YouTube tests disabling videos for people using ad blockers

[enthusiast29]

Google seems to be trying very hard to force people into it's ecosystem. With this they're gonna get it, not here, but in the EU at least

The solution in this comment is simple in it's elegance

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/17ywbjj/_/k9w206q

Who's ready for Premium Plus and Premium Pro?

People haven't figured it out yet but the slow loading is only for those people who got the 3 strikes already. My account is one of them.
I'm using Chrome so don't need to change UA string to "chrome" since it's already that but my account is affected.

For me, the opposite worked for a few days. Changed UA string to Firefox and everything loads faster but couple days later same issue. This slow loading only happens if you open a video in a new tab since that loads every DOM element again including the JS scripts. Running the video in the same tab just loads the new component.

I tried logging into my account in incognito mode and everything's fine there. Another browser is also fine.
Now I'm using UA string of Opera browser on Chrome and it's fine for now since couple days but who knows for how long...

 

[awestorr]

Just use ublock guys.
I have seen 0 ads .
No popup for disable ads by youtube either.

 

[n1r0]

People haven't figured it out yet but the slow loading is only for those people who got the 3 strikes already. My account is one of them

I think they're still experimenting with their methods. But whatever they do, one thing is clear: in their quest to establish a monopoly, they will drive a major part of the viewers away from YT. Only the blind devotees will remain behind

 

[enthusiast29]

Only the blind devotees will remain behind

And that will be everyone because hey, same happened with netflix even when there were competitors and here there's no one else to compete youtube.

 

[n1r0]

And that will be everyone because hey, same happened with netflix even when there were competitors and here there's no one else to compete youtube.

Those who want an alternative will find it.

Those who don't want say "But what can we do...?" They'll say the same even if YT decides to charge you by the second. They didn't do anything when they removed the dislike count, making you watch crappy videos. YT knows this, and rest assured they will take full advantage of it

 

[enthusiast29]

Those who want an alternative will find it. They'll say the same even if YT decides to charge you by the second.

I would hope so but currently there's absolutely none.
They're already charging for member-only content (videos behind a paywall) but that's OK I suppose because the revenue goes to creators.

Youtube is a necessity now for entertainment and education. If it comes "free" at a cost of watching ads, people will do it.

 

[n1r0]

Youtube is a necessity now for entertainment and education. If it comes "free" at a cost of watching ads, people will do it.

Of course they will. When people are already watching ads on paid TV channels, why wouldn't they pay for YT premium AND watch ads..

 

[6pack]

I think YT is purposely doing something (like making video playback really bad or not loading page properly) to FF and other non YT app users who use adblockers. On FF, if i delete all YT cookies, the page loads in 1 second with thumbnails and everything. After 4-5 videos and with ublock origin adblocker always on, the home page loads only first 2-3 lines of thumbnails and rest are grey placeholders. Then when you try to play videos, the video resolution goes down to 144p or just stops loading until you change resolution to one of 360, 480, 720p or 1080p. Then after a minute it stops again. If you play using YT app on phone no such thing happens because you're forced to watch 3-4 ads.
I have an app called Freetube on linux, and even on that the playback is very bad now. Previously it used to work properly and i could watch 5-6 videos back to back continuously without problems. Now since few days, videos stop loading mid way and wont play. Same issue where we have to change default video resolution to make it play again. And this starts only after playing 2-3 videos without problems. Always 4th video and above that has problems.

 

[enthusiast29]

I think YT is purposely doing something (like making video playback really bad or not loading page properly) to FF and other non YT app users who use adblockers.

No! Your adblocker is getting detected. It happened to me on chrome too. Also, adblocker detection right now is only working when you're logged-in. That's why after cookie deletion or in incognito it works fine.
In addition to keeping ublock updated, add this to "my filters" to avoid the slow loading.

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

Using multiple adblockers won't work and will get you detected. Don't use enhancer for youtube or anything else.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Why go into all these complications when a few simple browser add-ons can does the job very well.
Since years I'm using adblockers on FF and till date faced no such issues.

