35

deepswimmer It works perfectly well on nytimes.com and bloomberg.com. I'm running it in Edge on my Surface Pro. It doesn't work in Orion, however.

      Steps to reproduce:

      1. Search for bypass paywalls online. (i am using Kagi)
      2. click on the first link (github) https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox
      3. scroll down until you see the install process for firefox
      4. click on the link
      5. click add when it prompts it
      6. go onto wsj.com and click any article
      7. it won't allow you to see the article

      alternate way to reproduce:

      1. Search for bypass paywalls online. (i am using Kagi)
      2. click on the firefox extension add on link (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean/)
      3. it will say that your current firefox version is out of date instead of typically allowing you to install it onto Orion. --> see pictures below

      Expected behavior:
      After installing, it should allow you to see the article for wsj.com.

      Orion, OS version; hardware type:
      Orion:
      1.1.5 (5) (Webkit 8614.2.4)

      OS:
      iOS 16.1 (20B5045d)

      Hardware:
      iPhone 13 Mini

      Image/Video:




      • Vlad replied to this.

        strain It looks to me that the extensions install properly. Why it doesn't work on WSJ can be due to extension limitations (does it work for you if you install it on desktop Orion?)

            Vlad Yes, it does. The extension successfully allows me to read wsj.com articles on desktop

                3 months later
                19 days later

                cele It doesn't work, and this is a showstopper. Bypass Paywalls Clean is the single most important extension there is. Unless Orion can support it, it might as well not bother with anything else.

                • Vlad replied to this.
                    Merged 5 posts from Bypass Paywalls extension not working on Orion iOS.
                      16 days later

                      Vlad A lot of people do see Bypass Paywalls as their most important extension.

                      E.g. the mozilla extensions site https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean/ shows 144k users and 4.8 stars. It doesn't appear in Mozilla's most popular extensions list for some reason but those stats would appear to put it around 30th in user count and top 10-15 in rating - quite an achievement for an extension which only came out a couple years ago (the extensions with more users presumably racked them up back when Firefox was more popular) and which comes in multiple versions (the linked one doesn't request permissions for all sites - there is another which allows custom sites) and is often sideloaded. There is also a chrome version, which needs to be sideloaded, but is likely to have an additional order of magnitude more users.

                      See these recent posts in reddit r/ios (hardly a bastion of paywall blocking types, you would expect) and - by comparison r/ios posts like about extension support in general only get 5-15 votes.

                        Vlad, after extensive testing, I can say that there is something wrong with Orion's support of the "Bypass Paywalls Clean" extension on iOS. Please try it for yourself.

                        Run "Bypass Paywalls Clean" in Chrome or Edge on a laptop. Then, compare the results to the results of running the extension in Orion on an iPhone or iPad. Try these articles:

                        https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/feds-jerome-powell-to-address-economic-outlook-with-hiring-surge-in-spotlight-11675781503?mod=hp_lead_pos1

                        https://www.ft.com/content/10b6d4f2-d48f-401f-8407-8d5688d1e226

                        Why do these work on desktop browsers running "Bypass Paywalls Clean," but they don't work on Orion running "Bypass Paywalls Clean?"

                          ArcherWithoutTargets I think it is because the extension uses a variety of techniques for different sites and eg for ft.com it changes the referer so the user appears to come from google search results. But such techniques are not possible without the webrequest api which Orion iOS cannot implement so I do not know if there is much hope?

                              Correct, the fact that the extension works at all on iOS is a miracle to begin with, but Apple is simply too restrictive with what web extension apis can be run.

                                Thanks, guys. That definitely explains why the extension doesn't work very well on iOS. It seems that until Apple is forced to allow third-party app stores and non-WebKit browsers (such as Firefox), it'll be impossible for "Bypass Paywalls Clean" to ever work like it does in a desktop browser.
                                I'm cautiously optimistic that the European Union will force Apple to do this in Europe. I don't know if Apple would bifurcate its market, or finally relent and allow full-blown browsers in the US that aren't Safari-based.

                                  13 days later

                                  fredsmith999 I did some more digging in Orion iOS with Bypass Paywalls extension running, and @fredsmith999 is spot on. In addition to attempting to set the referer to google, there are other HTTP headers it tries to rewrite for some sites (e.g. removing all cookies from ft.com requests). The WebKit framework provided by Apple offers no way to rewrite these before it fetches the pages/data from the site you're visiting, so the site returns the paywalled version.

                                  If Apple changes their stance on this and provides a way to provide header rewriting to browser apps, we'll be able to take another try at this.

                                    8 months later

                                    Bypass paywalls also does not work on Orion desktop anymore for at least the Wall Street Journal. Like other's have said, this is a pretty big deal breaker for me. The WSJ used to work as well.

                                      strain I noticed this a few days ago. Occasionally, a website will make changes to its paywall to try to prevent "Bypass Paywalls Clean" from working. Usually, the developer identifies the problem and implements a fix within a few days. Because wsj.com is an important website, I'd expect the developer to act on this sooner rather than later. It should work again soon.

                                          strain We obviously can not control this, unless it is a bug. Does it work in Chrome with the same extension?

                                              2 months later

                                              Installed Orion browser on iOS. Problem is with extension: Magnolia's Bypass Paywall Clean
                                              The extension works well on mac but not on iOS.
                                              Tried both extensions from firefox store and from file but paywall is still there.

                                              Link of a paywalled article: https://www.lescienze.it/news/2023/12/14/news/gatti_uccidono_specie-14554184/

                                              Browser (main version): Orion 1.3.4

                                              BPC-extension version: v3.4.7.0

                                              How to fix this?

                                              Paywall gone

                                              1.3.4

                                              17

                                                Merged 1 post from Problem with BPC Bypass Paywall Clean on iOS with site: lescienze.it.