FotoGrids galleries are not limited to images. You can mix video files from your WordPress Media Library straight into a Gallery alongside your photos, each with its own poster image and playback options. This article covers adding Media Library videos, setting their per-item options, and choosing how videos play on the front end.
Location Gallery Editor → Add Items
Adding a Video File #
Video files are added the same way as images. In the gallery editor, add items from the Media Library and select an uploaded video — FotoGrids adds it to the Gallery as a video item rather than an image. The item shows a poster frame in the grid, and visitors play it according to the playback mode set for the Gallery.
Media Library video support is a Gallery feature. Videos are added to individual Galleries; Albums display their child Galleries’ covers rather than holding video items directly.
A video item uses the video’s own thumbnail as its poster by default. You can replace it with any image from your Media Library in the item’s Video tab.
Per-Item Video Options #
Open a video item in the item editor and select the Video tab. This tab appears only for Media Library video items and controls how that single video looks and plays.
Poster Image
The still frame shown in the gallery before the video plays. It defaults to the video’s own thumbnail. Use Choose Poster to pick any image from your Media Library, or Remove to fall back to the default thumbnail.
A strong poster image matters — it is what visitors see in the grid before they decide to play, so it does the same job a cover frame does on a video platform.
Autoplay
| Setting | Autoplay |
| Options | On Off |
| Default | Off |
Starts the video automatically. Browsers apply their own autoplay rules — most block autoplay with sound — so autoplay is most reliable when combined with Mute.
Mute
| Setting | Mute |
| Options | On Off |
| Default | Off |
Plays the video without sound. Pair this with Autoplay if you want a video to begin on its own, since browsers generally allow muted autoplay.
Loop
| Setting | Loop |
| Options | On Off |
| Default | Off |
Restarts the video from the beginning when it reaches the end.
Player Controls
| Setting | Player Controls |
| Options | On Off |
| Default | On |
Shows the play, pause, volume, and timeline controls on the player. Turn it off for a clean, controls-free clip — useful for short looping background-style videos.
How Videos Play #
How a video opens when a visitor clicks it is set once for the whole Gallery, in the Video settings tab.
Location Gallery Settings → Video
Video Playback
| Setting | Video Playback |
| Options | Play Inline Video Lightbox |
| Default | Play Inline |
Play Inline — the video plays in place, inside its tile in the grid. Clicking the poster swaps it for the player without leaving the page.
Video Lightbox — clicking the video opens it in a focused overlay above the page, the same way images open in the Lightbox.
Video Lightbox Behaviour
When playback is set to Video Lightbox, a group of behaviour options becomes available: Autoplay When Lightbox Opens, Autoplay When Navigating to Video, and Advance to Next Item After Video Ends. These automatic-playback behaviours are part of FotoGrids Pro — on free installations they are visible with a Pro badge and locked until you upgrade.
More Video Sources (Pro) #
The free plugin supports videos from your Media Library and embeds from YouTube and Vimeo. FotoGrids Pro adds more video platforms — including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Dailymotion, Twitch, Wistia, VideoPress, and Loom — along with a premium video Lightbox, a dedicated Video Playlist layout, and the automatic-playback behaviours above. Adding YouTube and Vimeo embeds is covered in its own article.
