Blocking doesn't work at all. How do I enable it?

Try following these steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Safari > Content Blockers and enable 1Blocker.
  2. Launch 1Blocker and re-enable blocker groups you need.

Step #2 may take a while (2-5 seconds), so don't close the app before you see a confirmation. If that didn't help, restart your device and repeat the steps above. Don't test it just on one page, try multiple websites. If you're still experiencing the problem, please let us know. We're here to help.

I see preroll ads on YouTube. Why is that?

YouTube preroll video ads are very difficult to block properly given current tools provided to native Safari content blockers by Apple. The reason is because preroll ad URL source is indistinguishable from main video URL. However, we're keeping our eyes on it. We understand how popular YouTube is, so this may get resolved in future versions of the app.

Forbes asks me to disable my adblocker. Why?

Yes, they are currently ahead of the game. Apple's native content blocking API is quite limited at the time. Using current toolset, we can't block their adblocker blocker.

Does 1Blocker work in Chrome and other apps?

No. Native content blockers use Apple's API (tools), so they work only in Safari and selected third-party iOS apps (like Tweetbot), which instead of using their own custom in-app browser, use Apple's Safari View Controller. Native ads in apps (like those in Facebook or Twitter) can't be blocked. Because of this, other browsers like Google Chrome are not supported.

Do you have a version for Mac?

Yes! Learn more on our website: 1blocker.com/mac

A website doesn't work correctly. What can I do?

Make sure it is 1Blocker breaking the page (i.e. you don't have other content blocker apps running at the same time) and website works correctly when loaded without 1Blocker. If that's the case, please report the page to us via our Safari extension so we can take a look and fix the problem in future updates. As a temporary workaround, you can long tap the reload button in Safari in order to view a particular page without blockers. Alternatively, just add this website to your whitelist.

How should I report site issues to you?

Please report site issues to us via our Safari extension. It's the fastest and most convenient way of reporting sites, because we automatically include page URL, iOS and 1Blocker version. You can also optionally add your comments to the report. Please be nice, real humans read them. We will try to fix problems you reported in future 1Blocker updates.

Is it possible to see what gets blocked on a site?

Yes, but it's hidden in Safari. We wish there was a better way.

In order to see what page resources & URLs are getting blocked during loading with 1Blocker, you need to enable Developer mode in Safari both on your Mac and iOS device (in Settings). Then connect your iOS device to your Mac, launch Safari on both devices, go to Develop menu in Safari on macOS and choose iPhone / iPad, and open console logs.

Open a page on your iOS device and you should see a list of resources getting blocked in console.

Note: the console doesn't show what elements were hidden with CSS Hide rules.

How to hide annoying elements on sites I visit frequently?

Browse to a site in Safari and launch our Safari extension by openning the iOS share sheet and tapping on 1Blocker extension. Then, select Hide Page Element.

There's a site I want to whitelist. How can I do that?

You can whitelist a site simply by navigating to it in Safari, openning the iOS share sheet, tapping on our Safari extension and turning on the whitelist switch.

How can I block cookies and what does that even mean?

First thing to know about cookie blocking, websites still save them to your computer. However, if you have cookie blocking rules enabled, Safari would ignore them when doing requests to those websites, as if they are not present.

For this reason, inspecting this feature by looking at the list of stored cookies won't be helpful, you need to inspect network requests and see what cookies they carry.

To block cookies, just create a custom rule either in 1Blocker for iOS or Mac.

How does 1Blocker work under the hood?

1Blocker is not a VPN or proxy server, it can't see what web pages you visit and doesn't expose your privacy.

While most other extensions block content by filtering elements of already downloaded page, 1Blocker uses native blocking technology to tell Safari in advance what should be blocked. This vastly improves efficiency and saves battery life.

When you change your blocking preferences in 1Blocker, it generates a new set of blocking rules that are transfered to Safari. Safari then uses these rules to block resources when you open a site.

Do you have access to any personal information?

No. We don't have (and don't want to) access to any of your personal information. Actual blocking is done by Safari itself, we just tell it what to block. We don't even have analytics neither in our app nor on our website.

Is it possible to block App Store Smart Banners?

This is technically impossible - App Store Smart banners are HTML meta tags and not part of the actual page elements, so they're impossible to block with native content blockers API.

Apple may add this functionality to their APIs in the future but personally I don't think they want to do this - nevertheless, I filled a bug report to Apple with feature request.

Why don't you show blocking statistics & graphs?

We'd love to have these features but it's not technically possible to implement them.

Native content blockers do not see what web pages you visit and what is being blocked, otherwise they could steal personal information about users. This is Apple's restriction and developers can do nothing about it. That's why we can't show any stats or graphs of what is being blocked when you browse web pages.

How can I support you? I love 1Blocker!

It'd be awesome if you could leave a positive review in the App Store (iOS, Mac) and told your friends about 1Blocker. Thank you! :)