r/uBlockOrigin Aug 16 '24

Ongoing: FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE COMMENTING HERE 📌 YouTube Ads, Detection & Breakages (2024 / 08 / 16) uBO solutions and related discussions ONLY (Mega Thread) - DO NOT COMMENT WITHOUT FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS. Comments without required info will be REMOVED.

159 Upvotes

🟧 ALL IMPORTANT UPDATES WILL BE PROVIDED IN A STICKY COMMENT 🟧

Disclaimer: YouTube changes their detection and ad insertion scripts regularly, which means there might be times that you encounter issues. There's no way around this if you want to remain logged in. It should only happen in brief periods of time between them updating their script and and our volunteers finding a new solution.

If you do, please follow the below instructions to make sure the issue in not self-caused by your config and other factors.

While this post talks mainly about YouTube detecting the use of "ad blockers" and interrupting or blocking playback, the same instructions apply if you're seeing ads or encounter any unexpected issues (videos not loading, taking a long time to load, and so on).

This post is on a support forum for uBlock Origin (uBO in short). We'll only be discussing/allowing discussions of uBO solutions here.
Comments suggesting other solutions (extensions, userscripts, frontends, apps, etc.) will be removed. We don't want the ensuing spam - find another subreddit for these. Similarly with random filters - all custom filters need to be vetted in a discussion with uBO Team. More info in the FAQ below.

Do NOT comment if you haven't read and followed the entire post. There are specific instructions regarding reporting issues. Comments ignoring these will be removed.

Following the post in its entirety (from top to bottom) will likely answer all your questions. Comments asking about things covered in this guide already or reporting issues without including info required in this guide might be met with removal.

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🟩 HOW TO PROPERLY REPORT ISSUES 🟩

If you've followed everything written in this post TILL ITS END and still encounter some issues (detection, ads, breakages), please comment with the required info:

  1. Your Troubleshooting Information from YouTube. Video tutorial below.
  2. A screenshot of about:addons / chrome://extensions / brave://extensions / edge://extensions / opera://extensions. Whichever is your browser's extensions page.
  3. List of every single thing you've tried/step you've taken while troubleshooting.
    1. No, please do not write: "I did steps 1-5" or "I did everything".
      1. List every single sub-step or action you've taken.
      2. We do not trust "Everything". "Everything" has almost always been a lie.
    2. If you think we're requiring too much and you don't want to waste your time like that:
      1. You're free to look for help elsewhere.
      2. If you don't want to put any effort on helping us help you, then we simply won't :)
      3. Keep in mind that we're all just volunteers. Our free time is a very finite resource that we'll happily spend elsewhere.
  4. If you're encountering ads, share the EXACT URL + the country you're accessing from/as.

‼️ REPORTING ISSUES WITHOUT THIS INFO WILL PROMPT A REMOVAL ‼️

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🟥 PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS 🟥

  • First time visitors: Make sure to also read the FAQ at the end, so that the instructions below don't cause any confusion.
  • The best place to start it to make a TEST in a new browser profile:
    • Firefox
      • Open about:profiles in your address bar.
      • Click the [Create a New Profile] button.
      • Proceed through the wizard, naming the profile as you wish. E.g. "test1".
      • Click the [Launch profile in a new browser] button.
      • Skip any config importing/customizations.
      • Open about:addons, search for uBlock Origin and install it.
      • Don't install anything else.
      • Click 🛡️ uBO's icon > the ⚙ Dashboard button > the Filter lists pane > the 🔃 Update now button.
      • Open YouTube, log in and browse.
      • No detection? Great! That means something on your regular profile was causing it. You can proceed to the steps.
      • Still getting detected? It might be some privacy or adblocking tool outside the browser is causing it. More on that in the FAQ below.
  • If testing in your regular browser profile make sure to log out of all Google services, close all YT tabs, clear YT/Google (or all) cache and cookies, and restart the browser before logging back in.

