Pop-ups are not always the annoying ads we tend to get whenever we visit most sites online. Some of them play a specific important part while we are surfing the internet.

Some websites use the feature to allow the clients to log in to their accounts on their websites, some are used to alert clients on any important activity taking place on their products, like discounts or release dates of the products among others.

Pop-ups are not always harmful if they come from trusted sites. This has always been another efficient means of communication between the business and the customers, or a firm and its clients.

How to Block Pop-ups and Redirect in Safari on iPhone or iPad?

To block pop-ups in Safari on iPhone and iPad, follow the steps below:

• Launch the Settings app.
• Scroll down and tap on “Safari“.
• When the next page opens, navigate to the “Block Pop-ups” option and toggle the switch to turn on the feature.

All the pop-ups will now be disabled, and you will not be displayed anymore on any website. Most likely, you get an enhanced performance as the web pages now load more quickly than when the pop-ups are allowed to run.

How to Allow Pop-ups in Safari on iPhone and iPad?

There are times when pop-ups play a significant role on the sites, especially trusted sites like banks, and hospitals. Some websites use the sign-in pop-up feature to avoid loading another page, then reverting to the main page.

To allow the pop-ups, just follow the instructions below:

• Launch the safari browser on the iPhone or iPad device
• Go to the settings app
• Scroll down and look for the “Safari” option
• On the next page, navigate to the “block pop-ups” option and toggle the switch to disable the feature.

How to block pop-ups by clearing the iPad’s cache?

Pop-ups stored in the cache are normally the cause of pop-ups still being displayed even after activating the pop-ups’ blocker. The only solution will be to clear the cache from the iOS device.

To do so, just follow the instructions below:

• Launch the Settings app.
• Navigate and tap on the Safari option on the left side of the settings page.
• Scroll down to “Clear History and Websites Data” and tap on it.

• A confirmation pop-up window will be displayed. Click on clear to confirm the action.

The cache activities now will start to populate afresh. This will prevent previous activities from being accessed when you are accessing websites you have blocked the pop-ups.

How do I know which pop-ups to block?

As pop-ups are not always intended for harmful purposes, some websites with good reputations can utilize pop-ups when advertising their products or promoting affiliate programs. That said, however, here are some of the ways we can consider when determining if a site is safe to allow pop-ups or not.

• Most websites do not allow more than one pop-up as this too will distract the visitors to their websites. If there are more than at least two pop-ups on a single web page, chances are there might be suspicious activity going on in the background.
• Look for reviews for that website to determine it’s legitimacy. If the website has been known to carry malicious activities, chances are there are whistle-blowers also who would go a distance to ward others from getting scammed or visiting the site.
• If you have some recently installed extensions, and the browser starts behaving in a funny manner, you should consider uninstalling the extension to confirm if indeed they are the culprits of the current behavior.
• Try to minimize or avoid using personal details on random sites at all. Some websites too might get hacked and this might be out of control for the website owners. Though it is a rare occurrence, most proven websites rarely experience such scenarios.

How to protect against pop-ups from unwanted sources

• The iOS device should have the latest software updates at all times. If you regularly visit the internet, it is advisable to conduct an updated diagnosis to see any latest updates available.
• There is a very handy feature called “block pop-ups and fraudulent website warning”. Make sure this feature is activated. It restricts the user from unknowingly accessing malicious websites.
• Utilize the incognito mode. When in incognito mode, you are able to bypass pop-ups sent by sites to deactivate the ad blockers extensions on their sites.
• Inquire about the extensions before installing them on the device. Some extensions may install malicious software as a package into the device. This can be avoided by first looking at the background of the extensions themselves on their website’s main page, or looking for reviews online or under the description of the extension.

Conclusion

Some pop-ups are important on sites like shopping sites, and sites that use logins. On such sites, we can only try to enable them to be active. The Safari browser, however, is designed to block pop-ups by default.

The browser has a built-in pop-up blocked, which needs to be disabled manually in order to be able to access some of the functionalities on some websites. The websites themselves have to be verified as legitimate to avoid misdirection or downloading of harmful activities to your system.

Incognito mode has also proven an alternative way to access websites. The only downside is that you cannot really keep the history of the activities you were doing online, or even remember the logins for various websites, which in itself is a good thing when it comes to security precautions.

Some pop-ups might still be able to sneak past, but they won’t be as much as not blocking through the settings. You can also turn off the pop-up blocker while you are on a particular website, and this will allow important pop-ups to be displayed, and turn on the blocker again when you leave the particular site.