Are you facing issues with a website on macOS because your browser is blocking popups for it? Luckily, you can disable the popup blocker in major browsers like Safari, Chrome, and Firefox on your machine.
Once the blockers are disabled, any sites you open in these browsers will be allowed to launch popup windows. You also have the option to enable popups just for certain sites on your Mac.
Which Type of Popup Are We Talking About?
A popup is a small window that either opens automatically when you are on a website or opens when you click a link on the site. Shopping sites, discount sites, and such other sites often launch popup windows to grab your attention.
You shouldn’t confuse these website popups with the tiny notifications that you see on your Mac. Those notifications are generated by your system or your installed apps. They have nothing to do with the popups you see in your browsers.
How to Allow Popups in Safari on Mac
It’s easy to disable the popup blocker in Safari. All you have to do is head into a settings menu and change an option there to turn off the popup blocker. Where this option is located depends on the version of Safari you're using.
You can also use the Terminal as well to enable and disable the popup blocker in Safari.
Allow Popups in Safari 12 or Later
Safari 12 and later versions let you disable the popup blocker for all websites or certain websites that you choose in the browser.
You can access the popup blocker in Safari 12 and up as follows:
- Launch Safari, click the Safari menu at the top, and select Preferences.
- Go to the Websites tab.
- Select Pop-up Windows on the left and choose Allow from the dropdown menu on the right.
- If you want, you can specify a list of sites that you want to block popups for.
Allow Popups in Safari 11 or Earlier
Safari 11 and earlier versions have a tick box letting you enable and disable the popup blocker with a single click.
Here’s how you find that box:
- Open Safari, click the Safari menu at the top, and select Preferences.
- Head to the Security tab.
- Untick the box that says Block pop-up windows.
Allow Popups in Safari Using the Terminal
Those of you who prefer the Terminal would be glad to know there’s a Terminal command to enable and disable popups in Safari on your Mac.
Here’s how you use that command:
- Launch the Terminal.
- Type the following command to disable the popup blocker in Safari.
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2JavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically -bool true - Use this command to enable the popup blocker in Safari.
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2JavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically -bool false
How to Unblock Popups in Chrome on Mac
If you use Chrome as your default browser, unblocking popups is as easy as heading into the settings menu for Chrome and toggling an option off.
Here’s how you do that:
- Click the three-dots at the top-right corner in Chrome and select Settings.
- Click Privacy and security on the left and select Site settings from the right pane.
- Scroll all the way down and click Pop-ups and redirects.
- Click the toggle next to Blocked (recommended) to disable Chrome's popup blocker. The toggle should now read Allowed.
How to Turn Off the Popup Blocker in Firefox on Mac
Firefox has pretty much the same approach to disabling the popup blocker as Google Chrome. You head into settings, untick an option, and you're all set.
Here’s how:
- Open Firefox, click the three horizontal lines at the top-right corner, and select Preferences.
- Click Privacy & Security on the left.
- Scroll down to the Permissions section. Then, untick the Block pop-up windows option.
- If you want to allow popups from certain sites while keeping all other sites blocked, click Exceptions and add your sites to the whitelist.
Allowing Those Tiny Popup Windows on Your Mac
Some sites require that you enable popups on your machine in order for those sites to work. You can do that pretty easily by allowing popups in various browsers for macOS, as we've seen here.
Popups aren't the only annoyance on the web. Some websites nowadays use notifications to grab your attention. If you want to stop this, you can disable site notifications in most web browsers.