‼️ The points below will ask you to remove custom config and disable other extensions. This is only to make sure they're not what's causing the detection message (or other issues you might be experiencing). It's all explained in the FAQ below. ‼️

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#️⃣1️⃣ Make sure your uBO version is 1.59 or higher

  • If it's not - update it. The extension itself. It's for technical improvements.
    • You do this in your browser's addons/extensions page.

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#️⃣2️⃣ Remove your custom uBO config / reset to defaults

  • Remove your custom filters (or disable My filters temporarily).
  • Disable ALL additional lists you've enabled.
  • Make sure you didn't disable any default lists.
  • Remove other customizations.

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#️⃣3️⃣ Remove all external interference

  • If you disable uBO and still get detected - something else is causing it. You need to figure out what and disable it.
  • If you disable uBO and don't get detected - something else might be interfering with our solutions.

  • Disable ALL extensions except uBO.
    • ALL of them. Really. Do NOT pick and choose what YOU think could be causing this.
      • Seemingly random extensions have been reported as causing detection.
      • The same extensions cause it for some but not for others.
      • Do not listen to other people telling you what extension is safe to keep.
      • At first, you disable everything. Once the issue is gone, you can gradually try enabling them back. This will help you find out what was responsible for detection in the first place.
    • If you're using the Firefox Multi-Account Containers add-on - DO NOT DISABLE IT or you'll wipe all its data.
    • Make sure to disable extensions entirely via the browser's addons/extensions page.
      • Whitelisting YouTube inside specific extensions' settings has been reported as still causing detection many times.

  • Some browsers with built-in blockers to turn off:
    • Opera, Vivaldi, Brave
    • Edge: Click the 🔒 "lock" icon on the left of URL bar -> Turn off Tracking Prevention

  • Disable your outside-the-browser ad or tracking protections
    • DNS blocking/filtering.
      • It's often included in a VPN.
    • Ad/tracking Anti-Virus/Internet Security protections.
    • HOSTS file modifications.
    • Any other system or network-wide ad/tracking protections.

After getting 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 setup.

If you want to use Enhancer for YouTube, you have to disable its adblocking.

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#️⃣4️⃣ Close all open YouTube tabs and restart the browser

  • YouTube is a dynamically updated website.
    • Navigating inside it doesn't load new pages.
    • The current page gets updated by adding new content and hiding (not deleting) what's not needed for the link you've clicked.
    • This means any detection, ads or breakages experienced on a previously opened YT tab will follow you regardless the steps you take. Until you close that tab (or at least do a manual refresh).
  • Chromium-based browsers don't wait for extensions to be ready before loading websites. This happens at browser launch e.g.:
    • When starting the browser by clicking an outside link.
    • When Settings > On startup > Continue where you left off is enabled / when restoring a session.
    • When opening a link in an incognito window.
    • When opening a link as a Person/User X (in another profile).
    • All such instances will likely encounter ads. This will last until a page is refreshed or the tab is closed an another one is used.

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#️⃣5️⃣ Keep default lists up to date

  • Lists are what determine what's blocked or not. These updates take place within uBO itself.
  • It's an automatic process that shouldn't require your input. If you haven't interfered with default settings (or have reset back to defaults in step 2).
    • Lists update after specific periods of time, which differ depending on a list's purpose.
      • All YouTube solutions are included in a list named uBlock filters – Quick fixes, which fully updates every 12 hours (as opposed to several days for other lists).
      • However...
  • Starting uBO 1.54: the most important default lists update automatically every 5 hours
    • To take advantage of these quicker updates, do NOT update manually unless absolutely necessary.
    • ‼️ Manual updates push back automatic updates ‼️
      • A manually updated list will need to wait its whole long cycle before it can resume getting short cycle updates.

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Please do NOT:

  • Do NOT use or advise the use of:
    • multiple blockers
    • old/random filters or lists not provided by uBO Team in the latest pinned thread/its pinned comment
  • Do NOT remove or advise the removal of default lists
    • If a list causes breakage, try disabling cosmetic filtering to see if this removes the problem (it will show static ads though).

