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uBlock Origin Alternatives in Safari 13?

ParanoidDroid

ParanoidDroid

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 15, 2013
345
567
Venusville, Mars
Oh silly me! I just updated to Safari 13 and that killed my beloved uBlock Origin extension. Unfortunately, I don't have a current time machine backup, but I do have an another Mac with Safari 12.

1. First what are the best alternatives to uBlock Origin?

2. Is there a way to roll back to Safari 12 manually?
 
I upgraded to Safari 13 and now I can't connect to Amazon.com on any of my four Macs. o_O ?????
 
Hi, I'll refrain from upgrading to Safari 13. They write "Includes an updated start page...blah-blah-blah". What about Top Sites? What's the look in Safari 13?
 
I've updated to Safari 13..... I was checking the prefs and went to 'manage websites' and found that I had over 1400 (cookies?)....deleted all and re-signed in to my ~20 sites which needed sign-ins/ remember me's . No problems at all....checked Amazon etc. and no issues. Was in the Apple Store today discussing ad-blockers with one of there techs and he mentioned U-Block Origin. Reason I bring this up is because with the other blockers you get this boilerplate:
1568949976851.png


Does U-Block Origin also grab these 'permissions'? Apple tech said he didn't know but would look into it when he got home. Also, per Maverick28: I don't see any updated start page or Top 5 sites. Really have been looking and can't seem to find anything different ...though it is faster.
 
I also had this issue and installed Ublock from the App Store, works amazing!

After install you need to go into safari preferences - extensions and check the boxes next to the Ublock icons. Then you need to click update filter lists on the main UBlock app interface. Confusing I know, but it works.
 
hooptyuber said:
I upgraded to Safari 13 and now I can't connect to Amazon.com on any of my four Macs. o_O ?????
Click to expand...
It looks like my issues with amazon.com are related to my VPN (PIA) and were coincident with updating Safari.
So, not Safari's fault.
 
My solution (since getting the Catalina beta) was to move to Firefox. I currently use FF 71 (the Nightly version) and I really recommend giving it a go. The different UI takes some getting used to, and if you want to customise it like I do then you'll be spending a while editing userChrome.css, but the one thing people keep saying - that FF is slow and is a memory hog - has finally been fixed. This thing flies. It's faster than Safari for me, which is a surprise.

My only issue was that it doesn't use keychain but I migrated all my passwords to Bitwarden and that solved that. Bitwarden is also much better (at managing passwords and in having user-defined fields) than keychain so this was another win. Plus, iOS13 works well with Btwarden on my iPhone as it integrates well with the stock password features there.

I actually moved from Safari to FF before Catalina once I lost access to cookie management via SIMBL, as I like to delete most cookies when I quit the browser, but at that time Firefox made my laptop run hotter than Safari. No longer.
 
ParanoidDroid said:
Oh silly me! I just updated to Safari 13 and that killed my beloved uBlock Origin extension. Unfortunately, I don't have a current time machine backup, but I do have an another Mac with Safari 12.

1. First what are the best alternatives to uBlock Origin?

2. Is there a way to roll back to Safari 12 manually?
Click to expand...

Then try using the Brave Browser and it pay you over time you use it!
 
Oh why didn't I check on here before updating. Thank god I build a pi-hole this week. This will keep me somewhat save until I find a solution for safari.
 
nylon said:
I also had this issue and installed Ublock from the App Store, works amazing!

After install you need to go into safari preferences - extensions and check the boxes next to the Ublock icons. Then you need to click update filter lists on the main UBlock app interface. Confusing I know, but it works.
Click to expand...

So I spoke too soon. Ublock is not blocking all ads or pop ups. It also seems its just a rebranded version of AdBlock. So I spent the $2 for Wipr and all is well after testing. Way better than Ublock.
 
Anyone care to comment on my post? Are these add blockers really doing what my paste says they can? Thanks.
 
I researched this and it seems this isn't just a Safari thing. Chrome will prevent adblockers as well in a future update. Not that I would use Chrome anyways. I understand companies are under pressure from advertisers to prevent people from using ad blockers but I wouldn't have expected Apple to cave in. Right now I downloaded Firefox since they're still allowing ad blockers but just wondering if this change is inevitable.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's still possible to use an adblocker in Safari. There are so many Safari Extensions on the App Store you can download and use.
But uBlock Origin was written in a way that doesn't work anymore in Safari 13.
Is the new Safari Extension format worse than before? Maybe, but that doesn't mean you can't block ads at all.
 
Ritsuka said:
It's still possible to use an adblocker in Safari. There are so many Safari Extensions on the App Store you can download and use.
But uBlock Origin was written in a way that doesn't work anymore in Safari 13.
Is the new Safari Extension format worse than before? Maybe, but that doesn't mean you can't block ads at all.
Click to expand...
Pretty much every adblocker I've looked up that's available has reviews saying it doesn't work very well or had even worse issues. I've tested a few and so far the only one that actually worked is uBlock Origin. If you use an ad blocker that works with Safari 13 I'd be happy to try it. I like using Safari but some pages have so many ads it's not even viable anymore. I just found it suspect that it prevents the use of the most popular ad blocker LOL
 
chrfr said:
I've been using 1Blocker on both macOS and iOS. It works well with both, including with Safari 13.
Click to expand...
$10 and only gets 3 stars on the App Store. Too bad there isn't a trial version to see how it works. I don't understand why Apple can't just allow uBlock to work... Well I understand why but I'm just not happy about it. Ugh I'm going to change to Firefox for now till either Apple lifts this restriction (highly unlikely) or Firefox goes down the same road and I'll have to figure something out then.
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Ritsuka said:
I use Wipr and I hardly see any ads, but I guess it depends on which website you visit.
Click to expand...
The $2 does seem more reasonable for a test. Youtube ads? I wouldn't mind the quick start up ad but some videos have ads every few minutes that play. That and pop up ads that cover content drive me crazy.
 
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Blowback said:
I've updated to Safari 13..... I was checking the prefs and went to 'manage websites' and found that I had over 1400 (cookies?)....deleted all and re-signed in to my ~20 sites which needed sign-ins/ remember me's . No problems at all....checked Amazon etc. and no issues. Was in the Apple Store today discussing ad-blockers with one of there techs and he mentioned U-Block Origin. Reason I bring this up is because with the other blockers you get this boilerplate: View attachment 860383

Does U-Block Origin also grab these 'permissions'? Apple tech said he didn't know but would look into it when he got home. Also, per Maverick28: I don't see any updated start page or Top 5 sites. Really have been looking and can't seem to find anything different ...though it is faster.
Click to expand...

I am using AdGuard on iOS and macOS and o
Am very happy. Gets the Job done smooth and fast.
 
nylon said:
So I spoke too soon. Ublock is not blocking all ads or pop ups. It also seems its just a rebranded version of AdBlock. So I spent the $2 for Wipr and all is well after testing. Way better than Ublock.
Click to expand...
Ublock isn't the same as uBlock Origin. I've Googled this and some of the results made me question if it's safe to use. An ad blocker has access to everything you do in the browser so if you can't trust it than there's a problem. uBlock Origin is open source so while I don't know what to look for there are those that do and would find anything shady. So far Firefox is working well with uBlock Origin to do what Safari 12 did. Hopefully Firefox won't follow this $$$$ trend in preventing ad blockers. I would prefer to use Safari since it uses Keychain Access thus all my passwords are synced in one program but it is what it is. I'm going to try the using hosts to block ads link that bogdanw posted.
 
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