Guide
How to Turn Off Your Ad Blocker (Just for One Site)
To turn off an ad blocker, you usually don't need to switch it off everywhere. Every popular blocker can be paused for the one site that's misbehaving, which fixes the page and keeps protection on for everything else. Below are the steps for browser extensions in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Brave, and for the blockers people forget about: the ones that work outside the browser entirely.
First, work out which ad blocker you're running
People often have more than one without realising. The usual suspects:
- A browser extension, with an icon in the toolbar (or tucked behind the puzzle-piece Extensions menu).
- A browser's built-in blocking, like Brave Shields or a browser's tracking protection.
- A system-wide blocker that filters DNS for the whole PC, such as AdBolish, a Pi-hole on your network, or a filtering DNS service set in your router. These have nothing in the browser to switch off.
If you turn off an extension and the site still breaks, the cause is usually in the last group.
How to turn off an ad blocker extension for one site
The steps are nearly identical across Chromium browsers and Firefox:
- Open the site that isn't working.
- Click the blocker's icon in the toolbar. In Chrome and Edge, it may be inside the puzzle-piece Extensions menu; pin it there if you use it often.
- Choose the option to pause or disable it on this site. The wording varies by extension, but almost all of them offer it.
- Reload the page.
The choice is normally remembered for that site only, so other sites stay filtered.
How to disable an ad blocker in Chrome, Edge or Firefox completely
If you want it off everywhere, or want to remove it:
- Chrome: open
chrome://extensions, then switch the blocker off, or click Remove. - Edge: open
edge://extensionsand do the same. - Firefox: open
about:addons, choose Extensions, and switch it off. - Brave: click the Brave icon in the address bar and turn Shields down for the site. That's per site by design.
Switching an extension off is reversible; removing it loses its settings.
When the ad blocker isn't in the browser at all
A DNS blocker works one step earlier than an extension. Before any program connects to a server, it asks for that server's address, and a DNS blocker answers "nowhere" for ad, tracker and malware domains. That's why it covers every app on the PC, not just one browser, and also why no browser setting turns it off. Our guide to DNS ad blocking explains how that works.
With AdBolish, you have three ways to get a site working, from the most precise to the bluntest.
Allow just what the site needs (best)
- Reload the broken page, or retry the app, so the block happens again.
- Click Site broken? at the top of any dashboard page, or right-click the tray icon and choose Something broken? Allow a site….
- Look at the domains blocked in the Last minute, grouped by site. Switch to Last 10 minutes to look further back.
- Pick the domain that looks related and choose Allow for 1 hour (blocked again afterwards) or Always allow (added to your exclusions for good).
- Reload the page.
When in doubt, choose the hour. The fix-a-broken-site page shows the whole flow.
Pause it for a few minutes
Pause 5 min and Pause 1 hr in the header (or Pause for 5 minutes / Pause for 1 hour in the tray menu) stop blocking for that long, then resume by themselves. Resume now ends the pause early.
Pausing is also the fastest test. If the site works while paused, AdBolish is the cause, and you can allow domains one at a time from Site broken?. If it's still broken while paused, AdBolish isn't the cause.
Turn protection off, or quit
The switch at the top of the window turns protection off (Lookups pass through unfiltered), and so does unticking Protection in the tray. Quit AdBolish stops it completely and puts your original DNS settings back. Closing the window does neither; AdBolish keeps filtering from the tray.
Why allowing one site beats turning the blocker off
An ad blocker is doing more than hiding banners. Trackers, analytics beacons and, in AdBolish's case, known malware and phishing domains all go through the same filter. Switching it off globally to fix one checkout page leaves all of that open until you remember to turn it back on.
A few habits keep the trade-off small:
- Allow, don't disable. One domain for one site is enough most of the time.
- Prefer a time limit. A one-hour allow reverts on its own.
- Allow the domain, not the app. In AdBolish's Activity log you can allow everything a whole browser looks up, but it asks first, because that turns ad blocking off for every site in that browser.
When the site still doesn't work
- The "please disable your ad blocker" message stays. Another blocker is still active: a second extension, tracking protection, or a DNS-level filter. Check each, reloading in between.
- One browser still shows ads after you turned blocking back on. If that browser uses its own secure DNS, a system-wide blocker never sees its lookups. Our explainer on what secure DNS is covers how to tell and what to switch off.
- A brand-new site won't load at all. If you've turned on a list that blocks newly registered domains, a legitimate new site can get caught. Allow it from Exclusions.
Tired of toggling an extension per browser? AdBolish blocks ads, trackers and malware for every app on your Windows PC, and Site broken? puts the fix two clicks away. It's free, with no account.
The short version: turn your ad blocker off for the site, not for the whole internet, and if the toolbar icon isn't the culprit, look for the blocker that lives outside the browser.
Do it for every app at once — Fix a broken site
When a page won't load or an app can't sign in, AdBolish shows what it blocked in the last minute, grouped by site, so you can allow it for an hour or for good. Learn more about the Fix a broken site.