I’m sure many of you are already aware that YouTube has been rolling out anti-adblock detection for Chrome users for a few weeks now.
Today, as a long time Firefox user with the fantastic uBlock Origin extension installed, I got my first anti-adblock popup on the platform. Note that this may not happen to you personally for a while, but it is inevitably coming for everyone.
Thankfully, the fine folks at uBlock Origin have already advised a simple workaround (on Reddit, yuck!) which I will duplicate in a simplified form below for your convenience. I have tested it on Firefox and it is working fine for me (so far).
PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS POST.
Update uBO to the latest version (1.52.0+) . <== The extension itself, for technical improvements. You do this in your browser.
Remove your custom config / reset to defaults. <== This means removing your custom filters (or disabling My filters) and disabling ALL additional lists you’ve enabled. It might be quicker to make a backup of your config and restore to defaults instead.
Force an update of your Filter Lists. <== This is within the extension. Lists are what determine what’s blocked or not. How to update Filter lists: Click 🛡️ uBO’s icon > the ⚙ Dashboard button > the Filter lists pane > the 🕘 Purge all caches button > the 🔃 Update now button.
Disable all other extensions AND your browser’s built-in blockers. <== No need to uninstall, just disable them. They might interfere with our solutions.
Make sure you follow all 4 points above. If you’re seeing the message, it’s likely due to your custom config (either additional lists or separate filters in My filters).
Restarting your browser afterwards may help too.
Once you’ve gotten rid of the issue on default settings, you can slowly start restoring your config (if you really need it). Do it gradually, to easier find out what was causing the issue in the first place. Once you find the culprit, simply skip it in your config.
If you want to use Enhancer for YouTube*, you have to* disable its adblocking*.*
May the force uBlock Origin be with you!
Update
Just wanted to mention a few things that have been pointed out in the comments:
- There are quite a few projects that provide an alternative ad-free front end to YouTube. These include Invidious, FreeTube, LibreTube, Newpipe, Revanced, and I’m sure there are several more options I’ve missed. I don’t have any particular preference really but I routinely use NewPipe on my cellphone just because I tried it once and couldn’t be bothered trying all the others.
- In step 4 listed above, to clarify, afaik you only need to remove adblocker extensions (if you have more than one installed) that might conflict with the uBlock Origin rules and trigger the anti-adblock, not all extensions.
- If you hate non-stop ads but want to support your favorite content creators then be sure to give them some love on Patreon or whatever alternative options they provide. Creators typically make only a tiny, tiny fraction of what YouTube makes in ad revenue, assuming YouTube doesn’t just outright steal the lot, and it’s a shitty business model that’s ruining the internet. Even if you watch the ads, you’re only supporting YouTube most of the time, not the creators.
I see a lot of people saying “but that’s how creators get paid”.
Listen: I didn’t put ads on my video. YouTube did. I can’t take them off and I don’t see a cent from them. Block away.
Except they don’t. They get demonetization from literally breathing from Google who treats them like shit, so it’s best to donate to their patreons anyway.
Not even, though. Practically all the YouTube “creators” these days have [this part of the video is brought to you by scandanavian interwebz to keep out teh hax0rs] sponsored segments that are [Have you shaved your fuckin’ nutsack lately bro? Check out this ball hair trimmer from clipyerjunk dot com] littered throughout [zzzzzzzzzip … ^reecrootah ] their videos.
That being said, some of them at least put effort into finding and vetting content-relevant sponsors that can actually be helpful. I can kinda just barely tolerate those.
I see a lot of people saying “but that’s how creators get paid”
And they’re not wrong. But they put themselves in this position when they uploaded their videos to servers owned by one of the worst corporations in the world, with massive privacy implications, and no alternatives.
I watch them on other platforms when they make it available.
I have a note in the description of every video that say “seeing ads on my videos? Use ublock origin!”
I think that’s how some creators do get paid. Large enough channels will get some form of revenue sharing from YouTube. That’s why when a video is demonetised the creators get very upset. As is when YT does some fuckery with their algorithms and their views plummet.
Mind, the rates keep getting worse, from what I hear. Hence more and more pateron and in-video promos, it’s a better and more stable source of income.
