AdFree

AdFree

User guide

Everything AdFree can do, in the order you are likely to need it — installing, reading the popup, turning lists on and off, whitelisting a site and reporting an ad that slipped through.

  1. 1

    Installing AdFree

    Open AdFree's page in your browser's add-on store (the Chrome Web Store, Microsoft Edge Add-ons or Firefox Add-ons), choose Add, then confirm. The browser lists the permissions the extension needs; blocking requests on the pages you visit is what the site access permission is for. Once installed, pin AdFree to the toolbar so the counter and the switches are one click away: open the extensions menu (the puzzle-piece icon) and pin AdFree there.

  2. 2

    Reading the popup

    Clicking the AdFree icon opens the popup. The Protection switch at the top turns blocking on or off everywhere. Below it, the counter shows how many ads were blocked today, and the row with the site's name has its own switch for the site you are on. Blocklists, at the bottom, opens the filter lists. If the number never moves on a page full of ads, reload the tab once — extensions only take effect on pages loaded after they were installed or updated.

  3. 3

    Turning filter lists on and off

    Press Blocklists at the bottom of the popup to see the six lists you control: General ads & trackers, Community rules, Tracking & telemetry, Russian ad networks, Japanese sites and From user reports. All are on by default. A change applies as soon as the page is reloaded, which makes switching one off a quick way to find out which list is responsible if a page misbehaves. The site-specific rules for YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and pop-under networks are not in this list; they stay on while blocking is on.

  4. 4

    Pausing AdFree on one site

    Some sites you may want to support, and a few will insist on it. Open the popup on that site and turn off the switch next to its name: blocking stops there, including in the frames that page embeds, and continues normally everywhere else. Turn the same switch back on to resume.

  5. 5

    Reporting an ad that got through

    Press Report an ad on this page in the popup while you are on the page with the ad. The address of that page is sent so a rule can be written for it — only the site and path, never the query string, and never anything else about you. In Firefox, the first report asks for your permission, and nothing is sent without it. Reports feed the From user reports list that ships with the next update.

  6. 6

    Keeping it working

    Advertising networks change constantly, and so do YouTube and Twitch. Browsers update extensions automatically in the background, but you can force it. In Chrome or Edge, open the extensions page, turn on Developer mode and press Update; in Firefox, open the Add-ons Manager, click the gear icon and choose Check for Updates. If a site still misbehaves after updating, report it.

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