How to disable Safari’s pop-up blocker – without risking your security

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ZDNET key takeaways

• Sometimes pop-ups are harmful, while other times they are necessary.
• On Safari, you can enable pop-ups for all websites.
• There is a better route that requires creating exceptions.

You’re on your MacOS device, shopping for a holiday gift for your loved one. You find the perfect item and decide it has to be purchased. You go through the shopping cart process and decide to pay with PayPal. You click the pay button, and nothing happens.

Nothing. You click the pay button again, and nothing happens. Again and again and again… with no results. What gives?

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Most likely, you have pop-ups blocked for Safari. Given that the PayPal login prompt from third-party sites comes in the form of a pop-up, you’re not going to be able to use the service.

There’s a way around that: Disable Safari’s pop-up blocker. 

Of course, there’s more to it than that. If you were to disable the global blocking of pop-up windows, every single site you visit would be able to open that PayPal pop-up. The good news is you have two options:

• Disable pop-ups for all sites.
• Disable pop-ups for all sites and create exceptions for specific sites.

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The choice is yours, but the best option is to leave the pop-up blocker enabled and create exceptions. Let me show you how to do both.

How to disable Safari’s pop-up blocker

What you’ll need: The only thing you’ll need is an updated Safari on your MacOS device. I say updated because you want to ensure you have all of the security patches installed. With that at the ready, let’s disable Safari’s pop-up blocker.

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I’m assuming, if Safari is your default browser, that you already have it open to read this article. If not, open it now.

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With the browser open, click Safari in the menu bar (at the top of your display), and then click Settings. Once Settings is open, click the Websites tab.

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In the left sidebar, click Pop-up Windows. On the resulting page, look down at the bottom right corner, where you’ll see the “When visiting other sites” drop-down. Click that drop-down and select Allow.

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Once you’ve done that, you can close Settings and go about browsing with the understanding that all pop-ups will be allowed to open.

Go the opposite direction

Disabling the pop-up blocker is not the safest route, because you could land on a malicious website that uses a pop-up to infect your computer. You don’t want that.

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Instead, you should set the global pop-up blocker to Block and Notify, and then create exceptions for those sites that require pop-ups to function properly. With the pop-up blocker enabled, it’s time to add your first exception.

1. Open the site in question

The first thing to do is open the website for which you want to allow pop-ups.

2. Open Website Settings for the website

Once the website has loaded, click the icon at the left edge of the address bar, and a pop-up will appear. Click Website Settings.

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3. Enable pop-ups for the site

The pop-up window will expand, and you’ll see an entry labeled Pop-up Windows. Click the associated drop-down and select Allow. Refresh that site, and pop-ups will be allowed, while all other sites will not be able to force pop-ups on you.

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If you want to go the easiest route, allow all pop-ups. If you want to go the safest route, disable pop-ups and add exceptions only for the sites that require them to function properly.

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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com