Alternatively, some folks can also try Freetube for an ad free youtube experience as a desktop app
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didn’t know libredirect could redirect to Freetube, I’ve just been having mine go to an Invidious Instance… I’ll have to look into this.
I didn’t even know about libredirect :)
As much as I’d love to use it, I can’t until each profile has its own “watch later” playlist. Afaik it puts everything into one playlist. And why do I need a profile with all subscriptions, that’s why profiles exist, to not have all in one. I appreciate the work, but it’s not there yet for me
Not sure what site that is you’ve linked, but the official site seems to be this one: https://freetubeapp.io/
It works perfectly with Libredirect. Thank you!
It’s the flathub repo, which is also listed on their official website! But your link is valid too
That’s the link to the official FreeTube Flatpak. More generally, the linked site, Flathub, is the largest source of Flatpak applications. If you click through the .io site, you’ll land on the Flathub page if you look for the Flatpak.
I actually switched from the .deb to the Flatpak just this afternoon so I can do updates with my package manager. The .deb version “phones home” (you have to enable it I think) every time it starts up to check for updates, but Discover (my package manager) fetches updates for Flatpak apps along with everything else. It’s basically been the same experience as the .deb so far.
Thanks, I have no idea what you’re talking about though as I’m on Windows :)
Briefly: My comment was basically a remark that the way FreeTube works is independent of how it is installed.
A very vaguely similar idea for Windows would be to compare the installed edition (usually distributed as an .exe) versus the portable edition (zip or 7z, i.e. an archive). For FreeTube there’s probably no difference, but in general, Windows programs break when made portable, so “portable editions” need to be tested separately.
Probably not important for a Windows user, but it’s something a Linux user might want to know. 😀
Thanks for the explanation!
Most Linux distros have an app store AKA “package manager” to manage software.
Flathub is the main repository where updates are sent.
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This is amazing, definitely gonna try this when I get home! Do u know if it does SponsorBlock as well?
And for those of you on Android, there’s always SmartTubeNext and NewPipe.
If you’re on Android I’m actually going to recommend a new app from Futo called GrayJay. It’s cross-platform so you can watch videos from YouTube, Twitch, PeerTube, Rumble, Kick, etc. all from a single app.
Thank you! I didn’t know they also made an app that does this. For anyone looking for the link it’s the following: https://grayjay.app/
I’d also recommend looking into their other projects such as their Android voice input app: https://voiceinput.futo.org/
Or other projects: https://futo.org/projects/
And/or with SponsorBlock if you don’t care about sending that data to the open APIs. It’s pretty useful if some channels you watch have a lot of sponsors, self promotions, etc.
Now that we are recommending alternatives, iPhone/iPad/Mac have Yattee. It uses Piped/Invidious as backend and is in the appstore
NewPipe+SponsorBlock is a fantastic fork that’s pretty awesome.
I’ve been very happily using YouTube ReVanced, do u know how SmartTubeNext and NewPipe compare to it?
Can I watch livestreams in freetube?
Yes
I’ve been using it on Linux and it’s pretty nifty.
The only right answer.
I was worried we’d be seeing waves of this kind of anti-user aggression from large websites. My hypothesis is that twitter is running an active experiment to see just how user-unfriendly you can make something with an established userbase / what level of profitability corresponds with what level of fuckiness.
YouTube n’ friends have been watching from the sidelines and picking their own jaw up off the floor after seeing just how much the average user will bend over and take.
…which all makes me absolutely LOVE to see communities like this. Yo ho, motherfuckers!
It’s all about boiling the frog slowly. People will put up with almost anything if it creeps up on them slowly enough, and these companies know it, as do authoritarian governments. We always say we’ll kick up a stink if the next step happens, but then hardly anyone else does, so we stay quiet too. And this happens again and again.
That’s the scary part about Twitter.
Most companies turn the burn up slowly. Musk took one look at the frogs, then turned the stove up to max, hired a technician to hold a welding torch up to the base of the pot, hired a chemist find an additive for the water to increase its boiling point and heat retention, pissed in the pot, and is actively pouring gasoline all over the kitchen with one hand while flipping the frogs off with the other.
