Pop-up blocker settings, exceptions and troubleshooting
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- Revision id: 120326
- Created:
- Creator: Chris Ilias
- Comment: I missed a for tag in my previous edit
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This document explains all of the settings available in Mozilla Firefox for controlling pop-ups.
Table of Contents
What are pop-ups?
Pop-up windows, or pop-ups, are windows that appear automatically without your permission. They vary in size but usually don't cover the whole screen. Some pop-ups open on top of the current Firefox window, while others appear underneath Firefox (pop-unders).
Firefox allows you to control both pop-ups and pop-unders through the Content panel in the Settings window. Pop-up blocking is turned on by default, so you don't have to worry about enabling it to prevent pop-ups from appearing in Firefox.
When blocking a pop-up, Firefox displays an information bar (if it hasn’t been previously dismissed – see below), as well as an icon in the location bar.
The image "Popup1 29 Lin" does not exist.
When you click either the
button in the info bar or the icon in the location bar, a menu is displayed with the following choices:- (show the blocked pop-up)
Pop-up blocker settings
To access the pop-up blocker settings:
- In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
- Select the panel.
- In the Content panel below Pop-ups:
- Uncheck the box next to Block pop-up windows to disable the pop-up blocker altogether.
- A click on opens a dialog box with a list of sites that you want to allow to display pop-ups.
- The dialog box offers you the following choices:
- Allow: Click this to add a website to the exceptions list.
- Remove Site: Click this to remove a website from the exceptions list.
- Remove All Sites: Click this to remove all of the websites in the exceptions list.
Pop-ups not being blocked
Is the pop-up coming from Firefox?
The pop-up may not actually be coming from Firefox. You can determine where the pop-up is coming from by the appearance of the window.
- If you see the location bar with the Site Identity button (a globe, padlock or warning triangle) button in the pop-up window, the pop-up is coming from Firefox.
- If you don't see the Site Identity button button, you may have malware on your computer that causes the pop-ups. For help, see Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware.
Is the pop-up blocker on and enabled for this site?
- In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
- Select the panel.
- Make sure the Block pop-up windows checkbox is checked.
- To the right of Block pop-up windows, click the button. A dialog box will open and lists all the sites that are allowed to show pop-ups.
- If the site that's opening pop-ups is listed here, select it and press .
- Click on to update your changes.
- Close the page. Any changes you've made will automatically be saved.
Is the pop-up shown after a mouse click or a key press?
Certain events, such as clicking or pressing a key, can spawn pop-ups regardless of if the pop-up blocker is on. This is intentional, so that Firefox doesn't block pop-ups that websites need to work.
Is it a true pop-up window?
Sometimes ads are designed to look like windows, but really aren't. Firefox's pop-up blocker can't stop these ads.
Mozilla surveys
When you visit a Mozilla website, sometimes you'll see a pop-up asking you to participate in a survey. The only third-party that Mozilla ever uses for surveys is SurveyGizmo, which has been vetted by our legal and privacy teams. The Firefox pop-up blocker doesn't block these pop-ups.