YouTube's anti-adblock rollout has finally arrived for Firefox users

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!

moosetwin,
@moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Has anyone experienced the popup with any of these extensions?: (on firefox)

  • Sponsorblock
  • ClearURLs
  • Return Youtube Dislike
  • Consent-O-Matic
  • DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
  • Hide Shorts For Youtube
  • FastForward
  • (unmodified) uBlock Origin
  • (unmodified) Violent Monkey

I am still getting the issue, and I think it’s probably ClearURLs that’s causing it, but I wanted to check in with everyone else first.

LarrytheLobster,

Because I was thinking about setting up a pi-hole, I was wondering if anyone knows, the anti-adblock can also detect that?

vodkasolution,

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

andycarolan,
@andycarolan@social.lol avatar

@Flatworm7591 Many people will refuse to pay the high price of YouTube Premium or suffer through multiple pre and midroll adverts. It could lead to many abandoning the platform entirely.

I think the way forward is self or federated hosting. The time of YouTube may finally be coming to a close. @neil

Sygheil,
@Sygheil@lemmy.world avatar

Corpo spies lurking around open community and implement what we are doing for years. What an f’ed up world.

mindbleach,

So, Youtube’s dying.

Maybe not right now. Maybe not next year. But they’ve decided to make everybody miserable, for a “business” that still won’t cause enough misery to turn a profit.

Meanwhile creators are censored worse than broadcast TV. Nevermind the effective ban on swearing - they can’t even reference concepts without a surveillance program declaring that their latest video doesn’t count, even though they’ll still slap ads all over that bitch.

Those people have things they want to share with an audience that wants to see. Any middleman can either help, or become irrelevant. Bandwidth is cheap. Some creators are just in it for the money… but the money is bad, on Youtube, and it’s getting worse. Patreon is more direct and far less stupid. As with all these lumbering ruins of 2010s internet media, the network effect of being the default will keep them relevant for a while, no matter what they do. Twitter’s on fire and it’s still not dead. But its prospects sure aren’t getting better… and not because people changed.

People are sadly predictable. These idiot robots exploit that masterfully, to a point, and then act bewildered when more pressure stops making more money. Like they forgot we can just leave.

ExLisper, (edited )

WTF are you talking about? 99% of users watch YT with adds. It will not die because the other 1% stops watching.

Paradoxvoid, (edited )
@Paradoxvoid@aussie.zone avatar

Like legit, some of these comments are utterly deranged. YouTube has ZERO competition in the mass market consumer space, everyone else is a niche player, and it’s debatable whether YouTube even turns a profit despite that.

ExLisper,

What do you mean it’s debatable if YT turns a profit? They make billions a year in ads according to their reports. You think they are lying?

Paradoxvoid,
@Paradoxvoid@aussie.zone avatar

Revenue, sure - I don’t believe Google shares profit numbers for Youtube separately to the rest of the portfolio. I could be misinformed though.

ExLisper,

From a quick ddg it does. YT makes around 20 billion a year in ad revenue.

Paradoxvoid,
@Paradoxvoid@aussie.zone avatar

Again, revenue. They report revenue because it’s a nice big number, but it’s different to profit (which is why a lot of people suspect they don’t make much actual money, if any).

ExLisper,

You’re right. Interesting. I guess the huge amount of data they get form it helps them with the rest of their ad business.

EmperorHenry,
@EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

adguard for desktop with anti-adblock killer

JustCopyingOthers,

I wonder what made youTube decide to fix this loophole? These days the vast majority of people use phone apps or smart TVs to watch. The number of people using Firefox plus ad blockers must be quite small and it’ll be a constant effort to keep updating their anti ad block algorithms.

joseangel,
@joseangel@lemmy.world avatar

Use the revanced version of YouTube.

ExLisper,

Maybe they want to start pushing ads harder and are afraid that more people will discover ad blockers? Once people switch it may be harder to bring them back. So you first close all the exists and than start increasing ads per minute. Because where will everyone go? There’s no where else. Ad blockers are the only option really.

daniskarma,

They probably are just asking for a loan right now and need to justify that they are going to increase profits.

Professorozone,

I’ve been using ad block for years now and today I started seeing the message. I added an overlay blocker extension as per another user here and so far that’s working. Didn’t have to uninstall anything.

cassidyslivers,

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

doctorcrimson,

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

MenacingPerson,

You can totally switch to an alternative.

doctorcrimson,

Odysee kind of has a white supremacy problem, and also is financed by a crypto scheme so…

I really wish there were a proper alternative that just feels like an even slightly less evil version of YouTube but there currently is not.

noughtnaut,
@noughtnaut@lemmy.world avatar

So you are the one who killed YouTube.

Never let it be said that a single person can’t make a mark on this world.

😉 No really, I just wish you success with your endeavour.

crowseye, (edited )
@crowseye@lemmy.ml avatar

Just got my first pop-up on Linux. Interestingly on Firefox with uBlock it still plays, no ads. However, on LibreWolf with uBlock it keeps endlessly loading the video ad for Grammarly but it wont play.

librechad,

DRM?

RandallFlagg,

so in order to make this work, i have to disable all my other extentions? lol

redw0rm,
@redw0rm@kerala.party avatar

I just had to uninstall “Enhancer for youtube”, and reload the YT page. Not even ubock cache clearing was necessary. ( maybe different for different people )

cuenca, (edited )

download a video and watch it - without any adverts

Rearsays,

I frequently do but not for the adverts I just don’t trust YouTube content takedown policies.

crowseye,
@crowseye@lemmy.ml avatar

I have been doing this for awhile. 4K Downloader fetches the videos from the subscriptions I want and I watch them on Jellyfin when I get home from work.

0x2d,

I haven’t got any of those popups yet

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