And the frogs are just taking it.
What message does that send to YouTube?
What message does that send to YouTube?
Oh fuck off!
Firefox read mode works
I fucking love Inspect -> Delete Node. I shouldn’t have to use it but it’s a life saver sometimes.
Unfortunately doing anything like that on mobile is a real pain in the ass.
To be fair, I don’t think much has changed for small time twitter users.
He turned off the like and retweet numbers. He filled everyone’s feed with ads that don’t say ads. He bans everyone he disagrees with about anything, as soon as he notices them.
wait, did he actually turn them off???
It also hasn’t changed much for the porn/adult content side, though a lot of those users are slowly migrating to other places, especially bsky.
Well… The government’s coming for those people, trying to scan everyone’s face before they can view anything.
Random question because of your username: are you the one behind the YUP for New Vegas?
That’s me, yeah. Though these days it’s handled by sandbox6, who took over for me when RL intruded.
But yeah, hi!
I still get the FNV itch from time to time, so I recognized the name and wanted to express my thanks for your work, it’s much appreciated.
twitter’s not meant to be an experiment. Musk is just really stupid. But other platforms are learning from it anyway
Seriously though, what does it say about people that still think he’s a genius and secretly has a plan he’s working on? Those guys are reaching levels of stupid I struggle to comprehend
Yo dude, Facebook has been doing this for a decade or more. They intentionally break parts of their website and then track how often someone will come back and try to use it, assuming they ever left in the first place. Now they’re about 99% absolute dog shit, and people still go there. It’s actually kind of amazing.
I wonder if long ads across all videos while they scroll content will make the kids of non tech savvy parents get fed up and turn to other entertainment (games, streaming… books?). I’m sure a not insignificant portion of yt views are tablet addicted children mindlessly scrolling all day, so I’ll be curious if there’ll be any drop in traffic from this.
I mean, GI Joe and He-Man had a lot of ads back in the day, but not nearly to the extent yt does.
GI Joe and He-man were ads, but they were enjoyable ads. Advertising has gone from a masterful creative craft, to an industry where they just shove the cheapest shit they can produce in front of your face as many times as possible, while loudly screaming their name. It’s pretty pathetic that it still works.
I’ve just noticed that this is in c/piracy. I suppose there’s lots of interest in the story here and everywhere else, but I’d just like to remind you all that ad-blocking is not piracy.
Anyone else remember the first ad-pocalypse?
Like when OG AdBlock was created and there was an all-out race between individual websites and AdBlock?
Then OG AdBlock sold out and allowed “approved” ads to still show.
We are seeing history repeat. The only reason ads survived was due to increasing number of users who weren’t using adblock.
Now, with market saturation, Google is starting to fight back.
I would absolutely love to see a revitalization on proxy software specifically designed to eliminate ads and tracking. I haven’t looked into this in quite some time but I think we’re crossing into this territory now.
The pessimist in me says to look out for a bill authored by Google to make adblocking illegal.
But the optimist in me says “the Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it.”
If adblocking becomes illegal I’m done using the internet.
If adblocking becomes illegal people will still do it (and you should too), some really stupid article tried to claim circumventing Anti-Adblock was illegal under DMCA a while back (interestingly they took it down when people continued to block their ads) and the filter providers did it anyway. Piracy still happens in countries where it’s criminalized, ad blocking will continue, though the Quorans (used them as an example because they’re the biggest snobs about the law and ethics) and people like them will likely use it less, though it’s not like they don’t already think it’s wrong (some also think it’s already illegal).
To be fair I don’t think it is possible to come up with a legitimate argument for making adblocking illegal. You would have to argue that people aren’t allowed to own anything such as their computers.
The only real argument that could work would be that watching ads to get content is a form of transaction and not watching ads is therefore akin to piracy. However, this exact same argument could be used to ban ALL forms of unsolicited advertising (billboards, junk mail, etc) because under that model, many advertisers are essentially committing theft of your time and attention, which is shown to have some amount of monetary value by the previous transaction argument.
as long as data caps exist all advertising on the internet is theft.
