YouTube's War on Ad Blockers

Armadon said:

Tried Brave and Firefox with the adblockers installed and still getting ads. I don't know what to do. Guess Youtube is dead for me.

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You are using UBlock Origin, not just UBlock? I'm pretty sure that's what's doing the heavy lifting for me. I'm using Vivaldi browser (it's Chrome based), but I doubt it will change anything if Brave and Ublock Origin isn't working for you.

Have you updated it? I've had to reinstall it before but it works on Chrome and Firefox for me.

Armadon said:

Yeah using ublock origin. I have to not sign in to get no ads. It sucks but It's what I have to do.

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You could try using a privacy window that starts new cookies then deletes them when you close the window, then in that window log in to your account and see what happens. If all the ads are blocked, then it's possible a saved cookie is causing problems on the regular window, in which case go delete the cookies from Youtube.

Shot in the dark:
I just went and looked at my browser options and it (Vivaldi) has the option to use a built in ad blocker, which I have turned off. If the browser you're using has a similar option, maybe it's overriding Ublock and causing conflicts. I know Brave is supposed to have a built in ad blocker as good as Ublock Orgins, so dunno if it would change anything on that particular browser.

Go into Ublock Origin settings. Go to the My Filters tab. This is what I have in there on my cheap laptop:

youtube.com##[is-shorts]
youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element
youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element-show
youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel, false)
youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.adBlocksFound, 0)
youtube.com##+js(set, ytplayer.config.args.raw_player_response.adPlacements, [])
youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.hasAllowedInstreamAd, true)
@@||assoc-amazon.com^amazon-adsystem.com
*$removeparam=mtm_campaign
*$removeparam=mtm_keyword
*$removeparam=mtm_source
*$removeparam=mtm_medium
*$removeparam=mtm_content
*$removeparam=mtm_cid
*$removeparam=mtm_group
*$removeparam=mtm_placement



This is my Filter for my main desktop:

@@||assoc-amazon.com^amazon-adsystem.com
*$removeparam=mtm_campaign
*$removeparam=mtm_keyword
*$removeparam=mtm_source
*$removeparam=mtm_medium
*$removeparam=mtm_content
*$removeparam=mtm_cid
*$removeparam=mtm_group
*$removeparam=mtm_placement

! YT Homepage and Subscriptions - Hide the Shorts section
youtube.com##[is-shorts]
! YT Menu - Hide the Shorts button
www.youtube.com###guide [title="Shorts"], .ytd-mini-guide-entry-renderer[title="Shorts"]
! YT Search - Hide Shorts
www.youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
! YT Search, Channels and Sidebar or below the player - Hide the Shorts sections
www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer
! YT Channels - Hide the Shorts tab
www.youtube.com##[tab-title="Shorts"]
! YT Subscriptions - Hide Shorts - Grid View
www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-grid-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
! YT Subscriptions - Hide Shorts - List View
www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
! YT Subscriptions - New Layout - Hide Shorts
www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-rich-item-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])
! YT Sidebar - Hide Shorts
www.youtube.com###related ytd-compact-video-renderer:has([overlay-style="SHORTS"])

! YT Mobile - Hide the Shorts Menu button
m.youtube.com##ytm-pivot-bar-item-renderer:has(>.pivot-shorts)
! YT Mobile - Hide the Shorts sections
m.youtube.com##ytm-reel-shelf-renderer
! YT Mobile - Hide Shorts in search results
m.youtube.com##ytm-search ytm-video-with-context-renderer:has([data-style="SHORTS"])
! YT Mobile - Hide the Shorts button on Channels
m.youtube.com##[tab-title="Shorts"]

! Removes Mixes from the Main Page
youtube.com##ytd-rich-item-renderer:has(#video-title-link[title*="Mix"][href$="start_radio=1"])
! Removes Mixes from the right side panel
youtube.com##ytd-compact-radio-renderer
! Removes Mixes from search results
youtube.com##ytd-radio-renderer

! Removes "YouTube" (Music) playlists from the right side panel
youtube.com##ytd-compact-playlist-renderer:has([title^="YouTube"])

! (Firefox below 121) - Hide Homepage Videos Below 1K Views
www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="home"] #video-title-link:notis([aria-label*=",0"],[aria-label*=",1"],[aria-label*=",2"],[aria-label*=",3"],[aria-label*=",4"],[aria-label*=",5"],[aria-label*=",6"],[aria-label*=",7"],[aria-label*=",8"],[aria-label*=",9"])):upward(ytd-rich-item-renderer)
! (Chromium + FF121+) - Hide Homepage Videos Below 1K Views
www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="home"] ytd-rich-item-renderer:has(#video-title:notis([aria-label*=",0"],[aria-label*=",1"],[aria-label*=",2"],[aria-label*=",3"],[aria-label*=",4"],[aria-label*=",5"],[aria-label*=",6"],[aria-label*=",7"],[aria-label*=",8"],[aria-label*=",9"]
! (Firefox below 121) - Hide Sidebar Videos Below 1K Views
www.youtube.com##ytd-compact-video-renderer #video-title:notis([aria-label*=",0"],[aria-label*=",1"],[aria-label*=",2"],[aria-label*=",3"],[aria-label*=",4"],[aria-label*=",5"],[aria-label*=",6"],[aria-label*=",7"],[aria-label*=",8"],[aria-label*=",9"])):upward(ytd-compact-video-renderer)
! (Chromium + FF121+) - Hide Sidebar Videos Below 1K Views
www.youtube.com##ytd-compact-video-renderer:has(#video-title:notis([aria-label*=",0"],[aria-label*=",1"],[aria-label*=",2"],[aria-label*=",3"],[aria-label*=",4"],[aria-label*=",5"],[aria-label*=",6"],[aria-label*=",7"],[aria-label*=",8"],[aria-label*=",9"]

