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 in Firefox Settings . 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 address bar.
When you click either the
button in the info bar or the icon in the address bar, a menu is displayed with the following choices: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.
- Go down to the Permissions section.
- Uncheck the box next to Block pop-up windows to disable the pop-up blocker altogether.
- Click the button to the right of Block pop-up windows to open a dialog box to choose which sites are allowed to display pop-ups.
The dialog box offers you the following choices:
- Type or paste the address of a website and click the button to add it to the list of sites that will be allowed to open pop-up windows.
- Select a website from the list and click the button to remove it from the exceptions list.
- Click the button to remove all websites from the exceptions list.
Click the
button to apply your changes.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 address bar with the Tracking Protection button and the Site Identity button in the pop-up window, the pop-up is coming from Firefox.
- If you don't see these buttons, 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 and go to the Permissions section.
- 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 with a list of sites that are allowed to show pop-ups.
- If the site that's opening pop-ups is listed here, select it and click .
- 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 Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo), which has been vetted by our legal and privacy teams. The Firefox pop-up blocker doesn't block these pop-ups.