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Has Youtube Lost it's Mind?

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Something has gone awry with Youtube. It all began with the service asking me to unblock them. Now they are shutting down my video searches. I have to do a refresh to watch the video I searched for. I don't have a problem with paying for entertainment services but wtf?
 
Something has gone awry with Youtube. It all began with the service asking me to unblock them. Now they are shutting down my video searches. I have to do a refresh to watch the video I searched for. I don't have a problem with paying for entertainment services but wtf?
uBlock Origin and you're set.
 
They had been wonky with specifically searches the last few days. I think it might be some issue on their end, yeah. For me, it’s fine on desktop, but often glitches out on my iOS tablet.
 
Maybe they are trying to destroy all the Ad block software lol because mine works fine on my Smart TV but I came on Youtube to avoid commercials not have up to 180 seconds of Ads to watch a 5 minute video.
 
Something has gone awry with Youtube. It all began with the service asking me to unblock them. Now they are shutting down my video searches. I have to do a refresh to watch the video I searched for. I don't have a problem with paying for entertainment services but wtf?
Screenshot (290).png
use these extensions.... i never see any ads ...ever... only thing i see is youtube asking to try premium occasionaly thats it
 
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YouTube works fine for me.

  • macOS 14.5 Sonoma, Safari browser, Wipr adblock utility (this is the computer listed in my System Specs)
  • Windows 11 23H2, Vivaldi browser, native adblock, Adblock for YouTube extension
  • iOS 17.5.1, YouTube iOS app

I searched for "david bowie modern love" and got the appropriate results. Only the iPhone played preroll ads.

I didn't diddle with additional web browsers on the computers either. I have several PCs and I didn't try those.

I didn't bother trying my Roku nor LG webOS YouTube apps. I'm sure those are fine as well.

Maybe you need to change web browsers, change browser extensions or reinstall Windows.

Best of luck.
 
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Firefox and uBlock Origin work.

Was previously using Edge but Chromium Manifest V3 is removing ad blockers except some lite editions.
I've also read they are auto skipping to the end of videos for those with ad blockers, but I've yet to see that.

Only thing I've experienced w FF+uB is the main page loads slow (which happens for anyone using an ad blocker).
 
FF and Malwarebytes browser guard does the job right.
 
Firefox and uBlock Origin work.

Was previously using Edge but Chromium Manifest V3 is removing ad blockers except some lite editions.
I've also read they are auto skipping to the end of videos for those with ad blockers, but I've yet to see that.

Only thing I've experienced w FF+uB is the main page loads slow (which happens for anyone using an ad blocker).
try adblock ultimate extension instead loads fast
 
View attachment 350444use these extensions.... i never see any ads ...ever... only thing i see is youtube asking to try premium occasionaly thats it
also use hosts files as well as implementing network wide adblocks like a firewall or pihole or whatever
 
Firefox with ublock origin for the first time starts to become unuseable since a week.
Videos skip to the end (like they announced)
Videos randomly stop and i need to reload the website.
Autoplay stops after 30 minutes until i move the mouse.
Searching something shows me often a blank page.

And all of that is not a thing as soon as i disable the adblocker...
 
Youtube is still working fine for me, I use ublock origin if relevant.

Twitch is the nightmare, they are in a back and fro game with adblocker dev's, and have some really extreme ad pushing, ublock origin have actually banned discussion of twich on their subreddit as the situation is so bad.

Some examples.

Twitch if it starts an ad and you refresh it will restart from the start of the ad, if you jump to a channel and it starts a pre roll, it will restart the pre roll if you jump to another channel.
If you channel hop a lot, you can end up with an extremely high % of your watch time as ad viewing e.g. 80% ads, 20% content.
Most ad blocker stuff I have tried on twitch leads to issues like the tab freezing, twitch showing me extended ad's as punishment for detecting ad blocker, dead stream, or persistent looping ad's.
 
also use hosts files as well as implementing network wide adblocks like a firewall or pihole or whatever
Might be useful elsewhere. Not necessary here (YouTube).

YouTube behaves with minimal modifications on a standard computer (Mac or PC).
 
It's fine for me.

addons.png
 
They're changing things around in the site again. Looks like there has been changes to the video recommendation algorithm (I keep getting recommendations from new channels that have ~10 views) as well as the page layout (comments on the side). Looks horrible.
 
Works well I know, but what url's do you block.
Mvps hosts was the one I used, but since I have a firewall I don't most of the time and VPN to my home connection when out
 
Something has gone awry with Youtube. It all began with the service asking me to unblock them. Now they are shutting down my video searches. I have to do a refresh to watch the video I searched for. I don't have a problem with paying for entertainment services but wtf?
As Chomiq stated above, UBlock Origin on Firefox. However, there is an alternative. YouTube Premium.

If you're using Chrome, stop using Chrome.
 
I use Fire Fox and Adblock Plus and get a warning about using an adblocker that I can click X on after 5 to 10 seconds, but they are also trying to upsell to YouTube Premium.
I refuse to pay for that.
 
I vote UblockOrigin on Firefox, that combination just works. You can also use NoScript if you want further control, but it can be a bit burdensome.
 
Mvps hosts was the one I used, but since I have a firewall I don't most of the time and VPN to my home connection when out
These sort of network hacks only work if you control the network. As soon as you step outside your house and use someone else's network, those customizations and advantages are gone.

Like I said, you can get YouTube to behave politely without major alterations. The less the better in this case.

Setting up a Pi Hole will do the job at home, but it only works where the Pi Hole is installed.

I don't know about you but I also occasionally view YouTube away from my home network.

Even if you have a network based solution you still need a system based workaround as well if you walk out the front door of your house like most people.
 
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These sort of network hacks only work if you control the network. As soon as you step outside your house and use someone else's network, those customizations and advantages are gone.

Like I said, you can get YouTube to behave politely without major alterations. The less the better in this case.

Setting up a Pi Hole will do the job at home, but it only works where the Pi Hole is installed.

I don't know about you but I also occasionally view YouTube away from my home network.

Even if you have a network based solution you still need a system based workaround as well if you walk out the front door of your house like most people.
On mobile I use Firefox w ublock origin on my phone and VPN into my home connection

You can add VPN to android too and my router has VPN server and whatever policies I have on my home network get applied to connecting VPN clients
 
malware bytes plugin is not compatible with youtube....use any other malware blocker....
 
FF with ublock origin also works on mobile to block ads.
 
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