YouTube's anti-adblock rollout has finally arrived for Firefox users

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*.*

May the ~~force~~ uBlock Origin be with you!

Update

Just wanted to mention a few things that have been pointed out in the comments:

There are quite a few projects that provide an alternative ad-free front end to YouTube. These include Invidious, FreeTube, LibreTube, Newpipe, Revanced, and I'm sure there are several more options I've missed. I don't have any particular preference really but I routinely use NewPipe on my cellphone just because I tried it once and couldn't be bothered trying all the others.
In step 4 listed above, to clarify, afaik you only need to remove adblocker extensions (if you have more than one installed) that might conflict with the uBlock Origin rules and trigger the anti-adblock, not all extensions.
If you hate non-stop ads but want to support your favorite content creators then be sure to give them some love on Patreon or whatever alternative options they provide. Creators typically make only a tiny, tiny fraction of what YouTube makes in ad revenue, assuming YouTube doesn't just outright steal the lot, and it's a shitty business model that's ruining the internet. Even if you watch the ads, you're only supporting YouTube most of the time, not the creators.

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For those using Safari, a simple custom browser stylesheet with a few styles is all you need, and is undetectable, as anti-adblock works with javascript, so no pesky “Why you blocking the ads? Mimimimimi…”
- Go on..... As an avid non-applemac household I would install safari pretty quickly just to watch ad-less YouTube.
  
  I think this should work with any browser that allows you to apply a custom user stylesheet. This used to be normal in the past, but Chrome took it away, and I don’t know if Firefox still allows it. Copied from a reply I put in another post:
  Ok, do this: download this stylesheet: http://damianvila.com/external/fuckyoutube/hider.css Save it somewhere where you can find it easily. Open Safari and go to Safari > Settings > Advanced. In the "Style sheet" dropdown, select "Other" and navigate to the style sheet. For maximum effect, do this while you have YouTube open... :D
  The stylesheet is organized in a way that you can comment/uncomment blocks to customize what you want/don't want to see on YouTube. Right now it has my preferences, but if you want to keep something, or hide something I had viewable, just comment/uncomment as you wish. The ads part is clearly marked, and the rest is menu things and navigation elements (I don't need most of those). I also hate Shorts with a passion, so I hide those too. Keep in mind that this can only be used in the desktop version. It doesn't work for mobile or any of the apps. Sadly, you'll have to suffer with the shitty ads there. But at least, you can have a decent experience while watching on your Mac. And since it's a user stylesheet, and has no Javascript whatsoever, YT has no way ob detecting or blocking it, so they can do nothing (other than changing the names of the titles, but that is easily fixed).
  Have fun.
  P.S: you'll notice that sometimes, where there should be an ad, you'll see like a blink in the video. Don't worry, it's normal. The video will continue without problems, and you won't see the ad.
  P.S.2: This stylesheet sometimes blocks shitty Google (or other sites) pages (because people are assholes and put things there that shouldn't be there). If you happen to find yourself in this situation (a page that is suspiciously blank, or don't allow to scroll, or behaves oddly) you can temporarily change the sylesheet to "None Selected", and see if the problem is fixed. When you're finished, remember to switch back to the stylesheet, or you'll have a shock when you go to YouTube... XDDDDD
  
  Genuine question, why be avid anti-apple? I’m a mac fan, but I still use Linux and windows in my daily life. I’be never understood the anti-mac hate
  
  Not OP, but genuine answer: because I loathe being forced into their way of doing things. Every little thing on the Mac seems engineered with an "our way or the highway" mentality, that leaves no room for other (frequently, better) ways of achieving anything.
  Adding to that, window/task management is an absolute nightmare (things that have worked certain ways basically since System 6 on monochrome Mac Classic machines, and haven't improved), and despite all claims to the contrary, its BSD-based underpinnings are just different enough to Linux's GNU toolset to make supposed compatibility (or the purported "develop on Mac, deploy on Linux" workflow) a gross misadventure.
  I just find the experience frustrating, unpleasant, and always walk away from a Mac feeling irritated.
  (For context: 20 year exclusively Linux user. While it's definitely not always been a smooth ride, I seldom feel like I'm fighting against the computer to get it to do what I want, which is distinctly not my experience with Apple products)
  
  Also if you want an "our way or the highway" attitude you can buy a PC, install a gnome distro, and not pay like 1000 bucks more for 16G more RAM that you won't be able to use in another machine because Apple locks everything down for reasons that definitely don't involve unadulterated greed.
  
