Customize & Configure

How pages are remembered

Knowing exactly what a rule covers explains almost every surprise — why something you hid didn't disappear on the next article, and why an element you thought you'd dealt with is back.

Per page, not per site

What you hide is stored against the page's address — its host plus its path. example.com/blog/one and example.com/blog/two are two different pages, so hiding the recommended-posts box on the first does nothing to the second.

This is a deliberate trade. It means hiding a sidebar on one article never blanks out something you needed on an unrelated page — at the cost of repeating yourself on sites where every page carries the same clutter.

What counts as the same page

  • The part after the ? is ignored. Query strings — tracking parameters, session values, search terms — aren't part of the key, so a link with ?utm_source=… on the end is still the same page.
  • The part after the # is ignored too. Jumping to an anchor doesn't create a new page.
  • The host must match exactly. example.com and www.example.com are treated as different sites, as are different subdomains.
  • The path must match exactly. A trailing slash, a changed slug, or a date that's part of the URL all make it a different page.

What this means in practice

  • A site's home page is a single page, so hiding a hero banner there sticks — it's the ideal case.
  • Article pages each need their own pass. Worth it for a site you read daily; not worth it for one you'll visit once.
  • Apps that change the URL as you navigate may need the picker re-run per view, since each view is its own address.
  • A site that redesigns its URLs leaves your old rules pointing at addresses that no longer exist. They stop doing anything rather than misfiring.

Where the rules live

Everything is stored in your browser's local storage on this computer, keyed by page. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing syncs to your other devices — a rule you set on your laptop won't follow you to your desktop.

Clearing your browser's extension data, or removing the extension, clears the rules along with it.

Related guides

See the rules for the page you're on in Bring hidden elements back. For what's stored and what never leaves your machine, read Privacy & permissions.