Remove Ads, Pop-ups & Malware from Chrome (PC, Android & iOS)

Malware and pop-up ads in Google Chrome will bring you a bad experience. This issue could happen on your computer, Android, and iOS. However, you can take measures to block pop-ups and remove malware from Chrome. MiniTool Software shows some effective solutions you can try.

Malware, Pop-ups, and Ads in Google Chrome: They Are Unsafe Elements

When you are using your Google Chrome, you might discover that it pops up ads randomly or the homepage is changed without your permission. This always means that some unwanted software or malware is installed on your device. Adware and malware can also lead to some other situations. They are summarized as follows:

Pop-up ads and new tabs keep appearing.
The homepage of Chrome or your default search engine keeps changing without your knowledge.
Some unwanted extensions are installed on your Chrome.
When you want to visit a page, you are redirected to an unfamiliar page or ad window.
You receive a fake virus or malware alert like Windows Defender Security Warning, Internet Security Alert, Windows Defender Alert Zeus Virus, etc.

When you encounter one or more of these situations, you should pay attention to your operations when using Chrome. To protect your computer, you should only download files or visit sites that you know are secure. Otherwise, some of your dangerous operations will bring viruses and malware to your computer, Android device, or iOS devices.

For threats that have occurred, you need to do things to block them and prevent them from happening again. Next, you can remove ads, pop-ups, and malware from Chrome to get rid of the threats.

Tip: Recover Your Lost Data due to Virus Attack

Viruses and malware on your device could make your files get lost. If you want to recover these files, you can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery Software on Windows. This software is a free file recovery tool that can rescue lost and deleted files from different types of data storage devices like computer hard drives, SSDs, memory cards, SD cards, and more.

This data recovery software can work on Windows 11, the new version of Windows. It has a trial edition, with it you can scan the drive you want to recover data from. If you can find your desired files from the scan results, you can use a full edition to recover them without limits.

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It is easy to use this software to recover your lost files. We will show you a simple guide here:

Step 1: Open MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

Step 2: Hover over the drive from which you want to recover data and click the Scan button to start scanning the drive.

Step 3: Wait until the scanning process completely ends. Then, you can see the scan results, which are categorized by the path. You can open each path to find files. You can also switch to Type to find files by type. You can also preview files if you are not sure if they are your needed files. This tool supports previewing up to 70 types of files.

Step 4: Upgrade to a full edition in the scan results interface. Then, check the files and folders you want to recover.

Step 5: Click the Save button.

Step 6: Select a suitable location to save these files. You should remember that the destination should not be the original location of the files. Otherwise, the lost files could be overwritten and unrecoverable.

If you are using a Mac machine, you can use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to rescue your files. This Mac data recovery software also has a trial edition. If you are not sure if it can find your needed files, you can first try out this trial edition.

If you want to recover data from your Android device, you can use MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android.

If you want to recover files from your iPhone or iPad, you can try out MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS.

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Remove Ads, Pop-ups & Malware from Chrome on Computer

Move 1: Change the Default Behavior for Pop-ups and Redirects & Ads

You can use these steps to prevent the sites you visit from showing the intrusive or misleading ads:

Step 1: Open Google Chrome on your computer.

Step 2: Click the 3-dot menu from the top-right corner and select Settings.

Step 3: Go to Privacy and security > Site Settings.

Step 4: Scroll down to the Content section and select Pop-ups and redirects.

Step 5: Select Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects. This can help you remove pop-ups from Chrome.

Step 6: Go back to the previous menu and expand Additional content settings.

Step 7: Select Ads.

Step 8: Select Block ads on sites that show intrusive or misleading ads. This can help you remove ads from Chrome.

Move 2: Remove Malware from Chrome

Remove Malware from Your Windows Computer

Chrome has built-in tools to help you find bad extensions and suspicious or unwanted programs on your device. If you don’t want to use third-party malware removal software, you can just try the Chrome snap-in tools to perform a Chrome virus scan and removal.

Step 1: Click the 3-dot menu from the top-right corner of Chrome and select Settings.

Step 2: Click Privacy and security from the left menu.

Step 3: Click the Check now button under Safety check. This can find the potentially harmful extensions and software on your device. If Chrome finds such a threat, you can follow the on-screen instruction to remove it. This can help you remove adware from Chrome.

Step 4: Click Advanced from the left menu.

Step 5: Click Clean up computer from the right panel.

Step 6: Click the Find button on the next page. This tool will begin to check for harmful software on your device.

Step 7: It will ask you to remove the found unwanted software, then click Remove to get rid of it. This can help you remove malware from Chrome.

Step 8: You might need to reboot your computer.

Remove Malware from Your Mac Computer

You can manually remove malicious programs from your Mac computer. Here is a guide:

Step 1: Open Finder.

Step 2: Click Applications from the left side.

