So I’ve been using youtube ad blockers since pretty much when ad blocker extensions were first available. Lately though I’ve been getting hit more and more with these messages that YT was sending out every 5 or so videos telling me that adblockers aren’t allowed. No problem, just gotta wait 5 seconds to x it out and then close my video. The straw that broke the camel’s back though was when instead of a close-able pop-up, they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn’t let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.
So I disabled it and… wow. It’s just so, so, trash. 2 ads before a video plus midrolls and every video ever. I tried listening to a playlist of songs and was getting a midroll ad every single time. Imagine trying to just listen to music for 3 minutes and getting interrupted by a commercial for a chevy silverado! Half the ads were for youtube premium and they specifically mentioned that it would get rid of all the ads. It just felt so damn predatory. I couldn’t enjoy anything that wasn’t already demonetized.
And you know I’m fine with ads I guess. I could live with an ad before every video, but the fact that I was getting upwards of 5 ads in a 10 minute video was just plain absurd. I also hate that youtube got rid of the yellow markers to show you when an ad was coming up, so now it’s just out of nowhere and always interrupts a key part of the video.
E: I’ve been on Firefox for over a year.
Why are people not using Ublock Origin ?
Two words: Smart TVs
Need a hardware solution (pi hole/router with custom firmware) for that.
Please use Smartnext tube app for android TV.
Unfortunately I have a stupid Samsung TV and the app offering SUCKS (though I am pretty sure it technically runs on Android). There’s also no way to sideload apps afaik.
Samsung TV’s run on tizen OS, not android.
God! Never buy Samsung products. I learnt my lesson after buying a Samsung phone.
Ah, what was that? I’m currently using one oneui 5. Compared to xioami, the software is more stable and doesn’t have stupid restrictions like not allowing access to running services or frequently killing background apps and services.
It used to drain battery like crazy. Then I bought a pixel with stock android and it was same. After that I installed a custom ROM and this is the result- My overnight idlecdrain is around 1% and if I not use my phone too much, it last 4 days on single charge.
It takes a while for adaptive battery to kick (weeks). Especially, when you newly setup an android device. Same with adaptive brightness. Mine drains fast in active heavy use on 5G with motion smoothness set to high. I also have a dual sim model where one can be pulling the lowest signal strength from tower which can also affect battery drain.
Mine started to work within minutes. Custom roms are the best. Never going back to stock.
Yep. I watch YT primarily on my AppleTV, which is why I’m subbed to YT Premium. Otherwise it’s basically unusable because of the ads. But I fucking hate that I’m being extorted like this
PiHole does not work for YouTube sadly. There’s no current solution for YouTube ads on (non-android) smart TVs.
Does Ublock Origin successfully circumvents the new system that is being tested in select countries?
Yes. You need to not use any other content blocker (including potentially browser tracking protection) and keep uBo up to date. Occasionally it might not be up to date with latest YT changes but that’s pretty rare.
I read that you need to update the filters to make it work however I can’t confirm.
I’m using uBlock, so far it works no problem for me :)
EDIT: Ignore the following, the next day the popup message returned unfortunately
I can confirm, I was getting the popup message yesterday with ublock-origin and was able to fix it by not only updating my filters but also subscribing to all the optional filters. It seems the default lists don’t have a fix yet but one of the optional ones does.
Can you share the optional filters for others? Probably best to create a new post
The lists are fortunately pre-installed with ublock-origin, just need to enable all lists within options: Built-in, Ads, Privacy, Malware, Multipurpose, and Annoyances
EDIT: I spoke too soon, saw another popup today
OP mentioned already using ublock-origin. Youtube still blocked him for good after multiple warnings to disable