There are lots of ad blockers on the market, for nearly every operating system and Web browser. But while ad blockers can be a useful tool, they can also have unintended side effects (like preventing some webpages from loading as expected). Thankfully, nearly every browser extension or built-in ad blocker can be turned off. In this article, we’ll explain how ad blockers work, and how to disable them on various devices and operating systems.
Whether it’s an extension or built-in to your browser or device, most ad blockers work in a similar way: They alter or remove ads on the webpages you visit. Some will hide an ad that appears on the page; others prevent it from loading in the first place. The latter method, known as request blocking, is the most common. In this case, your Web browser compares the list of scripts on the page to known ads and advertising techniques. If there’s a match, the request (and thus the ad) is blocked. Sometimes, the ad is replaced by an approved ad, but often there’s no replacement—you just see a broken link or “hole” on the page.
Sometimes ad blockers inadvertently block webpage elements that aren’t ads. For example, an ad blocker might stop Web forms from loading, hide images, or block payment portals. In these cases (and others), you can try disabling your ad blocker to see if that fixes the problem.
Note: If you do turn off your ad blocker, you should only do so temporarily. For both privacy and security, and to ensure a cleaner view of the Web, you should always default to the ad blocker being turned on.
Some of the most common ad blockers are built right into your browser. If this is true for you, see instructions below for a few of the most common browsers. If you’re using an ad blocker you installed in your browser, you can scroll down to see how to turn off ad-blocking extensions.
Firefox doesn’t have a native ad blocker. However, it does have several built-in options like strict tracking protection, which may result in some blocked ads. To access these settings:
Microsoft Edge doesn’t have a native ad blocker either, but it does have a setting called tracking prevention which does block certain ads that are known to be malicious. To access the settings for this anti-tracking function, follow these steps:
On both Chrome and Edge, you can also set exceptions. For example, if you want to turn off ad or tracker blocking for a specific website, you enter the URL using the appropriate instructions.
If you’ve installed a third-party extension in your browser, you can change the settings just like you would any other extension. On Chrome, you can access extensions under the “…” menu. You can configure Safari extensions under the Safari menu, while Edge extensions are found under Settings and more.
Learn more about browser extensions, and how to use them safely.
Brave saves you the hassle (and potential risk) of installing ad blocker extensions: With Brave, the protections are built right into the browser. Ads and trackers, fingerprinting, cookies, and more are all blocked by default. To see what Brave blocked (and a number of other protections) simply click the lion icon in the address bar of any page you visit. Download Brave today to experience ad-free browsing right out of the box.
Users are turning to ad blockers to make their surfing experience, cleaner, faster, and less intrusive. In this article, we'll cover how ad-blockers work, what benefits they offer, and the best options available.
Read this article →This short article gives a primer on the basic tools you can use to block ads and pop-ups on Android phones.
Read this article →In this article, we show you how to manage the Google Chrome ad blocker, and offer some useful alternatives.
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