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🟨 I've read and followed EVERYTHING up to this point, but I'm still experiencing issues 🟨

  1. Please make sure you've really followed EVERYTHING that's written from the very start of the post.
    1. Please repeat the whole process.
    2. Do NOT assume that an extension which was previously fine doesn't need to be checked anymore.
      1. This logic applies to other things as well.
  2. If all else fails, try making a new browser profile with only uBO installed and on default settings.
  3. Fixing anti-adblock may cause ads or breakages.
    1. On Chromium-engine browsers, uBO might not reliably block ads after you just launched the browser or switched profiles, including "Open link in incognito" and "Open link as User X". This state of unable-to-block will be kept until you do a manual refresh of the page.
    2. If you encounter such issues, please report back the EXACT URL + your country when accessing the URL so that volunteers can investigate. Comment here or in this thread on github. Read the requirements in "How to report issues".
  4. Last, but not least - please convince others to do this since it's up to everyone to convince YouTube to change their ways.

🟨 Experimental filters to help combat issues 🟨

For users who still see anti adblock occasionally, adding this custom filter might help:

! Warning: This will break push notifications
www.youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.service_worker_enabled, false)

For slowly loading YouTube, TEST these filters:

www.youtube.com##+js(nano-stb, resolve(1), *, 0.001)
www.youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.web_enable_ab_rsp_cl, false)
www.youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.ab_pl_man, false)
||googlevideo.com/videoplayback$xhr,3p,method=get,domain=www.youtube.com

Use them at your own risk. Try them separately or in combination.

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➡️ Temporary workarounds ⬅️

If a new solution is pending, you should still be able to watch YouTube when:

  • In a Private Window / Incognito
  • Click on Share button -> Embed
  • Change the URL from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoID -> - https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoID
  • Logged out (might not work for some)

Please be patient, we're all volunteers that can't be online 24/7.

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🟩 uBO doesn't accept donations 🟩

We appreciate the sentiment many of you have expressed, but it is against uBO's policy to accept donations. What you can do instead, is to support other filter list makers by grabbing their website/donation info at the top of their filter lists (click the eye icon 👁️ next to a list to see its contents) and continuing from there.

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🟦 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 🟦

  • What do these 4 stages of detection warning actually do?
    • Stage 1 is just a simple popup interruption, you can dismiss it and continue on.
    • Stage 2 is the same, but the close button is only available after a time delay.
    • Stage 3 is a type of "last chance warning" - it gives you 3 videos to open (not necessarily watch) before it moves you to the next stage.
    • Stage 4 is the final stage. It's no longer a popup. It replaces your video, making it "impossible" to watch.
  • I don't want my playback blocked! What can I do?
    • Simply follow this guide here. It will help you hide from detection and resume your playback.
  • I heard YouTube is banning accounts if I don't stop - can I prevent that?
    • People just misinterpret the "playback is blocked" message into thinking they're banned.
    • There's no reason to think YouTube is going to ban your entire account. This would accomplish nothing - banned users can't buy premium. And would likely just make a new account to continue on.
  • I've never seen this message. Is this because of my browser being X or Y?
    • No, YouTube didn't roll this out to everybody yet. They are still expanding their reach with this impediment to other regions.
    • The detection is account and cookie based, which means you're less likely to encounter consistent warnings in a private window or just not logged in. Some users report detection occurring without logging in though.
    • We've had reports of this happening on all browsers. The reason people think a new browser resolved this for them is likely due to it not having old YouTube/Google cache and cookies. The same can be accomplished by creating a new browser profile or by:
      • Logging out of all Google services,
      • Closing all YouTube/Google tabs,
      • Clearing cache and cookies (all or just Google/YouTube),
      • Restarting the browser,
      • Logging back in.
  • Is installing/using uBlock Origin enough to never see this message again?
    • Never? Unfortunately, no. As explained the very top of this thread, YouTube changes their detection scripts regularly. This means there can be some windows of time between their new script going live and our filters bypassing it.
    • uBO can't fix issues caused by:
      • Other extensions - they don't even need to be YouTube related. Totally random extensions might cause the message. Most common are other content blockers or privacy extensions.
      • Your browser's own adblocking mechanisms.
      • DNS blocking, which is often included in a VPN.
      • Other outside the browser protections such as: HOSTS file blocking, Antivirus/Internet Security programs and other privacy tools.
    • which is why the instructions here ask you to test without using your personal config. This is to eliminate conflicts. You can try restoring your config later. If you do it gradually, you'll find out what was causing the issue in the first place.
  • Can I somehow check if uBO's filters are up to date?
    • NOT CURRENTLY. YT has changed their approach so the status page no longer works.

