IMPORTANT: New customers should purchase StopTheMadness Pro rather than StopTheMadness Mobile, which will receive no new features.
StopTheMadness is a Safari extension that stops web sites from making your browser harder to use. And it protects your privacy on the web. StopTheMadness is not an ad blocker: it offers unique features not available from ad blockers or any other apps. StopTheMadness is one of a kind!
Made by indie developer Jeff Johnson. The support link has documentation and my email address.
Many web sites deliberately disable user interface features in Safari that you normally expect to work. StopTheMadness re-enables those features for you in Safari:
• opening contextual menus
• selecting, copying, cutting, and pasting of text
• drag and drop
• AutoFill/autocomplete of passwords, emails, etc.
• 2-finger click to open a link in a new tab
StopTheMadness also protects your privacy on the web:
• Stops Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Automatically loads the original "canonical" web site page instead of Google AMP.
• Removes tracking tags such as utm_source, gclid, and fbclid from the end of URLs.
• Stops clickjacking in Google Search, Gmail, Facebook, and DuckDuckGo.
• Stops hyperlink auditing by removing the anchor "ping" attribute on link clicks.
• Stops tracking beacons (Navigator.sendBeacon).
• Stops sites from using the Page Visibility API to know when a tab is visible on your screen.
• Stops URL shorteners. Checks the links you click in Safari for well-known link shorteners — bit.ly, tinyurl.com, t.co (used by Twitter), etc. — and loads the unshortened destination URL instead of the shortened URL. This occurs without setting any cookies or other site data, so you can't be tracked by your click.
Bonus Features:
• Stop videos from autoplaying. This works even on sites where Safari doesn't stop autoplay, such as YouTube. Also stops videos from following you down the page when you scroll on many sites.
• Automatically skip YouTube video ads.
• Stop sites in Safari from pausing your audio in a background app such as Apple Music.
• Show native video controls. Use Picture-in-Picture from Safari on sites that don't normally support it, including YouTube.
• Automatically select web video speed. Speed up videos, or slow them down.
• Automatically select video quality on YouTube.
• Hides the annoying popup banners prompting you to get the app on Google, Google Maps, DuckDuckGo, IMDb, Quora, Reddit, and Tumblr. Also hides "Sign in with Google" banners on all sites.
• Font replacement. Substitute one font for another on web pages, such as Helvetica for Arial and Courier for Courier New.
• Add your own site-specific CSS and JavaScript to web pages.
• Custom URL redirects. Redirect new Reddit to old Reddit, Twitter to Nitter, YouTube to Invidious, etc. You can create any redirect that you want.
• Stop keyboard page zoom. Stops the page from zooming in when you show the software keyboard.
• Enable pinch-to-zoom on sites that prevent it, such as old reddit.
• Stops "Are you sure you want to leave this page?" alerts. Close your tabs without getting stopped by the site.
• Force links to open in the current tab instead of a new tab. Remove target="_blank" from links so that they no longer automatically create a new tab.
• Force links to open in a new tab instead of the current tab. This is great if you're scrolling through a list of links and want to open each one in a new tab.
• Force images to the front. Bypass the transparent overlay on sites such as Instagram that prevents you from dragging and opening the contextual menu on images.
• Warns when you paste or type beyond the maximum length in a password field or other text field. Stops you from accidentally losing characters.
• Edit Tab URL: Instead of struggling to edit a URL in the Safari address bar, edit the URL in a large editing field, with buttons to remove the URL query, copy the URL, or open the URL.
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Screenshots
User Rating
5 out of 5
26 ratings
in United Kingdom
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Ratings History
Reviews
Rebel alliance! Resist digital tyranny!
5 stars for saving my time clicking ‘no thanks’ to the common digital dictators many times a day. The mentality their CEO’s have puts the time and energy of the common user in jeopardy for cheap profits that do no one any good, so thank you so much for doing what I couldn’t. I tried creating .css and .js files to fix it myself but didn’t work and it was well worth paying someone who knows what they’re doing and updates it amazingly, so all power to the indie developer who helps the common man in the fight against (essentially) the modern war: the digital front waged against the privacy, time and energy of the people Versus nefarious corporate greed, which will stop at nothing to leech off our attention to shove ads, paywalls, cookies and loyalty programs in our faces. The war is on!
Makes the web less annoying
There are so many questionable decisions web developers make. Custom video controls with a full screen button that doesn’t actually go full screen… “get the app” nag bars… click and scroll hijacking… The list is endless.
StopTheMadness can’t fix everything, but it has a jolly good go at it. It just sits in the background quietly taking little irritations away so that I never have to think about them, making me a happier person.
Works a treat!
Update to original review:
Jeff has turned this from a great app to an absolutely fantastic app, continuous updates to improve and add features show his commitment to the project.
The recent addition of an element blocker is the best implementation of this I’ve seen yet. Far better than how 1Blocker or Adguard do element blocking, and much easier for a non-techy end user to use.
Having settings easily transferrable via iCloud is great for those with many Apple products, although maybe a ‘iCloud sync’ option would be an even option.
One of the best extensions to bring control back to you.
Don’t be out off by the App Store warnings that this app can read passwords, private information and other scary stuff, Apple apply this to all extensions and the simple truth is, it doesn’t do any of the scary stuff that is insinuated!! (I’ve read Jeff’s blog on this, so thought I’d mention it here as it might help him)…..
Anyway, take back control over the many idiotic things that some websites try and force you into by downloading this app, it’s an absolute ‘must have’ extension for Safari and you’re missing out by not having it.
One final point, to those whining about paying twice for the iOS/iPad and macOS variants, the dev’s time needs paying for and no doubt he’ll have bills to pay and mouths to feed…. Remember, if it’s free, then you and your data are the product, so you’re paying with your privacy.
Original review:
Great app, allows all manner of things to be turned on, turned off, over-ridden and generally improves iOS safari in many ways! Well worth the initial cost to be able to use a video site in the background alone! We’ve had a few updates recently that have added more functionality as well. Happy user here. Cheers.
Indispensable
This Safari extension fixes so many annoyances I’ve had with Safari on iPadOS/iOS it’s unreal. It really enhances the experience of using Safari on iPad.
It’s an impressive little app and it offers excellent value with regard to bang for buck. Regular updates and a simple and clean UI to boot.
Awesome App
Makes Safari so much better to use. Takes back control and stops websites forcing annoying behaviours on your browsing. Superb developer, regularly updated and worth every penny.
Works as advertised
Bought this purely to block Facebook tracking URLs that are opened in Safari. Works perfectly. Well worth the money.
