How Fullstop works

Most blockers can be turned off or uninstalled by whoever owns the computer. Others work by reporting what you do to an accountability partner.

Fullstop does neither. It takes away your admin access, so nothing on your Mac can be removed or changed without a code, and the code takes 3 days to arrive. There's no partner and no reports. Just time.

Open Fullstop and press Request code. Three days later, the admin password appears in the app.

It works for 24 hours, then changes by itself, and your Mac locks again. You can cancel a request at any time, or lock again early once you're done.

Not after you install it. Setup makes your account a standard user and creates a hidden admin account with a password nobody sees. Without admin access you can't remove Fullstop, change its settings, or make yourself an admin again.

Most blockers only make removal annoying, because you're still an admin. Fullstop takes the admin access away.

Because you could sit out an hour, or even a night, if the urge is strong enough. Nobody waits 3 days to goon. The wait has to be longer than any urge lasts, so that asking for the code gets you nothing tonight. When there's nothing to gain, you stop trying.

No. You log in and unlock your Mac with the same password as always. The only new password is the hidden admin's, which Fullstop keeps and shows after the wait.

No. Standard users can't change the date or time on a Mac, and that includes you once Fullstop is installed.

No. The code is made and kept on your Mac. It's never sent to us, so there's nothing we could send you. Nobody can skip the wait, including us.

No. The lock and the 3-day clock run entirely on your Mac, online or offline, and keep working after a restart.

No. Fullstop never looks at your screen, takes screenshots, or sends anything anywhere. It blocks whole sites and apps by name. That also means it never blocks an ordinary video by mistake.

No. Those platforms ban nudity in their own rules. X and Reddit allow explicit content, so Fullstop blocks them.

Sure, and that isn't the problem Fullstop solves. Porn is. Blocking Instagram or YouTube would get in the way of normal life, and a blocker that does that gets uninstalled. If you want them gone anyway, block them yourself in the app. Unblocking takes 3 days.

We built that, and retired it. An on-device AI that watched the screen blocked ordinary videos all the time: in testing, 10 normal movie trailers and a workout video set off 611 blocks. It also drained battery and struggled on older Macs. Blocking X entirely is the only reliable option. The full story is here.

You can copy it, but you can't open it, and Fullstop blocks the sites that download or show X posts from a pasted link. Hiding X results from search entirely is coming in the next update.

No. VPN apps are closed within 2 seconds and deleted, VPN and proxy websites are blocked, Chrome is set to refuse proxies, and any VPN connection that starts is cut.

The one exception is a school VPN: Cisco, GlobalProtect or FortiClient, connected to a school (.edu) server.

No. Chrome is the only browser that runs, because it's the one Fullstop can lock down: SafeSearch on, no incognito, no new extensions, no proxies. Any other browser is closed within 2 seconds and deleted from Applications.

Yes, but it takes 3 days. Paste the extension's Chrome Web Store link into Fullstop. In 3 days, when your code arrives, Fullstop adds it and you approve the change.

Extensions you already use are kept when you install Fullstop, except ones that can act as a proxy or VPN. Those were the most common way around blockers.

Blocked. A virtual machine has its own browser and its own internet connection, so Fullstop closes and deletes any app that can run one, including command-line tools. Sites that run a computer or browser for you in the cloud are blocked too.

Many of them set it with a settings file that macOS quietly deletes. Fullstop installs it as a configuration profile, which macOS keeps, and which only an admin can remove.

Yes. Campus Wi-Fi sign-in works, .edu sites are never blocked, school VPNs are allowed, and exam browsers like Respondus LockDown Browser run normally.

Yes. No account, no card, no trial that runs out. The mission is to fix what's broken in every porn blocker, and right now that comes from people using Fullstop and reporting loopholes, not from a paywall.

It's free during early access. If a paid plan ever comes, unlocking your Mac will never depend on paying.

Not unless lots of people ask for it. There are already hundreds of apps that do that. Fullstop does one job. You can still block any site or app yourself, instantly.

Yes. The Fullstop app's Admin tasks button installs macOS updates right away. It also installs apps from approved companies like Adobe, Microsoft and Zoom, if you give it their official, current installer. Apps you dragged into Applications yourself keep updating on their own.

Anyone can pay Apple $99 a year to sign an installer, and an installer runs with full control of the Mac. If Admin tasks accepted any signed installer, someone could make one that undoes the lock. So it only accepts installers from a fixed list of companies, signed in the last year and approved by Apple.

Yes, right away. Open Fullstop, choose More… then Block a website, and type the address or paste a link. It's blocked in every app on your Mac within seconds.

Yes, right away. Pick the app in Fullstop and it closes every time it opens. It isn't deleted, so if you unblock it later, it's still there.

A few things can't be blocked, like Finder, System Settings, Terminal and Fullstop itself, because blocking them could leave you unable to use or fix your Mac.

For sites and apps you added yourself: choose Unblock something you added. It stays blocked for 3 days, and you can cancel any time before then.

Fullstop's built-in blocks (adult sites, X, Reddit, VPNs and the rest) can only be removed with the 3-day code.

Adding a block is something you'll never regret at 1 a.m. Removing one is exactly what you'd do at 1 a.m. So Fullstop makes adding easy and makes removing wait.

Request the code, wait 3 days, then run the uninstaller with it. Your account becomes an admin again.

Fullstop can't see or delete files you already have: downloads on your Mac, an external drive, or folders in Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox or OneDrive. Those sites stay open, because people need them for school and work.

So delete your stash before you install, and empty the Trash. Check your cloud drives and any old USB sticks too. It's the hardest step, and it's the one that matters most.

A few, and you should know them before you install:

Files you already have, on your Mac or in a cloud drive, aren't touched, so clear them out first. Erasing or formatting the entire device removes Fullstop, along with everything else on the disk. Other devices, like your phone or another computer, aren't covered. Sites that stay open, like YouTube or Instagram, aren't filtered inside. Fullstop blocks whole sites; it doesn't judge each post.

Back up your Mac before installing. Fullstop replaces your FileVault recovery key with one only it knows, so if you forget your own login password, the usual backup ways into the Mac are locked too, and erasing it may be the only way back.

A Mac with Apple silicon, FileVault turned on (System Settings > Privacy & Security), an admin account to start with, and Google Chrome. Setup takes a few minutes and asks you to approve one profile in System Settings.

Not yet. Fullstop is Mac-only for now, on Apple silicon. A Windows version is planned.