this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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UPDATE So as new info comes out, I'll be posting it here. It seems as if this Rollout Has Several Parts.

Part 1

You get a popup message over top of your video, blocking the screen:

  • This is the first sign. If you see this popup AND are logged into a YouTube account, your account has been selected.
  • At this stage you can likely close or block these messages with an adblocker.

Part 2

This message will change, indicating that you have 3 remaining videos to watch without ads.

Will insert photo once one has been found

  • At this stage your adblocker will imminently stop working in 3 videos time.
  • Personally using Firefox + uBlock Origin and tweaking filters and updates does not even fix it.

Part 3

None of the video loads now, everything looks blank.

  • At this stage you must tred new ground to avoid ads. I have posted methods in the comments. If you want to bypass this end page, read down there.

End of Update


YouTube has started rolling out anti-adblock to users inside the United States, which means that they are preparing to roll this out to the entire country. Personally, I have been blocked already. I want to gauge how common this occurrence is.

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[–] TheCraiggers@lemmy.dbzer0.com 161 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've got so many layers of adblock it's hard to know which one(s) are responsible for blocking the ads.

[–] DARbarian@artemis.camp 133 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Same here. Was just explaining to a coworker who was complaining about YT ads that I "just" use PiHole+Unbound for network blocking, AirVPN with DNS blocking, mullvad Private DNS on Android, and then Libretube to view my self-hosted Piped instance. As I said it I realized how ridiculous it's gotten and how deranged I probably sound.

[–] NumbersCanBeFun@kbin.social 73 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This all sounds like extremely reasonable to me. Fuck the haters.

[–] UndefinedIsNotAFunction@programming.dev 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. Keep up the good work.

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[–] TrustingZebra@lemmy.one 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I just use use uBlock Origin.

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[–] reflex@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

PiHole+Unbound . . . AirVPN with DNS blocking, mullvad Private DNS . . . Libretube

This is what I pictured reading all that.

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[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 103 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The irony of the straw poll site throwing up an anti-adblock banner 🤣

[–] glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org 43 points 1 year ago

I have a VPN and I can’t vote.

[–] Honse@lemmy.dbzer0.com 88 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I'm going to start a discussion in the comments here about methods to bypass the message. I will add suggestions here, so leave comments if you find a method!

Methods to bypass Youtube Anti-Adblock:

  • The easiest method is simply to comply and turn off your adblock extension.

My Method

  • My method, and the one that will likely work universally is as follows:

Install Extension Enhancer for YouTube™

Go to the extensions settings and ensure that under the Ads Management section, "Block Ads" is turned OFF

Now find the Custom Script box at the very bottom and enter the following script. I did not write this code, it comes from egaudette on GitHub

(function() {
    'use strict';
    var clickInterval = setInterval(skipAds, 5);
    var ytpAdModule;
    var miniAdd;
    var skipButton;
    var currentVideo;

    function skipAds() {
        ytpAdModule = document.querySelector('.ytp-ad-module');
        skipButton = document.querySelector('button[class*="ad-skip"]');
        miniAdd = document.querySelector('.ytp-ad-overlay-container');

        if (ytpAdModule !== null && ytpAdModule.innerHTML !== '') {
            ytpAdModule.style.display = 'none';
        }

        if (skipButton !== null) {
            skipButton.click();
            return;
        }

        currentVideo = document.querySelector('video[class*="main-video"]')
        if (currentVideo !== null && currentVideo.duration <= 5) {
            currentVideo.muted = true;
            currentVideo.play();
            currentVideo.currentTime = currentVideo.duration;
        }
    }
})();

Lastly, ensure the "Automatically execute the script when YouTube is loaded in a tab" box is checked, and press Save


I'll add more methods as they are discovered!

[–] Neato@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why would this work when others get blocked? Is it a novel way to block YT ads that's not popular? Because I think YT isn't looking for specific extensions but looking for certain kinds of behavior.

[–] Honse@lemmy.dbzer0.com 53 points 1 year ago

This method lets ads load for half a second but then get skipped instantly. i have not personally found a way to 100% block ads once ive gotten their block page.

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[–] speq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 85 points 1 year ago (3 children)

For those who don't know: VLC also takes a YouTube video address as input (in the menu: Media | Open Network Stream...).

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago

VLC is so damn good

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[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 80 points 1 year ago (14 children)

This is such a better use of their time and dollars versus improving their service to make it more attractive to customers.

If this is the change that really sets them financially straight, then I would say they have a failing business model.

[–] splendoruranium@infosec.pub 40 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is such a better use of their time and dollars versus improving their service to make it more attractive to customers.

Making their service more attractive to customers is precicesly what they're trying to do.

It's just that an advertising agency's customers are not the folk who watch, read or hear the ads, it's the folk who pay for the ads.

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[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

You are not the customer. You are the product.

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[–] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll just stop using YouTube like I've stopped using Reddit.

[–] mayo@lemmy.today 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm ready for that. When being a youtuber started looking like a job I think the site lost something.

