The scroll lock nobody asked for
You land on an article, start reading, and the page stops moving. The scrollbar is there. The wheel does nothing. Nine times out of ten a newsletter prompt is sitting invisible on top of the page, holding the document still.
One property, whole page
Scroll locking is a single declaration: overflow hidden on the body element, sometimes on the html element as well. Sites apply it when a modal opens so the background does not move behind the dialog. If the modal fails to close properly, or closes visually while leaving its styles behind, the lock outlives the overlay.
Why the overlay is often invisible
A modal that never finished loading, a cookie wall dismissed by a script that then errored, an interstitial waiting on a request that was blocked: each leaves a container in the document that still owns the lock. You see an ordinary page. The browser sees a dialog on top of it.
The manual fix
Opening the inspector and removing the overlay element usually restores scrolling instantly, because removing the dialog is what releases the lock. It works, and it is gone the moment you navigate, which is exactly why a tool that repeats the step automatically is worth having.
What not to do
Forcing overflow back on without removing the overlay gives you a scrollable page underneath something that still intercepts clicks. You have traded one broken interaction for another. Remove the cause, not the symptom.
When the site deserves the feedback
If the same site locks every visit, that is a bug worth reporting, and the exact page plus the overlay's name makes the report actionable. In the meantime, a one-click removal keeps the site usable without pretending the fault is yours.
