How to Copy Text from Sites That Don’t Allow It

Usually, copy and paste is a very simple action that can be performed by anyone, but many website developers have come up with several ways to block the content selection and right-click to avoid copying. But if you want to copy text from a blocked site in Chrome for non-plagiarism or for educational purposes, there are several workarounds. Here are the best ways to copy text from sites that don’t allow it.

The most common way websites use to disable copying and right-click involves the use of CSS and JavaScript, whereas others add a few HTML tags to the webpage’s code. However, this may have an impact on genuine users who want to utilize the right-click feature for other purposes, such as searching for the selected content on Google. If your browser will not allow copy and paste, check the below steps.

How to Copy Text from Sites That Don’t Allow It

There are several methods to copy text from websites trying to prevent it, including using the extension, copying from that PDF, viewing the source of the webpage, disabling JavaScript and CSS, or even taking screenshots and running those through OCR. Below are some of the ways you can copy content from a website that has disabled text selection.

Method 1: Copy Text from Right-click Disabled Website using Chrome extensions

If you are using the Google Chrome browser, the easiest solution to your pasting problems is using the extensions. The extensions we share will disable JavaScript and HTML for a website to copy and paste text on websites that don’t allow it.

1. First, you need to install Simple Allow Copy or Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy extension by clicking on the “Add to Chrome” button.
2. After installing, open the website that’s not allowing you to copy.
3. Click the extension icon in the top right corner next to the Settings icon.
4. After a popup is opened, click on the extension you installed to copy the content from the webpage with right-click.

Method 2: Copy text from a protected website by disabling Javascript

The majority of websites use JavaScript to disable text selection and right-clicking. If you temporarily disable JavaScript on the site, you will be able to copy the text displayed on it. Once you’ve finished copying, don’t forget to enable JavaScript because some websites rely heavily on it, and blocking it will damage these websites.

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Privacy and security.
3. Open Site settings 
4. Click on Javascript and select Don’t allow sites to use Javascript.
5. You can also achieve that by typing the following line in the address bar:

   chrome://settings/content

Method 3: Copy from the source code

Another option is to display the source code of the website you’re on. Since it is shown in a plain text editor, you can freely copy anything from it.

By right-clicking on the website and selecting “View source,” you can see the code. If right-clicking is disabled, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + U to access the page source. When you are on the source code, press Ctrl + F to search and find the content you want to copy.

Alternatively, you can use the website source code by typing the following line in the address bar:

view-source:website URL. (example: view-source:https://www.google.com/)

Method 4: By Printing website to PDF

Another useful method to copy text from a blocked site is to print the page to PDF and then access the content. To use this option, use Ctrl + P to bring up the Print Page screen, then select “Save page as PDF” to save the webpage to your device. After that, you’ll be able to copy text from websites that don’t allow it with ease. Later you can convert the PDF to TXT format to copy text from sites that don’t allow it.

Method 5: Take a Screenshot and use OCR

If your browser won’t let you copy and paste, take a snapshot of the page and use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to extract the content. Using OCR technology, you may copy all visible text and convert it to editable text.

How to Copy Content from a Website with disabled text selection on Android

If you have an Android device, you can use Google Lens or Universal Copy to copy content from blocked websites. The Universal Copy feature allows users to directly copy text, whereas Google Lens uses OCR technology to extract text from images. Here is how to copy a restricted text on Android.

Using Universal Copy:

1. Download and Install Universal Copy from the Play Store.
2. Open the app and allow all permission and enable it from accessibility setting.
3. Next, go to any app or website from which you want to copy the text.
4. Now pull down the notification drawer, and select Activate Universal Copy mode.
5. It will scan everything on the screen. Tap on text, and it’ll be copied to your clipboard.
6. It also has Scanner mode from that you can even copy text from any pictures or documents.

   

   

   

   

Using Google Lens:

1. Download and Install Google Lens from the Play Store.
2. Take the screenshot of the website from which you want to copy the text.
3. Open Google Lens.
4. Open the screenshot and wait till Lens scan the desired portions of the text.
5. Once the scan is complete, click on the Text tab.
6. Select the desired content from the website and tap Copy text.

   

   

   

Wrapping Up: Easily Copy Text from a Blocked Site

That’s all. I hope one of these methods helped you copy the content from copy protected websites. It doesn’t matter whether the content is protected by JavaScript or CSS; the different options will always get the job done. However, keep in mind that you should not steal content or use it without authorization.

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