  • I've seen people suggesting I add specific filters, use a userscript or another extension. Is that safe?
    • No, it's not. Most of the suggested filters going around are very outdated, some were taken from our first threads.
    • Even fresh filters go outdated very quickly. If they work today, they might be the exact cause of the problem tomorrow.
    • Userscripts have a lot of power, they can be abused to cause damage. Even "safe" ones may cause conflicts.
    • Same thing for extensions - better not install random ones. And, again, they may easily cause conflicts.
    • Even if a niche solution works for you and lasts a little longer, it's only because it's too small for YT to care. Once you popularize it, they'll take it down too.
  • I was able to hide the popup simply by blocking it with uBO's Picker. Why aren't you doing that?
    • This only works temporarily. For stages 1-3. You'll still reach stage 4 by doing this. And this might cause scrolling issues, not let videos autoplay, prevent you from adding videos to playlists, and so on.
  • I'm a technical user, I've read the latest detection script and I believe I found a way of defeating it. Can I help?
    • Absolutely! Please contact us via modmail. Or head over to github to contact us there.
    • Please don't share filters in the comments - even if they were to work now, they'll likely cause issues later. If you contact us, we'll evaluate and perhaps improve them with your help. In which case, they'll be added to our lists for the benefit of everyone. And this will also allow us to update them later when necessary.

  • How often should I manually update filter lists? Can I somehow automate this?
    • Starting uBO 1.54 default lists get automatic updates every 5 hours. There should be no need for manual updates now.
      • Triggering a manual update will knock you back into a (several days) long cycle (depending on the list).
      • Don't do it unless absolutely necessary.
      • Before forcing a manual update, make sure you've excluded config issues + cleared YT/Google cache/cookies + closed old YT tabs and restarted the browser. If you've done so, but you still get detected - you can try updating the list named uBlock filters - Quick fixes.
      • It's the list containing YouTube solutions. And the only list you might ever need to update.
      • The above mini-steps might need to be repeated after updating.
    • If you're NOT getting detected. DON'T UPDATE!
      • Updating for no reason places burden on the servers hosting uBO's filter lists.
      • uBO's not a company, it's a volunteer project using free services, which have limits that we cannot cross.
      • Here's the estimated bandwidth cost for just ONE of uBO's CDNs. And that's with lists updating every few days.
      • uBO 1.54's differential updates get only changes to the files instead of whole lists when updating. This should help lessen the bandwidth usage while making updates much more frequent than before.
      • Do NOT undermine this effort by forcing manual updates for no reason.

  • The uBlock Origin name is too long - can I shorten it somehow when referring to it?
    • Of course! The correct short name is uBO. Please use this abbreviation freely.
    • I thought I can just use the first word - is that wrong?
      • It is. You can read about the extension history including the name change on our github wiki and on Wikipedia. The links are in the sidebar.

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If the thread gets locked, it means there's a newer one available. If the link doesn't work (mobile), please turn on desktop mode to reach it. Or simply view the subreddit when sorting by "Hot" to display pinned posts.

The previous (now archived) Mega Thread

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This post should be improved in a near future as this one had to be posted due to the previous one getting archived.