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[–] LoafyLemon@kbin.social 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Remember when some people said we're nuts thinking Google will try to ban ad blockers with manifest v3? Yeah.

[–] HerrLewakaas@feddit.de 32 points 1 year ago

Google will try everything in their power to stop us from blocking their ads. It's their main source of revenue, you don't have to be a genius to see why they don't like ad blockers

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[–] Landrin201@lemmy.ml 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I genuinely think that advertising should be illegal at this point. It's a ridiculous concept.

[–] OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It is a great example of how an industry can survive with only self-reported effectiveness. I remember a freakonomics episode where it was shown that very infrequently do companies get a positive return on marketing spending. It will be very interesting if that industry ever collapses.

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[–] Melody@lemmy.one 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

Here's a rule for uBlock Origin.

Credit: https://lemmy.one/comment/597479 && original link: https://lemmy.nz/comment/446556

! Anti-Youtube Anti-Adblocker https://lemmy.one/comment/597479

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)

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[–] hakase@lemm.ee 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The irony of this poll blocking access from users with a VPN.

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[–] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I haven't used youtube.com to watch YouTube in years. NewPipe x SponsorBlock (polymorphicshade) on mobile, SmartTubeNext on TV, Invidious, Piped, or FreeTube on desktop.

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[–] Flynn_Mandrake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I've started to just download videos with yt-dlp after grabbing links via Invidious. Using Invidious itself has become somewhat unreliable lately, and this way I don't have to put up with buffering and can watch in good quality. Cut out the middle men

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[–] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Just a tip for those of you that do cave to pressure and go with the paid premium option. or already have one but dont want to pay for more accounts or a family account.

You can set up channels or brand accounts as sub-accounts on a premium subscription and they will act like separate accounts with the advantages of premium, so if you have a large family and don't want to pay for the full family subscription (which only has 5 slots anyway) you can set up a few sub-accounts that each get their own subscriptions, recommendations, settings and all have the premium features.

So if you want to make a premium account for a parent or child, you can do that with one single subscription if you can take the caveat of them being brand accounts rather than fully their own thing.

This works on things like Android TV or Google TV, but you need to log into the main account then switch to a sub account in the app, however, there is no authentication to switch between channel accounts this way, so it's really only useable for families only. I use this at home to run 4 separate nvidia shield youtube apps with their own subscriptions and recommendations on one single premium payment.

I expect they will change how that works in the future to remove the loophole, probably by charging for channel accounts or having it locked behind some kind of overpriced professional usage tier, but for now, it might be a good option for some.

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[–] mosthated@feddit.nl 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. If I really need the website, I now use https://yewtu.be

[–] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] riley0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I got it once on Chrome. Haven't used Chrome for YT since. No trouble with FF and UBlock Origin.

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[–] GenBlob@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Today I started getting ads with no video just audio. I didn't get the adblocker message yet. Firefox ESR+ublock origin

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[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 year ago

It'll be a shame if I have to ditch YouTube. There's only 2 or 3 channels I would even consider paying for and they don't have Patreon or anything. I'm less than interested in giving Google a cut.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 18 points 1 year ago

Very good. It will be nice to be off YouTube completely.

[–] jaschen@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YouTube algorithm has been garbage for months now. There's literally no good content.

[–] mortrek@lemmy.ml 63 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The site has plenty of good content, just no way to find it.

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[–] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I have a script I used to auto download new stuff from my subscriptions using yt-dlp. I never watch videos on youtube anymore because it's just garbage, buffering all the time or just straight up not playing content. The only thing I miss is sponsor block but I don't care that much

here's instructions on setting the script up if you're interested

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[–] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago

Does NewPipe count as an adblocker? Not yet but I fear its days are numbered.

[–] twena@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not from US but my uBlock has a problem with YouTube since yesterday. It blocks the ad video but the sound of it is still audible.

[–] JelloBrains@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I followed this from Ublock's Reddit page, it's working for now.

Current anti-adblock status: Latest fixed (ID: 462a8d5d)*

Please, remember these 3 steps:

Force update all your filter lists (click uBO icon > ⚙ Dashboard button > Filter lists pane > 🕘 Purge all caches > 🔃 Update now)
Turn off all other extensions AND browser's built-in blockers
Remove all your current custom filters AND custom filter lists that you have enabled / added manually (Adguard lists...)
It might be quicker to make a backup of your config and restore to defaults before proceeding to step 1.

Fixing anti-adblock can cause ads slipped. If you see any ads slipped, please report back the EXACT URL and your country when accessing the URL so volunteers are able to investigate.

The filter lists can be updated multiple times a day, so please always do step 1 before reporting.

  • About the ID above, it's the ID of YouTube's script that's used for anti-adblock, you can monitor it via this link: https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw (top to bottom is oldest to latest). It means that the current fix is matched with the script with corresponding ID.

If the latest ID (the last line) does not match the current one written above, it means YT has updated the new one and it might cause anti-adblock again. If it matches and you still get anti-adblock, kindly check the 3 steps above. Thank you.

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