Configuration oddity with Safari content blocker

[kullerhamPster]

Hi,
I got a new iPhone 14 Pro lately and installed the Wipr content blocker which I already use both on macOS and iPadOS.
After installing, there were still ads from time to time, but I didn't wonder at first because I knew from my Mac that Wipr doesn't offer a 100% block rate. Nonetheless, I checked that it was enabled (in the extension settings of Safari) and up-to-date, which both was the case.
By chance, I came across a configuration option in Safari's settings down at the "website-specific" options which also relates to content blockers. There, the switch to enable content blockers on all sites was set to "disabled".
Now I wonder how it could have come to this setting - it would be an odd default setting.
I cannot say for sure that it ever was enabled, but I'm pretty sure I didn't disabled it manually, at least not on purpose. Couldn't anyone perhaps check what the default for this option is after installing a content blocker for the first time?
I considered a syncing issue between devices, but didn't find a device with content blocking disabled.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Samdh90]

I saw the same thing on two phones running iOS 16.0.2 and Adguard. My guess is a new privacy setting since the adblock app needs to see all websites that you visit to properly filter ads out. Just set it to all sites and forget about it.

 

[kullerhamPster]

Thanks for your reply. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who stumbled upon this behavior.

As far as I understand, content blockers (in contrast to browser extensions) do not see the sites a user visits, but just tell Safari which URLs to block. So I’d guess it’s some kind of bug instead of a privacy feature, but who knows…

I checked the FAQ of Wipr after running into this problem. That option is also mentioned there as a cause for Wipr not blocking as expected, so it seems to be something that causes problems from time to time.

 

[gwang73]

The per-website option isn't new and has always been there in Safari since it supported extensions. What is new to iOS 16 is the per-website option now syncs across all your devices if you have 'Share across devices' switched on.

So if you disabled Wipr or any extension on one device, it will sync to your other devices. If this is something you don't want, you can disable the feature for each device in Settings->Safari.