! YT Search - keep only videos (no shorts)
youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-item-section-renderer>#contents>:isnot(ytd-video-renderer,yt-showing-results-for-renderer,[icon-name="promo-full-height:EMPTY_SEARCH"]),ytd-video-renderer:has([aria-label="Shorts"])),ytd-secondary-search-container-renderer

! YT Search - keep only videos (no shorts) and channels
youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-item-section-renderer>#contents>:isnot(ytd-video-renderer,ytd-channel-renderer,yt-showing-results-for-renderer,[icon-name="promo-full-height:EMPTY_SEARCH"]),ytd-video-renderer:has([aria-label="Shorts"])),ytd-secondary-search-container-renderer

! YT Search - keep only videos (no shorts), channels and playlists
youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-item-section-renderer>#contents>:isnot(ytd-video-renderer,ytd-channel-renderer, ytd-playlist-renderer,yt-showing-results-for-renderer,[icon-name="promo-full-height:EMPTY_SEARCH"]),ytd-video-renderer:has([aria-label="Shorts"])),ytd-secondary-search-container-renderer

! Homepage - distractions
youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-row, ytd-rich-grid-row > #contents:style(display: contents !important
youtube.com###contents.ytd-rich-grid-renderer > :not(ytd-rich-item-renderer, ytd-rich-grid-row, ytd-continuation-item-renderer)

youtube.com##.ytp-quality-menu .ytp-menuitem:has(.ytp-premium-label)

youtube.com##ytd-popup-container > tp-yt-paper-dialog > ytd-mealbar-promo-renderer, ytd-popup-container > tp-yt-paper-dialog > yt-mealbar-promo-renderer:has-text(/Claim Offer|Join now|Not Now|No thanks|YouTube TV|live TV|Live TV|movies|sports|Try it free|unlimited DVR|watch NFL/)

Goatface said:

YouTube's war on ad blockers continues, now making ads truly unskippable

Ad-blocking users don't seem to see ads, but they can't skip them either.

mashable.com

Click to expand...

I was trying different things over and over, and in the end.. it just gets to be a hassle. You come in from a busy day, sit down and start to watch something and all of a sudden you're getting ads. Now you have to spend 10-20 minutes finding an alternative that may or may not work. Its just obnoxious to me, but Im happy for those of you that keep up the fight.

That said, I imagine the black screen is just a user-end script. I cant imagine it'll take long for someone invested in the battle to get around it.

For whatever the data point is worth, I've been using Chome with Adblock for Youtube without a problem until last week when it started giving me the "ad blockers are not allowed" thing. Tried Firefox with Adblock Ultimate, and no problems at all. This week, Chrome works normally again with no changes.

I haven't used Adblock in ages, but it can defiantly take a little while for UBlock Origins to get an update out with some of the back and forth YouTube had been trying.

Last week I had some hiccups start too, but nothing too bad. Currently, I can't stay logged in, and if I want Youtube to keep track of where I am at in a long video, over the course of a day or two, I need to spam "log in" on the individual video's page when it loads up. Anything age restricted takes forever to finally get two successful logins, in a row.

fred sanford said:

I've been using AdBlock Free with Edge the whole time and the worst I get is a commercial blip before it cuts to the video. However, I do occasionally watch with ads on my Roku. I can't see AdBlock and Edge being the magic bullet. Perhaps they see my account viewing ads occasionally and leave me alone.

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From everyone's posts, it all seems very random, so I assume that they're split testing lots of different methods and levels of enforcement. I'm sure they want to find the optimal level of forced compliance without hurting their traffic stats too much.

Control said:

From everyone's posts, it all seems very random, so I assume that they're split testing lots of different methods and levels of enforcement. I'm sure they want to find the optimal level of forced compliance without hurting their traffic stats too much.

Click to expand...

I had some issues last week with ads playing at the beginning of videos, but it went away when ublock origin updated it's program on Firefox. There is no such thing as a program that can't be bypassed. It's all just code. For whatever reason my Amazon tablet blocks YouTube ads without anything on it. Ads aren't the end of the world if you're watching a long video, but a short music video with ads at the beginning of each one really sucks ass when it happens every 4 minutes.

Still good with Brave. *Shrug*.

Every once in a while they'll find a way to insert an ad or two but then Brave updates and it's gone.

Goatface said:

YouTube's war on ad blockers continues, now making ads truly unskippable

Ad-blocking users don't seem to see ads, but they can't skip them either.

mashable.com

Click to expand...

More regional testing and data collection. As mentioned this isn't being rolled out nationwide (yet....).