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Ads are being blocked, but I can't find an ad blocker installed.

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by e_s_jones

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Some ads are being blocked in Firefox, but for the life of me, I cannot find where I might have an ad blocker turned on in Firefox or installed as a plug-in or extension. Chrome displays the ads correctly. Example site is www.milesawaygrandparenting.com. There are three ads at the bottom of most pages which display in Chrome but not (for me, anyway) in Firefox.

Where might I look or troubleshoot to find out where the ads are being blocked? I have McAfee Total Protection installed, and Privacy Badger also.

Some ads are being blocked in Firefox, but for the life of me, I cannot find where I might have an ad blocker turned on in Firefox or installed as a plug-in or extension. Chrome displays the ads correctly. Example site is www.milesawaygrandparenting.com. There are three ads at the bottom of most pages which display in Chrome but not (for me, anyway) in Firefox. Where might I look or troubleshoot to find out where the ads are being blocked? I have McAfee Total Protection installed, and Privacy Badger also.

Chosen solution

Your system details show that you have this extension installed :

"DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials"

That just might be the culprit - see the first item on this page .....

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (8)

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Hello e_s_jones,

I did some experimenting : went to that site, turned off my ad blocker and saw the three ads. Then I went to the 3-bar menu => Options => Privacy & Security => Content Blocking. I had mine set to "Standard" and the ads were stil there. Then I changed it to "Strict", went back to the site, and the ads were gone ....

So, would you please check your Content Blocking settings  ?

Also see : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/content-blocking

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The System Details list shows "Privacy Badger" as a possible candidate.

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cor-el said

The System Details list shows "Privacy Badger" as a possible candidate.

The OP mentioned "Privacy Badger" in his original post .....

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I disabled Privacy Badger for the site in question, and the ads are still being blocked.

McCoy, I checked Content Blocking and it is set to Standard.

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Try to disable this extension entirely on the about:addons page.

You can check the Web Console for messages about blocking content.

  • "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Web Developer
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Chosen Solution

Your system details show that you have this extension installed :

"DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials"

That just might be the culprit - see the first item on this page .....

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Your System Details list shows that you have a user.js file in the profile folder to initialize prefs each time Firefox starts. The user.js file will only be present if you or other software has created this file and normally won't be present.

You can check its content with a text editor (right-click: "Open with"; do not double-click). The user.js file is read each time Firefox is started and initializes preferences to the value specified in this file, so preferences set via user.js can only be changed temporarily for the current session.

You can delete the user.js file if you didn't create this file yourself.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

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"DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials" was indeed the culprit. Thanks to all who offered help and suggestions!