Whoa, like they’re stealing from ME? Never thought about it like that…
I am going back to irc and telnet bbs
JavaScript was a mistake
Without JS, you wouldn’t have ad blockers and youtube could just bake their ads on the videos themselves while streaming them. Thinking about it, I don’t think it’s off the table for them.
changing displayed elements does not need js.
In order to delete an element or replace it based on a list, you definitely need JS. You have no other way to access the DOM.
yes that is what exists in this reality.
There will always be a free internet. It just may not be the one currently dominated by corporate datacenters.
The current Google approach is adding attestation to Google Chrome. They claim that it is to stop bots, but it can (and will be, they are slow boiling us) also used to block adblockers.
Anyone who cares about free (as freedom) should stop using chrome and clones and switch to Firefox.
No, thanks. Mozilla is the worst of the open source world. I prefer not to give them market share. Brave works beautifully for me and YouTube may disappear tomorrow and my life wouldn’t change a single bit.
Brave the chromium based crypto browser better than Firefox? Mozilla isn’t perfect but you’re off your rocker if you think that is better.
Boy, I’ve been a FF user for 20 years before. Don’t try to school me, please. And yes, Brave is actually much better than FF and I enjoy a lot using it.
You keep saying that you were a proponent of FF back in the day, but the fact that you aren’t giving credence to the experiences that made you switch lessens your credibility and weakens any persuasion power you might have on people switching from FF to Brave.
It would help your cause to explain what made you switch so others might understand you.
But from your demeanor, it seems like you dgaf about other people. So I guess that’s fair.
Brave is based on chromium, which is open-source via Google. Now, I may have this wrong, but my understanding is that the reason why Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Chromium-based browsers are the only browsers still around is because Apple, Google and Mozilla are the only companies with the money to keep up with all the new “standards” and features Google keeps shoving into Chrome. While Chromium may be open-source, if Google pulls the plug then it’ll only be a matter of time before the Chromium browsers run out of steam and can no longer keep up. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of Google’s plan. Keep people in the ecosystem by giving them the illusion that they’re using a different browser while maintaining control over the browser they use and the ability to force them onto a different browser at any time.
This is all ignoring the fact that Brave is a shitty browser. I can’t remember where I read this, but supposedly Brave collects a lot of data on your usage despite advertising itself as a privacy-conscious browser.
FUD and ignorance. Please stop bothering me.
The pessimist in me says to look out for a bill authored by Google to make adblocking illegal.
“These brave content creators, who produce such culturally significant shows as ‘Ow my balls’ and ‘Matrix 1999 [full rip]’, are being literally murdered by hackers who use adblockers. These pirates use their hacking technology to steal this content and threaten our very way of life. While we regret resorting to legislation, we are left with no choice but to show these thieves the harsh reality of the criminal justice system.”
The pessimist in me says to look out for a bill authored by Google to make adblocking illegal.
Not a lawyer, but that doesn’t sound legally possible. It’s like turning off the sound when the ads on TV start, you must have the right to consume the data that has been delivered to you however you desire.
Do you know what the DMCA is?
A user rights violation that caters to enterprises and claims that it protects the creators?
I would absolutely love to see a revitalization on proxy software specifically designed to eliminate ads and tracking.
You’re in luck because we already have several. Namely Piped and Invidious.
Do regular apps and desktop applications like freetube and newpipe count?
FreeTube uses Invidious proxy (if enabled).
Newpipe uses Piped proxy.
The pessimist in me says to look out for a bill authored by Google to make adblocking illegal.
But the optimist in me says “the Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it.”
They’re both right.
I would absolutely love to see a revitalization on proxy software specifically designed to eliminate ads and tracking. I haven’t looked into this in quite some time but I think we’re crossing into this territory now.
Privoxy is still being actively worked on. Not sure how well it works for YouTube though. I suppose we may see a flurry of activity on that front if they keep pushing this.
So annoyed at how all these services keep degrading for users. I was happy to pay for premium light. I don’t need download/music/etc I just wanted no ads. Simple as that. The price was fairly reasonable and I would have kept paying it. Now they got rid of the premium light and I have to pay at least 50% more for additional things I don’t and will not use.
