How to allow pop-ups on a Mac

When we talk about “pop-ups,” we bet one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is those aggressive mini-windows that take up valuable screen space when you try to browse a site . This is definitely a type of pop-up, but what if we told you that not all pop-ups are nuisances? Notifications from your favorite websites might be the kind of thing you don’t want to miss; and technically, they are pop-ups!

So is there a way to disable a few pop-ups on a Mac, without affecting the pop-ups you actually want to see? Yes there is! These settings are found right in macOS and it doesn’t take long to learn how to use them.

Enable pop-ups on Safari

Your Mac’s default browser makes dealing with pop-ups a breeze. Here’s what to do:

Step 1: With Safari active, click Safari located in the upper left corner, followed by Settings in the resulting drop-down menu.

2nd step: In a pop-up window, click the Websites at the top, followed by the tab Pop-ups entrance on the left.

Step 3: To enable pop-ups on a specific website, click the drop-down menu next to the website name and click Allow. If you want to allow pop-ups on all websites, select Allow in the drop-down menu next to When you visit other websites located at the bottom.

Step 4: Finally, when Safari actively blocks a pop-up, a small notification appears in the browser’s address bar to let you know what happened. If you need this pop-up to enable a feature, you can grab it quickly. Just click on the notification and Safari will give you an option to show the pop-up.

This isn’t a great way to deal with pop-ups in general, but it’s useful if you occasionally see a pop-up but don’t want to change any of your settings permanently.

Enable pop-ups on Firefox

Firefox is also a very common browser choice for Mac users, even more so since its Quantum redesign. If you use Firefox, learn how to enable pop-ups in Mozilla’s popular browser:

Step 1: In a Firefox window, select Firefox in the upper left corner, followed by Settings in the resulting drop-down menu.

2nd step: In the new Settings tab, click Privacy and Security listed on the left, and scroll down to the Permissions section.

Step 3: Uncheck the box next to Block pop-ups to enable pop-ups for all websites.

Step 4: If you don’t want to enable all pop-ups, use the Exceptions button instead. This opens a new window where you can manually enter the website address — using the copy/paste method — and click the button Allow And Save changes buttons. You can add as many websites as you want to your exceptions and remove them as necessary when you’re done.

Enable pop-ups on Chrome

Chrome is a popular browser among Android and Mac owners. The steps shown below explain how Chrome handles pop-ups and how you can manage them manually.

Step 1: With a Chrome browser window open, click Chromium listed in the upper left corner, followed by Settings in the resulting drop-down menu.

2nd step: A new Settings the tab opens. On the right, you should see a list of options, with Privacy and Security among them. Click on it.

Step 3: Select Site Settingsscroll down and click Pop-ups and redirects. You will see a new page with an option to switch between Blocked (recommended) And Allowed. Switch to Allowed to enable all pop-ups.

Step 4: Below Allow, you can manually add individual sites to the pop-up allow list. This works well if you have another list of allowed sites that you can copy and paste into Chrome and save.

Step 5: You also have the option to automatically allow pop-ups from any site you visit in Chrome. When a page in Chrome blocks pop-ups, you will see a small icon in the address bar called Pop-up blocked, which looks like a window with an X on it. You can click this icon to allow the pop-up or choose to allow pop-ups from this particular site.

Note: You can also access the context settings by typing chrome://settings/content/popups in the address bar.

What about third-party apps?

Third-party ad blocking apps like Adblock Plus eliminate ads and pop-ups. As you can see in the image, external apps provide a visual indicator of the current number of ads they have blocked.

However, you may also need to enable pop-ups in these apps because they might incorrectly identify and block innocent pop-ups. When you visit a site where you need pop-ups, click the AdBlock icon and find a way to add the site to your whitelist or disable blocking for that specific site. You should keep this in mind when using these third-party apps because the majority of them have this feature.

Can pop-ups harm my Mac?

We all see pop-ups on our computers. As noted in this article, not all of these notifications are malicious, but some certainly are. For the most part, the pop-up itself is not dangerous unless you click on it. If the pop-up is designed to load malware and other harmful viruses onto your PC, in most cases, one click is enough to begin the sabotage.

Fortunately, pop-ups have been around for a minute, so users are getting very good at spotting errors. If you have a hunch that you are receiving fake macOS notifications, we recommend visiting Apple’s many support pages on this topic.

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