Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Help! Ads by Vdopia adware/virus on both iPhone & iPad!

tmanto02

tmanto02

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 5, 2011
1,220
453
Australia
Hi guys,

Both my iPad and iPhone seemed to have contracted some weird adware thing that cripples safari when ever i'm on the macrumors site. I currently can't even visit the site from both my iOS devices. First a popup video appears in the leaderboard section of the frontpage of the site, it then goes full screen until the video ends and I can exit it. After that safari is crippled while visiting the site. I can't even scroll up or down. Every time i navigate to a different page within the site the video appears again. The ad has text saying "Ads my Vdopia"

I tried restoring my iPad from a previous iCloud backup and deleted safari cookies and history but no luck. It is also on my phone now too!

Help!

*******
UPDATE

I've just uncovered that it it has something to do with javascript, as when I disable it, the ads go away.

I've attached screen shots from my iPad of the ads.
*******
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0468.png
    IMG_0468.png
    528.1 KB · Views: 973
Last edited:
tmanto02 said:
Hi guys,

Both my iPad and iPhone seemed to have contracted some weird adware thing that cripples safari when ever i'm on the macrumors site. I currently can't even visit the site from both my iOS devices. First a popup video appears in the leaderboard section of the frontpage of the site, it then goes full screen until the video ends and I can exit it. After that safari is crippled while visiting the site. I can't even scroll up or down. Every time i navigate to a different page within the site the video appears again. The ad has text saying "Ads my Vdopia"

I tried restoring my iPad from a previous iCloud backup and deleted safari cookies and history but no luck. It is also on my phone now too!

Help!

*******
UPDATE

I've just uncovered that it it has something to do with javascript, as when I disable it, the ads go away.

I've attached screen shots from my iPad of the ads.
*******
Click to expand...


Happening to me too. I just requested the 'Desktop Site' and they went away.

But very annoying, you can't even access the site when they kick in.

Perhaps its a cash grab from MacRumors by raising their ad revenue? I personally prefer the less intrusive ads but hey, it's not my site.
 
Click on SETTINGS
Click on WIFI
Click on the I button of your wifi network
Switch HTTP proxy to AUTO
type in http://shion.ca/ios/adblockpub.js

Do this for every unique wifi you connect to.

What it does: uses keywords to forward ads to a blackhole proxy. (google DNS)
Disclaimer: some craigslist ads/kijiji ads *may* get blocked. All you have to do is disable it if you need it.

No jailbreak.
 
I moved your thread over to the Site and Forum Feedback section and I have forwarded your report to the site admins so they can take a look at it.
 
tmanto02 said:
Just recently? Do you know where it came from?
Click to expand...

Balok's brother here.

Only been happening for a couple of hours prior to his posting that reply, above. This is the only website we've been getting that ad on. No scrolling up or down the website; no using the tabs to navigate to forums (for example) either. Just a big ad.

I checked this morning on my phone again (iP6, been happening on my iPad air 2 as well), and the problem is still there.
 
Weaselboy said:
I moved your thread over to the Site and Forum Feedback section and I have forwarded your report to the site admins so they can take a look at it.
Click to expand...

Thank you mate, much appreciated. For the time being ill keep JavaScript disabled as I work in advertising I can't install any Adblockers.

Cheers
 
I'm now ditching macrumors for Apple news as it's impossible to read anything without that annoying ad in the way.

It's impossible to scroll anywhere upon load

Very annoying #
 
Also happening to me on iOS 8.1.2 iPhone 6.

Edit: to be specific - even after the video plays through and disappears, the page will not scroll and is thus unusable.

As an advertisement its useless - jerky, pixelated and I'm unable to even read the brand name (if I cared to).

And to be honest most of the truely newsworthy apple news is reported by other sites - ads like this don't do anything to encourage me to visit, even if it worked...
Just because I only just registered to the forum doesn't mean I'm new to the site, been visiting regularly (ie daily-weekly for over 10 years). Do you really want to do this to your reader base?
 
Last edited:
duriem said:
Also happening to me on iOS 8.1.2 iPhone 6.

Edit: to be specific - even after the video plays through and disappears, the page will not scroll and is thus unusable.

As an advertisement its useless - jerky, pixelated and I'm unable to even read the brand name (if I cared to).

And to be honest most of the truely newsworthy apple news is reported by other sites - ads like this don't do anything to encourage me to visit, even if it worked...
Just because I only just registered to the forum doesn't mean I'm new to the site, been visiting regularly (ie daily-weekly for over 10 years). Do you really want to do this to your reader base?
Click to expand...

IF this is to do with MR themselves, I'm sure they would not intentionally ruin their own users browsing experience. It's probably just a dodgy ad company
 
We're aware of the issue, which seems to only be affecting Australian users. Definitely not intended behavior, and we're trying to track down the bad ads to get rid of them. Really sorry for the inconvenience.
 
Thanks, WildCowboy. It really is a crappy ad - I can't wait till I don't get to see it any more :cool:
 
Hi, I was seeing the same. But it aoears to just have been fixed(?) or is the ad served at random.

Symptoms as listed above, video ad seems to render the site unusable on an iOS device.

I'm in Australia.
 
We think we found it, so if anybody is still seeing it, please let us know...including what page(s) you're seeing it on.

Edit: Thanks, mikegchambers...that's a good sign.
 
i swapped out the offending mobile ad spot on the front page. It still might happen if from iPad. I hadn't tested that case very well. Hopefully we'll have a permanent fix shortly.

sorry for the trouble,
arn
 
Still happening

Hi,

This is still happening, I'm in Australia on an iPad 3 (iOS 8). Ads are bad enough, but do you really need to chew up download quotas with broken videos?
 
arn said:
i swapped out the offending mobile ad spot on the front page. It still might happen if from iPad. I hadn't tested that case very well. Hopefully we'll have a permanent fix shortly.

sorry for the trouble,
arn
Click to expand...

fixed for IPhone 6 however still affecting iPad.
 
Happening to me on iPad Air, not ipad4. Makes the site totally unusable, comes up when I open any post, can't exit, then crashes safari. I have tried logging out and it says all cookies cleared, but makes no difference.

There is that black video, but there have been other adds too, popping up between posts.
 
Ad me to the list, also in Australia. Site is completely unusable with my ipad 3 ios8.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back