Happy Squid Support

Check that the Happy Squid extension is turned on and can see every website. In Chrome and Edge, open your extensions page, make sure Happy Squid is switched on, and set its site access under “Details” to “On all sites”. In Firefox, open Add-ons and themes, choose Happy Squid, and under Permissions turn on “Access your data for all websites”. In Safari, turn on Happy Squid under Settings → Extensions, then click “Edit Websites” and set “For other websites” to “Allow”. If the block has a schedule, it only blocks during the hours you picked under “Schedule block”.

Check the address again. A block on a domain doesn't cover its subdomains, so blocking youtube.com doesn't block music.youtube.com. To block every subdomain too, turn on “Block subdomains” under Block settings in Advanced settings. In the same way, blocking one path of a site doesn't block the rest of it, so blocking youtube.com/shorts leaves the rest of YouTube open.

A website can be in more than one block at once, for example in its own block, in a group with other websites, and in a category. It stays blocked until every block it's in is switched off. When you land on the blocked page, Happy Squid shows you which block is blocking you, and if more than one applies, you can switch between them right there.

Besides your website blocks, a site can also be blocked by a category block, the everything block, or morning lock. The everything block and morning lock block every website, while a category block only blocks the websites in the category you picked. You can exempt any website from these blocks in your settings.

To exempt a site from a category or the everything block, open that block, turn on “Exempt websites from this category” and add the site. For morning lock, go to Advanced settings → Morning lock and add the site under “Exempt websites”. You can't add exemptions while the block is locked.

Browsers turn extensions off in private windows unless you allow them. In Chrome and Edge, go to Extensions → Manage Extensions, then open Details for Happy Squid and turn on “Allow in Incognito” in Chrome or “Allow in InPrivate” in Edge. In Firefox, go to Add-ons and themes → Happy Squid, then set “Run in Private Windows” to “Allow”. In Safari, go to Settings → Extensions → Happy Squid, then tick “Allow in Private Browsing”.

By default, Happy Squid doesn't block content from a blocked site when it's embedded in another site. For example, a YouTube video in an article on another website still plays. You can turn on “Block embedded content” under Block settings in Advanced settings. Then embedded content from blocked sites is replaced with a placeholder in your browsers on your computer and in Safari on your iPhone. A site blocked through the Shopping category keeps its embedded content, so payment buttons such as PayPal still work.

When “Close browsers running without the extension” is on, Happy Squid closes any browser that doesn't have the extension installed and switched on. That way, opening another browser isn't a way around your blocks. Once you've installed the extension in a browser, that browser stays open. To switch this off, open Advanced settings in the Happy Squid app and turn off “Close browsers running without the extension” under Desktop settings. You can't switch it off while a lock is running.

While a lock is running, the uninstall protection stops you from deleting Happy Squid. Apple's setting for this covers every app on your iPhone, so other apps can't be deleted either. When no lock is running, you can turn it off in Advanced settings → Uninstall protection.

When you start a task, Happy Squid checks that it's something productive. Otherwise, an unproductive task would be an easy way around your blocks. If your task really is productive, describe it a bit more clearly and try again. You can also tell Happy Squid what productive means to you in Advanced settings.

Unfortunately, a lock can't be ended early. We know this can be frustrating, but that's the point of a lock. It runs until its time is up, and you can only make it longer. Signing out and deleting your account both have to wait until the lock ends.

Go to Advanced settings → Account → Delete account. This can't be undone. You can't delete your account or sign out while a lock is running. If you have a subscription, you need to cancel it first.

Go to Advanced settings → Account → Manage subscription → Subscription. It takes you to our cancellation page, where you just enter your email address. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, you can only cancel with Apple or Google, and the same button on your phone takes you there. Your subscription stays active until the end of the period you've already paid for.

Your blocks, locks, and free time keep working as before, but Happy Squid's intelligent features are limited. Intelligent exceptions only work for one website, and your other exceptions are grayed out until you subscribe again. You can only start one task a week, up to an hour long.

We'd love to hear from you! Just email us at support@happy-squid.com and tell us what you'd like to see or what we could do better.

Open Advanced settings in the browser extension or the desktop app and click “Report a bug”. Tell us what happened and press Send. It helps us if you include your settings and recent browsing history, so we can see exactly what went wrong.