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.
NewPipe is a YouTube frontend (on android), it's like invidious minus the "instance" part, where it basically just grabs the video directly and just plays that. With NewPipe the video still gets views on YouTube's end, I don't think videos watched through invidious count towards the view count on YouTube's end.
Freetube is something that I've seen and/or heard of once or twice; because of that, I can't really say what it is. It's definitely something that is either like NewPipe or Invidious. (I have only heard about it once or twice due to being a Linux user (I use Arch BTW) and stubling upon it's github repo.)
I really only ever watch YouTube on my phone and because I'm an Android user, I have heard of NewPipe and been aware of it for quite a while. Invidious I know about for kind of the same reason. There's an Android app called LibreTube that is basically a frontend for Piped. (Piped is either an alternative to Invidious or is an instance of Invidious, or just straight up uses Invidious as like a backend. Don't entirely remember)
Thanks, I'll check them all out!
So they're all front ends or apps, they're not really alternative hosting services!
I have Android on my phone and MacOS on my laptop (I've been on Linux for several years, but I unfortunately don't have time to work on installing it and making sure everything works. Just life changes)
Yes others beat me to it but they are front ends. Freetube acts very similar to the YouTube browser website on desktop but can use various back end solutions like invidious (I've only been using it for a few days but seems to work this way). I've just left it on the default settings but it accomplishes what I'd like it to do, which is strip out the ads + incorporate sponsorblock.
Newpipe I've been using on android to download videos and music for offline viewing and listening for awhile now, but similar idea.
Yep, all front end or services.
Also, I recommend giving Linux another shot. There are many distros that work as expected out of the box; The primary one I recommend is Nobara. Nobara is a Fedora based distro made by GloriousEggroll, the same GloriousEggroll behind ProtonGE and WineGE. It has a custom kernel with additional patches to help make the performance of some things better. It is a gaming focused distro, but that doesn't mean you can't use it for day-to-day tasks.