"Content Blockers" does not appear in the Settings app on an iPad 3

[wadetregaskis]

BlockParty itself installs & runs fine, and works fine on my iPhone 5, but my iPad 3 stubbornly refuses to show me the "Content Blockers" submenu in Safari's settings. Restarting Safari, BlockParty, Settings, or the whole iPad, make no difference.

[krishkumar]

See Apple's documentation here - https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releasenotes/General/WhatsNewInSafari/Articles/Safari_9.html

“Note: Apps containing content blocking extensions for Safari on iOS are available only on 64-bit devices, due to performance limitations of 32-bit devices.”

[qwertimus]

@krishkumar
Yes, but I'd guess it's an arbitrary limitation—at least it seems to be for A6 devices.
BlockParty works perfectly on my iPhone 5C and apparently on @wadetregaskis' iPhone 5, both of which are 32 bit A6 (and not officially supported). I get all the relevant menus, and it does block ads (even the huge easylist conversion works, albeit poorly).

Would be interesting to know whether content blocking is (truly) incompatible with A5/A5X generation devices.

[gingerbeardman]

@qwertimus "albeit poorly" there's your answer, the lists are managed externally from the apps so not allowing the apps on those devices is the only way of preventing somebody getting bad performance when huge list is pushed to the content blocker they have chosen

[krishkumar]

@qwertimus The iPad 3 is probably locked down because of RAM constraints. It was released way before the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5C.

[alexbloggt]

"albeit poorly" only seems to apply to huge lists - but smaller lists should work well on older devices too I think. On my iPad 4 I can install BlockParty without any problems. Using a converted easylist for Germany slows down Safari here, too. Using provided list here doesn´t cause slow down.

[wadetregaskis]

@krishkumar, the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 both have 1 GiB of RAM.

I've heard that the iPad 3 worked fine with content blocking in the betas, before Apple arbitrarily locked them down. It's strange that they would genuinely lock out the iPad 3 but not the iPhone 5.

I filed this issue mainly to sanity check that other people with iPad 3s are seeing the same thing, as opposed to being some unusual glitch with mine. Does anyone else have an iPad 3 and can confirm 'Content Blocking' refuses to show for them too?

[krishkumar]

I have added Device Compatibility to the README which covers these findings.

[qwertimus]

@gingerbeardman Easylist is huge, and not optimised for iOS. More reasonable lists—like the BlockParty list—perform excellently; decreasing page load time, and increasing page responsiveness.

@krishkumar I have confirmed that, at least for the moment, all A6/A6X devices support Content Blocking (iPhone 5 and higher, iPad 4 and higher).

If anyone could test on other A5/A5X devices that would be great.

[Clete2]

I have an iPad 3 and I can also confirm that "Content Blocking" does not show in the menu. I can search for it through the Settings app and it shows in the search, but I can't get into the menu.

[kiancheong]

I have the iPad 3 and yes, content blockers won't show.

[pualo]

I have both an iPhone 5 and iPad 3. Installed on both one after the other. Confirm works correctly on iPhone 5, but does not show up in settings on iPad 3. (Would love if anyone could find a way to fix.)

[LeoNatan]

How exactly can anyone find a fix when Apple has blocked the apps from appearing? Short of Jailbreak, the only solution is to wait for Apple and see if they allow them. Make sure to open a bug report with Apple.

[pualo]

@LeoNatan
I agree it's not likely. As for Apple, they're more likely to fix the "bug" allowing use on the iPhone 5 than the opposite.