Alright then, well you lost a customer and I’ll just use AdBlock. And if you somehow figure out how to disable that, I’m just going to find content somewhere else. I’m fucking sick of ads. I’ll pay a reasonable amount to remove them. But I will not be continually wrung out for more and more money. Just leave me alone.
Emphasis on #4 here - the anti-adblock will trigger if it detects any subpar adblocker, including e.g. Brave Browser’s “Shields” thing (even if you also use uBlock Origin). Helped a friend figure this out lately and found out they were running 3 adblockers and Brave Browser. Some people are truly special.
Definitely, and note that (for me anyway) I didn’t have to disable any of my other extensions. I think they are referring mainly to adblocking extensions in that step.
Does he use two condoms at the same time to avoid pregnancies? Same principle.
I use three so the middle one doesn’t get dirty.
Reduce, reuse, recycle!
Front to back, back to front, inside out, then back to front and front to back again.
Two- with hot sauce in the middle, so you know which one broke.
It’s more like using the pill and a condom. Different ad blockers can block different sets of ads.
#4 says “all” other extensions. Does it really mean all? Password managers, gui shit, source citation extensions?
That’s too figure out which extension is causing an issue. If everything works right then you have nothing to worry about.
If things do not work, the easiest is to get to a working state (latest version, removing any custom filters, disabling extensions) then once confirming that it works, gradually enabling things back until you can identify the offender.
What sucks about these measures (and others) is that they usually do a decent job of subverting the adblocker AdNauseam, which clicks on ads in addition to blocking them.
This forces me to us uBlock Origin, ironically causes the people who implement these countermeasures to make less money off of my visits.
I thought Brave Shields was just repackaged uBlock Origin?
Not as far as I know, but I don’t have much experience with Brave Browser. They probably use the same ad-filtering lists on the backend but their implementation is probably not identical. I know that for this situation in particular, Brave Shields was causing Youtube to act up but Ublock Origin wasn’t (might be fixed at this point in time).
Ah thanks for clearing that up, I don’t rember where I got this misconception
Lol That’s awesome, less of a workaround and more of a “we fixed it already, but whatever you’re using probably hasn’t caught up yet”.
Alternative solution: Since YouTube disabled all ads in Russia, you can just use russian vpn/proxy for the most effective YouTube adblocking possible.
I just replace youtube.com with piped.video all the time
Nobody should ever share data with american corpos - there is no example where corporations harvested data and anyone but the shareholders benefited. So for me it feels like a win whenever they fail.
Hey Google, maybe you assholes should realize that if people are willing to jump through this many hoops to not watch ads then maybe you should realize that ads are the problem, not users. Nobody wants ads shoved down their throat so kindly go fuck yourselves. Advertising is a cancer. I’ve been trying to convince people how dangerous attention grabbing billboards are but nobody seems to care.
Maybe it is time that we start to write our favourite youtubers to start developing alternative means of distributing their videos. Patreon and so on.
I feel there will be a lot less people watching YouTube in the future and as a whole many youtubers will see their revenue drop significantly. Watching YouTube as a whole will become less and less bearable. I watch videos without ads on my pc, but on mobile i use the app and endure the videos (for now) as the app is just nicer to use compared to the browser.
But if I have to see ads all the time (also these unskippable 20s ads) I think I’ll simply stop using YouTube all together. about 90% ofy YouTube use isn’t neccessary at all. I’ll just watch it, because I’m too lazy to do anything else.
I could be should read a book instead. Maybe others will do that too in the future?
PSA: skirting their attempts to block ad blockers if you have a Google account you would rather keep may be unwise.
Google has been known for banning people for stupid crap, and this checks all the boxes.
While they were silent on this topic there was a gentlemen’s agreement that you could block ads. But now that they have voiced their opinion the jig is up.
I’d recommend people to use an alternative account if they are going to block anyway and they want to keep their gmail.
Thank god we have people working tirelessly to prevent Google’s greed
“What just happened?”
“War were declared.”
Going to be following these threads closely as I’ll be damned if my students are going to put up with adverts from a file hosting service.
