The AdBlock for Safari Museum
Downloads
While it is possible to build any version of the extension from source using Safari's Extension Builder, you may find below a selection of .safariextz files that were salvaged from the sands of time, all original as distributed by the AdBlock Team.
Version 2.70 was the last version available as a Safari Extension before AdBlock switched to exclusively being a Content Blocking app on macOS. The only difference between versions 2.69 and 2.70 is the addition of various messages encouraging users to upgrade to the app-based content blocker.
If you are here because you're looking for a legacy version of AdBlock to use on a vintage Mac, you should download version 2.69. This is a special build that will not auto-update to version 2.70, and provide you with a vanilla experience. This version is compatible with Safari from version 5.0.6 on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to version 11.1.2 on macOS 10.13 High Sierra. Note that fully up-to-date installations of Sierra and High Sierra use Safari 12 and 13, which do not accept installation of legacy Safari Extensions.
If you are looking to play around with older AdBlock releases, make sure to disable automatic extension updates by going to Safari > Preferences > Extensions, and deselecting "Automatically update extensions from the Safari Extensions Gallery".
Safari Extension releases
- 1.4.32, released Jun 11, 2010
- 2.0.9, released Jun 19, 2010
- 2.0.23, released Aug 16, 2010
- 2.4.23, released Aug 26, 2011
- 2.4.28, released Sep 14, 2011
- 2.5.11, released Dec 27, 2011
- 2.5.33, released May 8, 2012; CatBlock (based on AdBlock 2.5.33)
- 2.5.46, released Oct 22, 2012
- 2.5.54, released Dec 20, 2012
- 2.5.61, released Feb 21, 2013
- 2.5.63, released May 3, 2013
- 2.6.0, released Jun 24, 2013
- 2.6.4, released Jul 29, 2013
- 2.6.18, released Jan 13, 2014
- 2.7.3, released Jun 16, 2014
- 2.36.2, released Jul 9, 2015
- 2.54, released Mar 18, 2016
- 2.57, released May 13, 2016
- 2.61, released Feb 1, 2017
- 2.69, released Sep 7, 2018
- 2.70, released Sep 20, 2018
Filter lists
Many of the releases above do not come with filter lists bundled, as they are downloaded by the extension itself after installation. Older versions of macOS and Safari are unable to connect to servers using modern secure protocols, preventing AdBlock from performing appropriate downloads.
In such cases, it is possible to copy and paste the contents of a filter list into the "Manually edit your filters" text box in the Customize tab of AdBlock's Options. Here are some era-appropriate filters:
It goes without saying that outdated filters will not be providing the same level of ad blocking as an up-to-date list.
Source code
Source is still available from code.getadblock.com (all versions) and on GitHub (up to version 2.60.1). This page mirrors the full git repository up to 2.60.1, as well as individual versions: 2.61, 2.69, 2.70.
This source code is shared by the Safari, Chrome, and Opera variants of AdBlock of that era. AdBlock is available under the GPL version 3.
Source code for CatBlock (based on AdBlock 2.5.33), also licensed under GPLv3.
The contents of .safariextz files can be inspected by extracting them with the following command:
xar -xf AdBlock.safariextz
