this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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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.

  1. Update uBO to the latest version (1.52.0+) . <== The extension itself, for technical improvements. You do this in your browser.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

If this gets annoying it looks like I will be switching to piped

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox, Ublock on macOS and no adds so far. We'll see about my Linux PC when I get home. I will leave YouTube before they force mw to watch add.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

What can be done to strengthen peertube so that adblockers aren't needed at all?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Grayjay for the win! Was launched last month, Louis Rossman is a blessing.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I got a notice that was closable with an upper-left corner ❎️ after which I couldn't reproduce the pop-up and watched videos unimpeded.

I'll continue to report developments.

0039 PST 2023-10-13 ETA So the last two days, I'd get the YouTube warning, close it, and do the purge-update dance on uBlock Origin, and wouldn't get the pop-up until hours later. Is that because I didn't do it right, but the pop-up is only set to appear every few hours? Or is it because YouTube keeps fighting, and uBlock Origin keeps updating? I don't know.

The pop-up warning is not appearing on any of my youtube devices, for which I've done no updates (and watch videos from Firefox for Android with uBlock. Note that I've turned off other adblockers, but not NoScript. Dunno if that makes a difference.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Following step 3 (and only step 3) so far worked for me.

The popup reappears every now and then, but updating filter lists again always fixed it. Let's see how it goes longterm.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good thing I've been using LibRedirect with Invidious and Piped for a while now. YouTube really has been going downhill.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Alternative workaround: just use Piped or Invidious.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

RIP I was finally getting some exposure with breadmaking shorts and now the platform's on it's knees.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (12 children)

I wonder if people would consider purchasing YouTube Premium with Turkish Liras ethical. For example - alt account buys YouTube Premium (around 59.99 TRY - 2.16 USD) and can add 4 more people to the family, so each person pays only about 54 cents per month.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Concern I'd have if I didn't use Piped:

I'm on AdNauseum and not uBO because I like the idea of actively resisting advertising culture and protesting through obfuscation, etc. So might not work for me

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's said no one said users could move to other platforms like dailymotion - I know it's irrilevant nowadays compared to youtube, but from time to time I find good videos there

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I think any popular video platform will do the same shit. It's just expensive to host on a large scale.

Realistically, we need a good P2P solution for this so everyone "pays" for the videos they watch with a bit of their own outgoing bandwidth.

Having the viewing platform paying the content creators is a bad idea. It's mostly led to the video equivalent of spam, and looking around YouTube, it doesn't stop them filling their own videos with ads for godawful exploitative mobile games anyway.

You could even have a Tubarr torrent thing that automatically downloads stuff to your Jellyfin server from your subscribed content creators.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

i use ublock globally on youtube but also use youtube channel whitelist for channels i subscribe too or particular care for along with sponsorblock and it works out well

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can youtube detect my pihole blocking ads

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Been using Individous Instances for a while now, I feel it'll be staying that way for sometime to come.

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