Facebook icon on your Home screen, tap Remove app, then tap Delete App.