How To Turn Off Pop Up Blocker On Mac

Tips
1

I’m trying to access a website that needs pop-ups to log in, but my Mac keeps blocking them. I’ve checked Safari and Chrome settings, but I’m not sure which option actually disables the pop-up blocker without breaking security. Can someone walk me through the steps to properly turn off the pop-up blocker on a Mac for specific sites or completely?

2

Safari and Chrome both have pop up settings, and macOS does not have a separate global blocker, so it is all in the browsers.

Here is what usually works without breaking your whole browser security.

Safari on Mac

  1. Open Safari.
  2. Top menu bar, click Safari, then Settings.
  3. Go to the Websites tab.
  4. On the left, click Pop-up Windows.
  5. At the bottom right, set “When visiting other websites” to “Block and Notify” or “Allow.”
    • If you only trust one site, leave the global setting on “Block and Notify.”
    • In the list above, find your login site, set it to “Allow.”
  6. Try the login page again. If Safari shows a small icon in the address bar, click it and allow the popup.

Chrome on Mac

  1. Open Chrome.
  2. Click the three dots in the top right.
  3. Go to Settings.
  4. On the left, click Privacy and security.
  5. Click Site settings.
  6. Scroll to “Pop-ups and redirects.”
  7. Under “Default behavior,” leave it on “Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects.”
  8. Under “Allowed to send pop-ups and use redirects,” click “Add.”
  9. Paste the website domain you need for login, like
    https://example.com
  10. Reload the login page.

Quick tests
• If the popup still does not show, try disabling any ad blocker extensions for that site.
• Also check if the login opens in a new tab instead of a small window. Some sites call that a popup even though the browser treats it as a normal tab.

If you want to fully disable the blocker for a short time, set Safari to “Allow” for “When visiting other websites,” or set Chrome default to “Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects,” do your login stuff, then flip it back. That keeps you from getting flooded with junk long term.

3

Couple of extra angles on top of what @espritlibre already covered, since macOS popups can be picky and sometimes it’s not the main blocker setting that bites you.

1. Make sure it’s actually a popup being blocked

Half the time the “popup” the site talks about is really:

  • a new tab, or
  • a redirect to a different login domain (like login.company.com or a 3rd‑party SSO page).

If Chrome or Safari is blocking “pop-ups and redirects,” your login might die silently. So:

  • In Chrome, once you’ve added the main site to “Allowed,” also add the actual login domain if it’s different. Check the address bar when it tries to log in; if you see accounts.something.com, that domain needs to be whitelisted too.
  • In Safari, on the login page, go to Safari > Settings for This Website… and make sure “Pop-up Windows” is set to Allow for that exact domain. This per‑site setting is easier than digging through the big Websites list.

2. Temporarily nuke the blocker, but do it smart

If you really want to be sure it’s the popup blocker and not something else:

  • In Safari: set “When visiting other websites” to Allow, reload, do the login, then immediately flip it back to “Block and Notify.”
  • In Chrome: set default to “Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects,” try the login, then switch it back.

I slightly disagree with keeping everything at “Block and Notify” all the time. For trusted internal work sites (like company portals), I just leave them permanently allowed. Saves a lot of headache and the risk is tiny compared to random internet sites.

3. Kill extensions first, not your security

Before you start loosening the built‑in blocker, test:

  • Disable ad blockers / privacy extensions on that site. uBlock, AdGuard, Ghostery, etc often block the login popup script itself, not just the window.
  • In Chrome: open an Incognito window with all extensions disabled (unless you explicitly allowed them). Try the login there. If it works in Incognito, the issue is an extension, not the browser popup setting.
  • In Safari: Safari > Settings > Extensions, temporarily uncheck them, then re-test.

4. Check for “Open in new window/tab” behavior

Some sites look like a popup but the browser is just opening a normal tab:

  • If a new tab flashes and then immediately closes or hangs, that’s probably an extension or a content blocker, not the popup setting.
  • If nothing appears at all and you see a tiny icon on the right side of the address bar (Safari) or a blocked popup icon in Chrome, then it’s the actual popup blocker and you’re on the right track with site‑specific allows.

5. Quick sanity test

To confirm popups can work at all:

  1. In Chrome or Safari, search for “popup test site” and open one of those simple popup demo pages.
  2. Allow popups for that site.
  3. If that works, your browser is fine and the issue is specific to the login site or its scripts/extensions.

Once you’ve done all that, the safest long‑term setup is:

  • Block popups globally.
  • Explicitly allow only:
    • your login domain, and
    • any secondary SSO domain it redirects to.

That way you don’t torch your browser security just to get into one annoying site. And yeah, the UI for this stuff is way more confusing than it needs to be, so don’t feel bad if it took a few tries.