Anti-Anti-Adblocker uBlock filter to get rid of the annoying YouTube message

[lemoncookiechip]

Gorhill (uBO's developer) is in the comment section urging people to not use these types of unverified fixes: https://x.com/gorhill/status/1713305785659211991

[alexlur]

For people who don’t want to open Twitter:

> These filters have been obsolete since a long time, no content blockers is using these. They are just being spread by non-official sources since at least last June

[cyral]

The official/default list doesn’t block these though, so we are not supposed to make use of the user defined filters for now?

[raydiatian]

https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/1713305785659211991

Fixed it for you.

[_huayra_]

Maybe it's just A/B testing, but I got the "3 strikes and no more video playback" thing, which this DOM element blocking doesn't work around it seems :(

After years of procrastinating, I'm finally gonna get around to setting up a basic homelab to run pihole. Thanks, youtube execs and bean counters, for kicking my lazy ass into gear on this!

In a way, I kinda wish that ads worked as well as youtube suggestions. If one has good enough willpower / mental health to not use youtube as a coping device, suggestions are really amazing. I've seen so many great conference talks and other videos that have O(100) views that I would have never heard about otherwise. Ads, however, still think I'm gonna overpay for aliexpress drop-shipped items, or that I need to make a basic purchase into a way of life (e.g. that cooler company that now is somehow a lifestyle brand).

[SteveNuts]

I'm pretty sure pihole doesn't block YouTube ads, they seem to be served server side but I could be wrong

[mvdtnz]

Mate if you get so much value from YouTube that you'll jump through these hoops just to use it without ads, why not just subscribe to premium? Personally it's by far my most bang-for-buck service.

[hsbauauvhabzb]

Pihole won’t fix YouTube, it’s good for mobile apps but less reliable than ublock origin - using both is best.

[Arch485]

The "only 3 more videos" thing is easy to get around (at least it was for me): Turn your adblocker off, and watch YouTube until an ad plays. Then, turn your adblocker back on. I don't even get the anti-ad blocker popups anymore.

[nickthegreek]

I believe this is what you are looking for: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37873749

But I also recommend purchasing YouTube Premium if you watch a decent amount. I find it to be a great value.

[3np]

Check out https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped/ + https://libredirect.github.io/ for your homelab.

Related parallel thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37881771

[ecliptik]

If you're planning to setup a homelab, look into Invidious [1] or Piped [2] self-hosting too.

Mix well with Tailscale (or your mesh VPN of choice) and enjoy.

1. https://invidious.io/

2. https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped

[ajsnigrutin]

Open the video in an incognito tab, the limit is probably linked to your youtube/google account.

[anothernewdude]

I welcome the block frankly. Youtube is both a productivity hole and a recreation hole. I welcome more actual entertainment and work back into my life.

[jpk2f2]

Swapped to Brave browser finally, it worked out of box to block YouTube adblock-blocker.

[paulcole]

If you like watching YouTube videos just pay for YouTube Premium. It’s worth it.

[scarface_74]

If only there were a premium version of YouTube that you could pay for to avoid seeing ads…

[brucethemoose2]

This sounds like Valve's "piracy is a service problem" ethos, butvfor ads, where YouTube is crossing the threshold of making the ads so inconvenient their efforts will be counterproductive (but not quantifiably counterproductive to bean counters... Yet.)

[thangalin]

Feel free to pilfer:

    ! 2023-10-14 https://www.youtube.com
    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)

    ! 2023-10-13 https://www.youtube.com
    www.youtube.com##.opened
    www.youtube.com##tp-yt-paper-dialog.ytd-popup-container.style-scope > .ytd-popup-container.style-scope

    ||accounts.google.com/gsi/*$xhr,script,3p

    ##.ytp-endscreen-content
    youtube.com##.ytp-scroll-min.ytp-pause-overlay
    youtube.com##.ytp-ce-covering-shadow-top
    youtube.com##.ytp-pause-overlay
    youtube.com##.ytp-ce-covering-overlay
    youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element

    ! 2021-06-10 https://www.statista.com
    statista.com##.vertical-align-content.default.otCenterRounded

    instagram.com##.RnEpo
    instagram.com##body:style(overflow: auto !important)

    ! 2023-07-08 https://www.roadandtrack.com
    www.roadandtrack.com##journey-modal-meter

This might not be the "correct" solution, but it works for me. Has Gorhill (uBO's developer) provided a better solution? If so, would someone mind posting the full and complete set of steps?

[gruez]

>Has Gorhill (uBO's developer) provided a better solution? If so, would someone mind posting the full and complete set of steps?

https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/19976

[dylan604]

This is nice and all for now while YouTube allows dismissal of the warning. However, YouTube could go nuclear and just not allow any video to play at all if an ad blocker is detected. No DOM element removal will solve that. I'm not sure if that qualifies as scorched earth on YT's part, but it is an option.

[paulmd]

Note that the ublock origin creator has specifically recommended you don’t do custom filters like this because it can mess up elements that the other filtersets are keying on, and it’s not guaranteed to be stable over time. So something like this can actually result in you seeing ads, if it becomes stale. Which it will because YouTube is changing this up every day, practically.

The best defense is to purge caches and update filter sets every day.

edit: from another comment: https://x.com/gorhill/status/1713305785659211991

[TerrifiedMouse]

I think the only "happy ending for everyone" if Google is going to ban ad-blockers for YouTube is if they make the ads less annoying.

What makes YouTube's ads annoying:

- the number of them

2 ads at the start is way too much. 1 max.

Middle of video ads should be content creator controlled.

- the ads they choose to show

Google showing me the same few very annoying (to me) ads and gives me no option to avoid those specific ads.

