This is the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension beginner’s guide.
What’s in This A Beginner’s Guide to the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension Guide
The Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome extension is the official debugging companion for Popup Maker. It lets you debug and test your popups right from the browser toolbar—no need to dig through the DevTools console or log in to your WordPress admin area.
This beginner’s guide covers:
- How to install the extension from the Chrome Web Store.
- What happens when you visit a site running Popup Maker.
- How to open and close popups on demand without meeting their conditions.
- How to inspect popup settings like position, animation, size, and close behavior.
- How to view triggers and understand what launches each popup.
- How to manage cookies so you can reset display rules while testing.
- How to check targeting conditions for the current page.
- How to pick CSS selectors for click triggers.
- How to generate a debug report for support tickets.
- How to the fix most common problems, such as your popup doesn’t open, and your popup always shows.
- What’s in This A Beginner’s Guide to the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension Guide
- Installing the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension
- Your First Look: What Happens When the Debug Tools Extension Finds Popups
- Opening and Closing Popups on Demand
- Inspecting Popup Settings
- Viewing Triggers
- Managing Cookies
- Checking Targeting Conditions
- Using the CSS Selector Tool
- Generating a Debug Report
- Light and Dark Mode
- Common Popup Problems
- Extension vs. Built-in Debug Mode
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Resources
Installing the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension
The extension is free on the Chrome Web Store. Here’s how to add it to your browser.
1. Open the Popup Maker Debug Tools listing in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Click Add to Chrome.
3. In the dialog that pops up, click Add extension.
4. You’ll see the Popup Maker Debug Tools icon in your browser toolbar. If you don’t see it, click the puzzle piece icon (Extensions) and pin it.
Removing the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension
1. Go back to the Popup Maker Debug Tools listing in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Click Remove from Chrome.
Your First Look: What Happens When the Debug Tools Extension Finds Popups
Go to any WordPress site that uses Popup Maker. If the page you’re on has a valid popup (i.e., it meets target conditions and there are no errors), the extension icon in your toolbar shows a badge with the number of popups on the page.
For example, the screen capture below has a badge with the number 1 in it. That means the Debug Tools found one popup on the page.
Note: The badge will be green if you’re logged into the site you’re viewing.
Click the icon to open the Debug Tools. Under the Popups tab, you’ll see a list of every popup on the current page, along with its ID and name, play/stop button, and more menu (3 dots).
What if the Debug Tools doesn’t find any popups?
If the badge doesn’t show up, the page either isn’t running Popup Maker or no popups load on that specific page. This could mean:
- The site doesn’t have Popup Maker installed or turned on.
- Targeting conditions don’t load any popups on this page.
- You turned off all the popups for this page.
- There’s a plugin conflict or JavaScript error on the page.
Opening and Closing Popups on Demand
This is one of the most helpful features for testing. You can force any popup to open without scrolling, waiting, clicking, or meeting any other trigger condition.
How to open a popup
In the Debug Tools > Popups tab, find the popup you want to test. Click the Play button next to it. The popup shows on the page right away.
How to close a popup
Once a popup is open, click the Stop button in the Debug Tools to dismiss it. This is handy when you need to test the popup’s open and close behavior over and over.
Inspecting Popup Settings
Want to see exactly how you set up a popup? The Debug Tools extension shows you the full settings for each popup on the page.
Click on the more menu (3 dots) for a popup in the Debug Tools > Popups tab. Click View Settings. You’ll see settings like:
- Position: Where the popup shows on the screen (e.g., center, top, bottom).
- Animation: How the popup enters and exits (e.g., fade, slide, grow).
- Size: The popup’s width, height, and responsive behavior.
- Close behavior: What happens when someone closes the popup (e.g., overlay click, ESC key, close button).
This saves you from jumping back and forth between the WordPress admin and the front end of your site. You can check your settings in one glance.
Viewing Triggers
Triggers are what launch your popups. The Debug Tools extension breaks down every trigger on each popup so you can see exactly what’s set to happen.
