SOLVASupport
Switching it on
- Open Settings on your device.
SettingsAppsSafariExtensionsiOS 17SettingsSafariExtensions
- Switch on everything named Solva — Solva — Blocklist 1 through Solva — Blocklist 7 and Solva Main. They sit together in the list. Safari limits how many rules one extension may hold, which is why Solva arrives in pieces rather than one switch.
- Open the Solva app again. It counts how many are on and tells you when you are done — it re-reads Safari every time you come back, so you never have to guess.
I switched it on and I still see ads
Wait about a minute, then reload the page. Safari compiles a content blocker's rules in the background after you flip the switch, and it gives no sign of when it has finished — Solva is not told either. Reloading matters too: Safari applies rules as a page loads, so a tab that was already open keeps whatever it started with.
If it is still there after that, open the app and tap See it working. That loads a page inside Solva and lets you switch blocking on and off, which tells you whether the rules themselves are fine and the problem is Safari's switches — or the other way round.
A site looks broken
It happens: a filter list occasionally catches something a site genuinely needs. Open Solva, go to Settings › Site rules, add the site and apply. Solva then stands down on that one domain and keeps working everywhere else. Give Safari a few seconds to rebuild, then reload the page.
Solva then offers to report it, and taking that offer is worth ten seconds: it opens a draft in your mail app with the site, your build and your switch states already filled in. You can also reach it any time from Settings › Help › Report a broken site, or by swiping right on a row in Site rules.
The same screen does the opposite too. If a filter list misses something — one tracker, one ad server, one domain that follows you around — type it into Site rules and press BLOCK instead of EXEMPT. Solva composes a block rule for that domain, subdomains included, in the same shape the shipped lists use. Up to 200 of them; Safari caps what one extension may carry and the same extension holds your language pack.
If the site is still wrong after the exception, the problem is not Solva — switch its extensions off in Safari's settings to confirm before you go looking further. Either way, please tell us the address.
The fix belongs in the filter list rather than in a private exception inside Solva, because that way it reaches everyone using that list, in every browser and every blocker — not just the people who happened to email us.
Why are there eight switches?
Safari caps how many rules a single content blocker may carry. Solva ships far more rules than one extension can hold, so they are divided across seven blockers — the seventh arrives empty and is the room a language pack is installed into — plus one small extension for the few things rules alone cannot do. Leaving any of them off means part of the blocking is off.
Why is there no "ads blocked" counter?
Because Safari does not report one. Blocking happens inside Safari's own process, and nothing comes back to the app — any number on that screen would be made up. The demo screen counts requests on a page it loads itself, which is a figure that can actually be measured.
Refunds
Purchases go through Apple, so refunds do too: reportaproblem.apple.com. We cannot issue one ourselves — we never see the payment.
Write to us
For a site that misbehaves, the address and what went wrong is enough. For anything else, the version line at the bottom of the app's Help screen tells us which build you are on and how many extensions are active, which usually answers half the question before we ask it.