Step 3: Find the suspicious programs you don’t know when it was installed.

Step 4: Right-click the name of the program you want to uninstall and select Move to Trash.

Step 5: Right-click Trash and select Empty Trash.

Move 3: Reset Your Google Chrome Settings

Step 1: Open Chrome on your device.

Step 2: Click the 3-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Settings.

Step 3: Click Advanced from the left menu. Then:

On Windows, you need to select Reset and cleanup, click Reset settings to their original defaults, and then click the Reset settings button.

On Chromebook, Linux, and Mac, you need to click Reset settings, select Restore settings to their original defaults, and then click the Reset settings button.

After you remove the undesired apps or reset your Chrome settings, some extensions might be turned off. If you still want to use them, you can turn extensions on in Google Chrome.

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Remove Ads, Pop-ups & Malware from Chrome on Android

Move 1: Uninstall Problematic Apps

You need to remove the suspicious apps from your Android device under safe mode:

Step 1: Turn off your Android device.

Step 2: Press the power button to turn on your device.

Step 3: As soon as you see the start-up screen, you need to press and hold the volume down button immediately. When you see Safe mode at the bottom of the screen, you can release the volume down button.

Step 4: Tap and hold the unwanted app and then select Uninstall from the pop-up menu to remove that app from your device. Then, repeat this step to remove all suspicious apps that are recently installed.

Step 5: Restart your Android device and use Chrome again. Check if the issue is solved.

Step 6: Go to Google Play to download and install your needed apps.

Move 2: Prevent Your Android Device from Harmful Apps

To protect your Android device, you should download and install apps from a trusted platform. Google Play Store is the best choice. Downloading apps from an unknown website might bring viruses and malware to your device. On the other hand, you need to turn on Play Protect.

Step 1: Open Google Play Store on Android.

Step 2: Tap your profile picture in the top-right corner.

Step 3: Go to Play Protect > Settings.

Step 4: Turn on Scan apps with Play Protect.

Move 3: Stop notifications from a Certain Website

If a website keeps releasing annoying notifications, you can directly turn off the permission using these steps:

Step 1: Open Chrome on your Android phone or tablet.

Step 2: Go to the webpage you want to turn its notification off.

Step 3: Tap the 3-dot menu in the top-right corner.

Step 4: Scroll down to find Site settings and tap it to continue.

Step 5: Tap Notifications under Permissions. If you can’t see Permissions or Notifications, it means the site doesn’t have notifications enabled.

Step 6: Turn off the settings.

Move 4: Block Ads, Pop-ups, and Redirects in Chrome

On your Android device, you can also stop ads, pop-ups, and redirects in Chrome:

Step 1: Open the Chrome app on your device.

Step 2: Click the 3-dot menu in the top-right corner, then go to Settings > Site settings.

Step 3: Tap Pop-ups and redirects and turn it off on the next page.

Step 4: Go back to Site settings.

Step 5: Tap Ads and turn it off on the next page.

Use Chrome again and see if pop-ups and ads in Chrome are successfully removed.

Remove Ads, Pop-ups & Malware from Chrome on iPhone/iPad

Move 1: Block Pop-ups in Chrome on Your iPhone or iPad

Step 1: Open Chrome on your iPhone or iPad.

Step 2: Tap the 3-dot menu and go to Settings.

Step 3: Tap Content Settings.

Step 4: Tap Block Pop-ups.

Step 5: Turn on Block Pop-ups.

Move 2: Allow Pop-ups for a Specific Site

However, not all pop-ups are ads or spam. Some websites show up pop-ups to bring web content. If you still want to see these pop-ups, you can allow pop-ups for that site:

Step 1: Open Chrome on your iPhone or iPad.

Step 2: Go to the page where pop-ups are blocked.

Step 3: See the bottom of the page, then tap Always show under Pop-ups blocked.

Move 3: What if You Can’t Block Pop-ups on iPhone or iPad

In rare cases, the above method doesn’t work to help you block pop-ups for one site. If so, you can do this to fix the pop-ups issues:

Step 1: Enable the Airplane mode on your iPhone or iPad.

Step 2: Quit Google Chrome.

Step 3: Close the tab with the harmful pop-ups or dialog box.

The End

Bothered by pop-ups, adware, malware, or ads in Google Chrome? This MiniTool article shows you numerous useful solutions you can try. Whether you’re using a Windows or Mac computer, or an Android or iOS device, you’ll always find the right solution here to remove pop-ups, ads, and malware from Chrome.

If you have any other useful suggestions or solutions, you can let us know in the comments. You can also contact us via [email protected].

About The Author

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Position: Columnist

Stella has been working in MiniTool Software as an English Editor for more than 7 years. Her articles mainly cover the fields of data recovery including storage media data recovery and phone data recovery, YouTube videos download, partition management, and video conversions.