Troubleshooting

Find the message you're seeing.

"Port 53 is in use by another program."

AdBolish needs port 53 on your PC to answer DNS lookups, and something else already has it: another ad blocker or DNS filter, a local DNS server, or a developer tool. Quit that program, then click Try again on the banner at the top of the window.

"The blocklists are missing. Reinstall the app to restore them."

The lists that ship with AdBolish were removed or damaged. Run the installer again; your settings are kept.

"Protection couldn't start. Open the dashboard for details."

Open any dashboard page: the box Nothing to show while protection isn't running. shows the technical reason. Try again retries; if it keeps failing, send it to us from Feedback.

"System-wide filtering isn't set up" / System DNS: not routed

The protection service isn't installed (the Windows prompt was declined), so AdBolish filters only lookups sent to 127.0.0.1. Click Set up and choose Yes; see System DNS.

"System DNS isn't routed through AdBolish, so only lookups sent to 127.0.0.1 are filtered."

The protection service is running, but routing is off. Click Route system DNS.

"System-wide filtering is paused because …"

AdBolish's lookups were failing, so it handed DNS back to your network to keep you online. It resumes by itself when lookups work. If it happens often, try Encrypted DNS set to Off (your network's DNS), or a different provider.

"DNS settings from an earlier run weren't restored." / "Chrome and Edge secure DNS settings from an earlier run weren't restored."

An older version of AdBolish was closed by force while it had changed these settings. Reinstalling AdBolish (or uninstalling it) puts them back.

"Turning off secure DNS in Chrome and Edge needs system-wide filtering"

That setting is changed by the protection service. Click Set up first.

"Connecting…" or "Finishing an update…" doesn't go away

The app can't reach the protection service. Usually it's updating itself and this clears within seconds. If it stays, restart the PC; if it's still there, reinstall AdBolish (your settings are kept).

A browser isn't protected

See Browsers and secure DNS.

Ads are back, and the tray says "Paused: bandwidth sharing is off"

Sharing has been off for a couple of minutes, so blocking is paused. Turn Share idle bandwidth on in Settings or the tray. See Bandwidth sharing.

No internet after AdBolish closed unexpectedly

Rare with the protection service, which Windows restarts within seconds. If websites don't load: restart the PC. If they still don't, uninstall AdBolish (it restores your DNS first), or set DNS back by hand in Windows Settings ▸ Network & internet ▸ your connection ▸ DNS server assignment ▸ Automatic (DHCP).

A site, game or app misbehaves

Use Fixing a broken site. If you turned on Device & app telemetry, Newly registered domains or a content filter, try turning that list off on its page (Privacy, Threats or Content filters): they're the most likely to catch something you want.

Too many "Dangerous site blocked" notifications

A program on your PC keeps trying to reach dangerous sites. Open the notification to see which app; see Threats. To stop the notifications, turn off Notify me when a dangerous site is blocked on the Threats page. Blocking carries on.

Still stuck

Use Feedback in the sidebar to tell us what you see.