I have done the unthinkable and given up on YouTube as a daily site I visit. Now I will only visit it if I have to - e.g. someone link to it. Yes, I hate those specific ads that much.

[inetknght]

The only happy ending for everyone is zero ads.

[CommanderData]

The happy ending here would be Google being less monopolist with video streaming.

Google has done an outstanding job to use their position making YouTube the streaming platform of the Web, GCP incentives, dominance in smart TV, Google account integration, Android etc. This isn't mentioned enough.

Now we're seeing a strategy towards Premium and anti ad blocking patterns while they remain top and any alternatives just can't get a footing in this space to compete.

[nodja]

> Middle of video ads should be content creator controlled.

They are, sort of.

As a content creator you pick the position for the ads, but it doesn't mean they'll pop up there for everyone, there's only a chance they'll show up there. For example you could put mid-roll ads every minute, but youtube will only pick one of those positions so the viewer only sees an ad every 10 minutes or so, the real "cooldown time" depends on what data youtube has on the viewer.

Content creators can disable mid-roll ads completely.

[mkka]

Pre-video ads should be 10% or less of the video length, floor at 30 seconds or so. Insane to get a long add on short video.

[aiunboxed]

And no ads in between of meditation videos

No ads when you are driving - since you can't skip them

[stephc_int13]

This is really heavy handed and I don't think this will work as they hope.

I tend to spend too much time watching YT anyway. This will help saving some time to do useful work or gaming instead.

[flakes]

This 100%. Once the client becomes too hostile, I'll just stop using the service. I've been clear of Reddit since Apollo shut down, and if ad blocks stop working on youtube, I'll just find something else to do.

Apart from just Ads, I use the "Block Element" feature of uBlock to cut down on a lot of other visual noise within sites. For youtube I block the giant rows of "related" video suggestions (which I guess you could consider as ads), and youtube shorts from showing up in my subscription feed.

[cjmcqueen]

I like YouTube Premium. It's worth it. For a bunch of tech people... Wouldn't we see more people wanting to pay for software, a service and intellectual property?

[saghm]

I'm disappointed the term "anti-anti-adblocker" isn't instead "adblocker blocker blocker". If we're going to use repetitive negatives, we might as well lean into it.

[m4jor]

If you have a VPN with a Ukraine location, you can set it to there and purchase YouTube Premium for ~$2.70/month. That's what I just ended up doing. I use Mullvad as my vpn provider.

[woudsma]

Brave browser works quite well to block YouTube ads, I’ve used it for a couple of years now and it blocks ads from most sites pretty good.

[steelframe]

Lots of people here who seem to think that the only viable options are to pay what they view is an exorbitant subscription fee, watch ads, or block ads. There is, of course, a third option. Nobody is forcing you to watch YouTube. You can just not do that.

[paulmd]

It’s funny to look back on all the people who were doing the “see, the world didn’t fall apart just because apple had to allow sideloading” over the last month. Like the law didn’t even come into effect yet and google is already flexing their monopoly power / browser monoculture, but people think that just because the internet didn’t explosively destruct overnight that everything is gonna be just fine.

See also, the “well, if they start abusing it, we can pass a new law to handle that!”. Yeah ok that’ll be great in 10 years, but what about now?

Manifest v3, the chrome Secure Enclave/remote attestation of ad delivery, and other measures are going to be coming down the pipe at an accelerated rate, and there's absolutely nothing to put the brakes on them anymore, because we now have a browser monoculture run by the world's largest adtech oligopoly. But people got their emotional victory over apple users and the app-review process.

Next stage: Youtube requires chrome, install it or get out. And I better see some remote attestation on that request, if you want FREE video. Why wouldn't they, when chrome/chromium control like 95% of every web request that's not iOS?

Now we get to do it again with RCS, where it's an "open" system that's chock-full of proprietary google extensions that google refuses to license or interoperate on. But everyone will nod along at how bad imessage is, and deliver us right into google's own proprietary system.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/new-google-site-begs...

[syntaxing]

Is there something that caches the videos I watch with YouTube-dl or something? I watch maybe 100 unique videos throughout the year.

[johnnyanmac]

And the chase begins.

I pay for premium so this won't affect me, but it's always interesting seeing the efforts even a trillion dollar company has to go through to fight against a relative few very determined "hackers" underground.

[somsak2]

It's not really a relative few, most estimates place ad blocking usage among web users between 25-45%. Since YT is somewhere around 10% of overall Google revenue, you're looking at up to a 5% increase in total revenue just based off of this, with basically ~all of that flowing into profit since there's not much cost. Pretty huge.

https://backlinko.com/ad-blockers-users

https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/ad-blocking/

[macinjosh]

I homelab a huggin instance to scrape my favorite channels for new videos and then send them to a ytdl like program. Then it dumps them in Jellyfin. No ads, and no rabbit holes :)

[aftbit]

What about using yt-dlp to watch videos?

[BD103]

Downloading the videos is always an option, but I’ve found it’s too much of a hassle when browsing content. It works really well when you’re planning on going offline, though!

[jowea]

Or NewPipe? Is Google coming after those too soon?

[xtrohnx]

I've had the same ad-blocker for ages, and I wasn't receiving any of the YT anti-ad block popups until today. Interestingly, today was when I switched my default search engine in Chrome from Google to Kagi. I have to wonder if there is some kind of evaluation of what Google-y things you use for whether the ad-block popup occurs or not.

[lacrimacida]

Someone I know had this coming up in youtube today as well. I previously recommended them adblockers, now I recommended invidio.us

[Plasmoid]

Gabe Newell said it best. Piracy is a service problem. Ad blockers are a response to terrible ads.

[Alifatisk]

Direct link https://files.enderman.ch/scripts/yt-antiadblocker.txt