Pop-up blocker settings, exceptions and troubleshooting

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 through the Content panel in the Options window. 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 location bar.

When you click either the Options button in the info bar or the icon in the location bar, a menu is displayed with the following choices:

• Allow/Block pop-ups for this site
• Edit Pop-up Blocker Options…
• Don't show this message when pop-ups are blocked
• (show the blocked pop-up)

Blocking pop-ups may interfere with some websites: Some websites, including some banking sites, use pop-ups for important features. Blocking all pop-ups disables such features. To allow specific websites to use pop-ups, while blocking all others, you can add specific websites to the list of allowed sites.

Blocking pop-ups doesn't always work: Although Firefox blocks most pop-ups, some websites may show pop-ups using uncovered methods, even when blocked.

Pop-up blocker settings

To access the pop-up blocker settings:

1. Click the menu button and choose Options.
2. Select the Content panel.
   
   

In the content panel:

• Block pop-up windows: Uncheck this to disable the pop-up blocker altogether.
• Exceptions: This is a list of sites that you want to allow to display pop-ups.
  
  The dialog has the following choices:
  • Allow: Click this to add a website to the exceptions list.
  • Remove Site: Click this to remove a website from the exceptions list.
  • Remove All Sites: Click this to remove all of the websites in the exceptions list.

Note: Blocking pop-ups may not always work and may interfere with some websites. For more information, see the What are Pop-ups? section above.

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 location bar with the site identity button (a globe, padlock or warning triangle) in the pop-up window, the pop-up is coming from Firefox.
  • If that's not what you see, 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?

1. Click the menu button and choose Options.
2. Select the Content panel.
3. Make sure the Block pop-up windows checkbox is checked.
4. To the right of Block pop-up windows, click the Exceptions... button. A dialog will appear that shows all the sites that are allowed to show pop-ups.
5. If the site that's opening pop-ups is in the list, select it and press Remove Site.
6. Click Close.
7. Click OK to close the Options window.

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 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.