  Just a quick list.
  Apple actively makes device designs more difficult to repair. Everything is either glued or soldered together.
  They purposely make it more difficult to get tools and parts. Some tools are proprietary.
  Performance per dollar is terrible. The better, slightly more repairable machines cost a ton of money. Spend the same amount of money on a regular PC and you would have a beast of a machine.
  Apple sues and/or attacks anyone who tries to help people repair their devices.
  They purposely push out OS changes that make older devices less usable.
  That's not even including the treatment of employees or condition of the factories where Apple devices are built. I don't know as much about that. But I can definitely comment on the above after managing iPads and Macbooks in a corporate environment.
  
  Apple is a snobby company with terrible overpriced repair. All of their products are heavily locked down wildly expensive milled aluminium.
  Sure the new m1 chip is good but the amount of vendor lock in is too much and of course mac OS is a trash bsd distro. TLDR: overpriced products, trashy company.
  
  Thanks. Their repair pricing is obnoxious, I’ll give you that, but their pricing model really isn’t ridiculous otherwise. For the performance you get it’s great. I’m willing to bet most companies source their alumni from the same place, but my only genuine issue is that MacOS is a great piece of software. I still like Catalina/Mojave myself, but the newer variations are still good. Do you have specific gripes with the OS?
  
  but their pricing model really isn’t ridiculous otherwise.
  I mean, $1600 for a phone is ridiculous. I’ve had iPhones for the past 12 years, but it never even crossed my mind to buy the latest model. It’s just speculation at that point.
  
  Fair enough, the iPhones are ridiculous, but I was mostly thinking of macs, that’s on me
  
  tbh, I've only had limited experience with MacOS, and it wasn't very great (compared to my Linux setup), and afaik this is the general consensus among technically inclined people.
  About the pricing model, it's ridiculous is everyway, not just for repairs. Like, you can get a laptop/PC with almost double the spec compared to what apple has to offer at that price.
  All this is said without considering the fact that apple stuff costs almost twice the price in my country (India).
  
  Personally, I don't like the way Apple does business. Primarily, that you aren't just buying the product, you're buying into their ecosystem. Almost everything apple does well only realistically works of you stay confined to their stuff. And you're fucked if you wanted compatibility with older software. Remember when Apple just decided 32 bit was dead to them?
  And while their hardware is pretty good, it costs wayyyyy too much. I just got a new pc with the top end amd cpu and an rtx 4090, and it cost under half what a Mac pro costs. I seriously doubt their ARM desktop chips are really that much better. Maybe if I were to buy a Mac and use it the rest of my life without upgrades, the efficiency of using an ARM cpu would save me the difference on electricity?
  
  They are doing same stuff as the other companies, but are better at PR.
  If you use their products you are even more locked down, but for some reason that's more acceptable than on pc. I think many apple fans are wearing rosy tinted glasses and don't notice any of that for some reason.
  For example there was a big deal recently by Google adding attestation mechanism that likely will be used to prevent ad blockers blocking ads. Safari already has this implemented.
  
  Just curious, how many years have you used Macs?
  
  I got my first mac 7 years ago, the 2017 macbook air. I put that lovely machine through its paces, even got it to run Destiny 2 and gta 5 at one point. Until last year I was issued a work laptop and it’s windows. I have a windows desktop at home, but Mac just works with my slightly chaotic flow better.

698 comments