For each popup in the Popups tab, click the more menu (3 dots). Click View Triggers to see:
- Trigger type: Click Open, Auto Open (time delay), Scroll, Exit Intent, Form Submission, and others.
- Trigger settings: The setup for that trigger, like the delay in milliseconds or the CSS selectors for click triggers.
- Cookie: Whether the trigger has a cookie and the cookie’s name.
Managing Cookies
Popup Maker uses browser cookies to control how often a popup shows. For example, a cookie might say, “don’t show this popup again for 30 days.” When you’re testing, cookies can get in the way because they stop the popup from showing.
Viewing cookies
The extension lists all Popup Maker cookies your browser currently has for the site you’re on. Click the Cookies tab. You’ll see each cookie’s name and when it expires.
Clearing cookies
Click Clear to remove a specific popup cookie from your browser. Click Clear All to remove all popup cookies.
Now, you can see the popup(s) again as if you were a first-time visitor.
Checking Targeting Conditions
Targeting conditions control which pages load a popup. The extension tells you whether the current page meets the conditions for each popup.
This helps when a popup isn’t loading where you expect. Instead of guessing, you can check the targeting conditions right from the Debug Tools > Popups. Click the more menu (3 dots), then click View Settings. See the Conditions section in the settings panel.
Using the CSS Selector Tool
When you can’t use the standard Click Open trigger settings to launch your popup, you’ll need a CSS selector that points to a button, text, image, or link (i.e., any page element). Then, when people click that element, it’ll trigger your popup to show.
If CSS selectors sound scary, the extension’s selector tool makes it easy!
How to pick a CSS selector
1. Click the CSS selector tool button in the Debug Tools.
2. Hover over any element on the page. The selector tool highlights it as you move your mouse.
3. Click the element you want. The selector tool creates a CSS selector for it and copies it to your clipboard.
4. Paste the selector into your popup’s Click Open trigger settings in the WordPress admin.
Note: Always test your selectors. Sometimes, CSS selectors can select more than one element. When that happens, try to add on CSS rules to the selector to make the selector more specific.
Generating a Debug Report
If you run into a problem you can’t solve on your own, the Debug Tools extension can create a debug report. This report covers all the popup data on the current page—settings, triggers, cookies, conditions, and more—in a format that’s easy to share with the Popup Maker support team.
How to create a report
1. Open the Debug Tools on the page where you’re having trouble.
3. Click the Health tab.
2. Click Copy Debug Report.
3. The extension copies the report to your clipboard. Paste it into your support ticket.
Here’s an example of a debug report.
=== Popup Maker Debug Report ===
Generated: 2026-02-01T11:31:39.870Z
URL: https://unconditional-sardine-140424.instawp.co/
PM Version: 1.21.5
PM Loaded: Yes
Admin: No
Pro: No
Popups on Page: 1
- #13: Popup #13 (closed)
Cookies: 0
None
Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/144.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
================================Light and Dark Mode
The extension matches your system’s color theme on its own. If you use dark mode on your operating system, the Debug Tools extension follows along. You don’t need to set up anything.
Common Popup Problems
The two most common problems people have are the following:
- Their popup doesn’t open.
- Their popup always opens when they want to open it only once per session.
Below, we cover how you can troubleshoot both problems using the Popup Maker Debug Tools Chrome Extension.
My Popup Doesn’t Open
This is the most common problem people run into. Your popup should show on the page, but nothing happens. Here’s how to track down the cause with the extension.
Step 1: Check if the Debug Tools found your popup
Open the Debug Tools and look at the popup list. If your popup isn’t in the list, Popup Maker didn’t load it on this page. The most likely reasons:
- The popup isn’t published or turned on. Go to Popup Maker > All Popups in the WordPress admin and make sure the popup’s status says Enabled.
- A targeting condition stops it from loading here. Check the popup’s Targeting tab to make sure this page is included.
Read My Popup Isn’t Showing in the Troubleshooting Your First Popup guide for more help.
Step 2: Check the triggers
If the popup is in the list, click the more menu (3 dots). Click View Triggers and review the trigger details. Make sure:
- The popup has at least one trigger. A popup without a trigger won’t launch.
