How to disable personalized ads on Mac

Updated 2026 · 4 min read

Apple shows ads in the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. By default it tailors those ads to your activity using an advertising identifier tied to your Apple ID. One setting turns that off — here's what it does, where to find it, and how to flip it from Terminal.

What personalized ads actually do

Apple Advertising builds a profile from your app downloads, search history, and purchase patterns — then uses it to serve ads it thinks you'll click. The identifier isn't sold to third parties, but it does let Apple connect your behaviour across its own apps. Disabling personalization tells Apple's ad system to ignore that profile when deciding what to show you.

You'll still see ads in the App Store and Apple News after turning this off. Apple just won't use your activity to pick them. Most people find the ads indistinguishable either way — the change is about what data Apple collects and acts on, not whether ads appear at all.

Where to find it in System Settings

Open System Settings (Apple menu → System Settings).
Scroll down to Privacy & Security.
Scroll to the bottom of that pane and click Apple Advertising.
Toggle Personalised Ads off.

That's the UI path — two clicks once you know where to look, buried otherwise.

The Terminal command

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and run:

# disable personalized ads
defaults write com.apple.AdLib allowApplePersonalizedAdvertising -bool false

To re-enable personalization later:

# undo — re-enable personalized ads
defaults write com.apple.AdLib allowApplePersonalizedAdvertising -bool true

No restart required. The change takes effect for new ad requests immediately.

Do it in one click

Mainspring turns this exact setting — and 90+ others macOS buries in Terminal — into a single labelled toggle. Flip Disable personalized ads on, and flip it back just as fast. No commands to memorize, nothing permanent.

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What changes after you disable it

Apple resets the advertising identifier associated with your account. Ads in the App Store, News, and Stocks become generic — based on context (what category of app you're browsing) rather than your personal history. Apple's own documentation notes the setting "limits how Apple delivers relevant ads to you" without eliminating ads from those surfaces entirely.

Does this affect third-party apps?

No. This only controls Apple's own advertising system. Third-party apps that request tracking permission have their own separate setting in Privacy & Security → Tracking. If you want to limit that too, deny tracking requests there — or check the toggle in Mainspring's Privacy & Security recipe.