How to Unblock One Site Without Turning Off Your Mac Blocklist

Big blocklists catch the odd site you actually need: a store's checkout, a login page, a link in a newsletter. Turning protection off fixes that site and unblocks everything else too. The better fix is to allow that one site.

Why the obvious fix does not last

Every blocked site is one line in /etc/hosts, such as 0.0.0.0 shop.example.com. You can delete or comment out that line by hand:

sudo nano /etc/hosts
# 0.0.0.0 shop.example.com
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

That works until the list updates. A fresh copy of the list puts the line back, and the site breaks again. Most lists also block a site's subdomains on separate lines, so one edit is often not enough.

The lasting fix: an allowed sites list

An allowed sites list sits on top of every blocklist. Before the hosts file is written, any blocking line for an allowed site is left out. List updates cannot bring it back, because the check runs on every write.

How to allow a site in SaneHosts

1. Find the blocked site in your profile's entries. The search box filters thousands of entries as you type.
2. Right-click it and choose Always Allow. SaneHosts saves it and applies the change at once.
3. To add a site by hand, click Allowed Sites in the sidebar and paste the address. A full link such as https://shop.example.com/cart is trimmed to shop.example.com.

What stays the same

• Your allowed sites apply to every profile, so switching protection levels keeps them.
• Only blocking lines are skipped. Your own redirects, such as a test server address, are left alone.
• Names that describe your Mac itself, such as localhost, cannot be allowed by mistake.

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