 

[6pack]

No! Your adblocker is getting detected. It happened to me on chrome too. Also, adblocker detection right now is only working when you're logged-in. That's why after cookie deletion or in incognito it works fine.
In addition to keeping ublock updated, add this to "my filters" to avoid the slow loading.

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

Using multiple adblockers won't work and will get you detected. Don't use enhancer for youtube or anything else.

I stopped logging into YT years ago even before this adblock thing started. I just download videos through Newpipe and play them in my laptop. I only use FF to see new content and food videos. And ublock is the only addon i use. So seems like YT is detecting the browser and addon quite nicely using cookies and some type of fingerprinting.
I'll add those rules to make the videos load faster. Thank you.

 

[n1r0]

Did you try changing the user agent to chrome? I watch only a few videos on YT using FF + uB, so may be never hit their limit

Another thing you should do is go to FF settings and enable all cookies + cache to be cleared automatically when closing the browser

------------------

Google: * deletes "Do no evil" motto *

Google: * does something evil *

People: * surprised pikachu face.jpg *

 

[enthusiast29]

Did you try changing the user agent to chrome?

All that does is put you in a separate group temporarily. They're A/B testing things. Changing UA string identifies you as a "new" client and temporarily may or may not change your group.
It catches up eventually, I've done that too when I was affected on chrome and change UA string to FF then it became snappy for a day or two and then back to square one.

Using the additional filters helped because it overrides a function in youtube's JS script which plays an invisible ad for 5 secs when you load a new video. If that fails (blocked by adblockers), you are detected and that's why youtube feels slow to load a video.
That filter changes that time from 5 sec to a fraction of a second.

 

[soulweaver]

I use Adguard and FF and so far, have had no issues with YT. I don't have a premium account, and I am never logged in. My YouTube (and general media consumption) is pretty low though, so can't say for sure.

I use YouTube say, three times a week, and my total time on it is also pretty low (Under 2hrs total), and that is across two different desktop systems.

 

[ashish]

I use Adguard and FF and so far, have had no issues with YT. I don't have a premium account, and I am never logged in. My YouTube (and general media consumption) is pretty low though, so can't say for sure.

I use YouTube say, three times a week, and my total time on it is also pretty low (Under 2hrs total), and that is across two different desktop systems.

Thats what someone said above. Why complicate matters further.

 

[BullettuPaandi]

While we're at it, any way to stop the 'Products and Commisions' pop-up?
Been seeing more of this lately; doesn't auto-hide; takes two clicks to close!

(Sorry for the off-topic post; didn't want to create a new thread for just this)

 

[soulweaver]

While we're at it, any way to stop the 'Products and Commisions' pop-up?
Been seeing more of this lately; doesn't auto-hide; takes two clicks to close!

(Sorry for the off-topic post; didn't want to create a new thread for just this)

So far, I have not seen any of these on my set up. (Windows 10 and 11, Adguard, and FF)

 

[mithya]

Of course they will. When people are already watching ads on paid TV channels, why wouldn't they pay for YT premium AND watch ads..

Partially disagree. If you are watching it for pureight entertainment, you wouldn't mind ads.

But start consuming long form content like documentaries, news, Indie movies, tutorials etc and you would never want to use YT.

I loved a YouTube series about the Science of Music. It goes on to walk you through the music of Bach, Tansen, Tupac and why do we like them. I never used to mind ads but there were 8 ads in a 25 min video. And these ads kept on breaking the flow of the content.


Similarly I was watching a video about the macroeconomic discussion. And then I got ads about Lizol or some bank account/credit cards.


I am using Revanced now and will never go back to using the stock YT app.

 

[6pack]

FreeTube stopped working now. Only 1-2 videos load by mistake, rest just show api key error and player shows nothing. Maybe the api key expired or became too costly to maintain.

 

[ninjenstein]

Was getting warnings on Safari with AdGuard for a few days but that stopped now. But Safari is a crappy browser anyway. No problems with FF + ublock, just that FF uses too much energy.