- The trigger type matches what you expect (e.g., Auto Open for a timed popup, Click Open for a button-triggered popup).
- The trigger settings look right (e.g., the delay, the CSS selectors).
Step 3: Check for cookies
A Popup Maker cookie might be telling the browser not to show the popup. Open the Cookies tab in the Debug Tools. If you see a cookie for your popup, click Clear and refresh the page.
Step 4: Force it open
Click the Play button in the Debug Tools. If the popup shows up, the popup itself works fine—the problem is with the trigger or cookie setup. If the popup still doesn’t show, there might be a JavaScript error or a plugin conflict on the page.
My Popup Always Shows
You want your popup to show once and then stop. But it keeps showing up every time you visit the page. Here’s how to fix it with the Debug Tools.
Check if the trigger has a cookie
Open the Debug Tools and click the more menu (3 dots) for the popup. Click View Triggers and look at the details. Next to the trigger, you should see a cookie name. If you don’t see one, the trigger doesn’t have a cookie—and that’s why the popup keeps showing.
How cookies stop popups from repeating
A cookie tells the browser, “This visitor already saw this popup, so don’t show it again for a set time.” Without a cookie, Popup Maker shows the popup every single time.
To add a cookie, go to the popup’s Triggers tab in the WordPress admin. Edit your trigger and add a cookie with a name and a time (e.g., “1 month”). For full step-by-step instructions, see the cookie section of our Troubleshooting Your First Popup guide.
Make sure your browser allows cookies
Even with a cookie set up, the popup will keep showing if your browser blocks cookies. Check your browser’s cookie settings and any privacy extensions you use.
Use the Debug Tools to confirm
After you add the cookie, visit the page and let the popup show. Then close it. Now check the Debug Tools’ Cookies tab—you should see a new Popup Maker cookie. Visit the page again. The popup should stay hidden.
If the cookie doesn’t show up in the Debug Tools, double-check your trigger’s cookie settings in the WordPress admin.
Other Common Popup Problems
Here are more cases where the Popup Maker Debug Tools extension can save you time.
“I just created a popup and want to test it.”
- Visit the page where your popup should show.
- Check the Debug Tools to confirm that the Debug Tools found the popup on the page.
- Click Play to preview it right away.
- Inspect the settings to make sure everything looks right.
“I need to set up a click trigger but don’t know the CSS selector.”
- Open the Debug Tools and turn on the CSS selector tool.
- Click the button or link on your page.
- The extension copies the selector to your clipboard.
- Paste it into the Extra CSS Selectors field in your Click Open trigger settings.
“I need to file a support ticket.”
- Go to the page where the problem is happening.
- Open the Debug Tools > Health tab and click Copy Debug Report.
- Go to the Popup Maker support page and paste the report into your ticket.
Extension vs. Built-in Debug Mode
Popup Maker already has a built-in debug mode that sends information to the browser console. So you might wonder when to use which.
- Use the Chrome extension when you want a visual panel, need to quickly open/close popups, clear cookies, pick CSS selectors, or create support reports. You don’t need WordPress admin access.
- Use the built-in debug mode when you need to see JavaScript API events and low-level console output. This needs either admin access to turn on the setting or adding
?pum_debug=trueto the page URL.
Both tools work well together. Use the extension for quick visual debugging and switch to the console for deeper technical details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the extension work with both Popup Maker free and Pro?
Yes. The extension works with any version of Popup Maker, including the free plugin and Popup Maker Pro.
Does the extension collect any data?
No. The extension only reads popup settings from the page and manages Popup Maker cookies. It doesn’t collect or send anything.
Can I use it on sites I don’t own?
Yes. The extension works on any website running Popup Maker. This is handy for agencies managing client sites or support teams helping customers troubleshoot.
Does it work in other browsers besides Chrome?
It works in any Chromium-based browser, including Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Arc.
Will my site visitors see the Debug Tools?
No. Only you—the person who installed the extension—can see the Debug Tools. Your site visitors won’t see it.
