I’m sure many of you are already aware that YouTube has been rolling out anti-adblock detection for Chrome users for a few weeks now.
Today, as a long time Firefox user with the fantastic uBlock Origin extension installed, I got my first anti-adblock popup on the platform. Note that this may not happen to you personally for a while, but it is inevitably coming for everyone.
Thankfully, the fine folks at uBlock Origin have already advised a simple workaround (on Reddit, yuck!) which I will duplicate in a simplified form below for your convenience. I have tested it on Firefox and it is working fine for me (so far).
PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS POST.
Update uBO to the latest version (1.52.0+) . <== The extension itself, for technical improvements. You do this in your browser.
Remove your custom config / reset to defaults. <== This means removing your custom filters (or disabling My filters) and disabling ALL additional lists you’ve enabled. It might be quicker to make a backup of your config and restore to defaults instead.
Force an update of your Filter Lists. <== This is within the extension. Lists are what determine what’s blocked or not.
How to update Filter lists: Click 🛡️ uBO’s icon > the ⚙ Dashboard button > the Filter lists pane > the 🕘 Purge all caches button > the 🔃 Update now button.
Disable all other extensions AND your browser’s built-in blockers. <== No need to uninstall, just disable them. They might interfere with our solutions.
Make sure you follow all 4 points above. If you’re seeing the message, it’s likely due to your custom config (either additional lists or separate filters in My filters).
Restarting your browser afterwards may help too.
Once you’ve gotten 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 config.
If you want to use Enhancer for YouTube*, you have to* disable its adblocking*.*
Also got the damned pop up a few hours ago myself. Luckily all that it seems to do is cause the pop up. Once I clicked close it would start playing.
YouTube really is trying to generate competition fast as possible with all the nonsense over the past couple years. Sure. Ads a big revenue. But forcing people to watch them will not work. People will leave and go elsewhere or at least break it and use ads anyway.
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Also got the damned pop up a few hours ago myself. Luckily all that it seems to do is cause the pop up. Once I clicked close it would start playing.
YouTube really is trying to generate competition fast as possible with all the nonsense over the past couple years. Sure. Ads a big revenue. But forcing people to watch them will not work. People will leave and go elsewhere or at least break it and use ads anyway.
Thats only step one. Step 2 adds a timer until you can close it. Step 3 completely locks the video. So far ublock filter updates are working though
I’ve heard anecdotally that they’ve done small user trials of fully blocking people for X amount of time for using adblock.
I’m going to right click and try to use adblock to block the popup for the adblocker if it comes up.