# YouTube "forbidding" ad blockers. Concerns, if any? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493 "2023-10-13T04:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/441 "2024-12-20T20:22:59Z")
After months of nary a word from youtube, it started complaining again. Instead of updating ublock, I just allowed ads. The video had an “inline” ad, which ublock never blocked anyway. But at the end, I got an ad for… wait for it… an ad blocker. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/442 "2024-12-20T20:37:04Z")
> [@dougrb](#): > > The video had an “inline” ad, which ublock never blocked anyway. If by inline you’re talking about ones that are part of the video itself (ie, you can just move the progress bar past them), then try SponserBlock. It skips over them for you. > **[Home](https://sponsor.ajay.app/)** > > SponsorBlock is a crowdsourced browser extension to skip sponsor segments in YouTube videos. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/443 "2024-12-20T20:46:13Z")
YouTube popped up the warning for me again today, too. I switched to Brave and so far, so good. I didn’t try updated uBlock, since it’s going to be banned soon anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/444 "2024-12-20T20:53:58Z")
Another person witha YouTube nag today. Figured I’d give uBlock (Firefox) a day or so to work it out and look up the new update and, until then, will just use Private mode tabs for what I want to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/445 "2024-12-20T21:01:33Z")
Me too, Windows 10/Opera, I had to disable Ublock to watch a video. Ironically, this is a channel that specifically doesn’t have ads, instead relying on Patreon for income. There is a 10-second spiel at the beginning for that, then content. So is there a consensus what to do? is there new stuff I should be adding to Ublock? I haven’t been reading this thread for a while because I haven’t had problems for so long, so I might be out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/446 "2024-12-20T21:06:27Z")
Me…four? Firefox (still like it, but it IS getting creaky as fewer sites support it). I purged the uBlock Origin cache and cleared the Youtube cookies from the browser and it worked again. Once, anyway, as a test. Probably not a permanent fix. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/447 "2024-12-20T21:09:56Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > So is there a consensus what to do? i For starters, never ever browse to [youtube.com](http://youtube.com). Try whichever Invidious instances are not blocked at the moment, Freetube, mpv, etc. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/448 "2024-12-20T21:14:37Z")
My uBlock filters seem to be up-to-date and no luck. I can play videos in incognito mode – not sure why that would work. I’m sure I mentioned it above, but man, they are spending a lot of effort to piss off what I imagine is a small fraction of tech savvy users. My guess is that most people watch on their phones, or on a TV, and ad blockers generally don’t work there. Then, so large fraction use browsers with no ad blockers anyway, then there’s some small fraction that pay for YouTube Plus. Then, there are the people they’re targeting. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/449 "2024-12-20T21:26:53Z")
No nagging here of any sort, Adblocker Ultimate 3.8.26 on Firefox 133 for W11. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/450 "2024-12-20T23:27:20Z")
Got the nag. Did a search. Got a tip from Reddit. Applied. Nag go gone. (Brave + uBlock). ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/451 "2024-12-21T00:01:43Z")
Mine seems to have resolved itself. I disabled Ublock, then refreshed, then re-enabled Ublock, then refreshed again. Works like before, i.e. seamlessly. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/452 "2024-12-21T01:20:20Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I can play videos in incognito mode – not sure why that would work. It’s a known technique, but I’ve not seen anyone give a definitive reason why. Best guess is that it uses your login credentials and some fingerprinting to keep track of how many videos you’ve watched. And incognito mode has no login credentials and can break fingerprinting. If so, it just doesn’t know how many videos you’ve watched. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/453 "2024-12-21T12:11:18Z")
This is an interesting idea that I’ll have to try. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/454 "2024-12-21T14:56:12Z")
Cleared the uBlock cache, cleared YouTube cookies, works as expected now. While it was a little startling to see the nag come up after six+ months of no issues, the fix was less than a minute’s work for me. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/455 "2024-12-21T15:02:41Z")
Same. All better now. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/456 "2024-12-21T15:18:07Z")
I use SmartTube which is an app for the Firestick that works like the YouTube app but without ads and it can also skip the sponsorship. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/457 "2024-12-21T23:51:18Z")
I got the nag error one day, gave up for the day, came back the next day and it worked fine again. did nothing, IOW. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/458 "2024-12-22T14:46:59Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I have no objection to paying a fair price for a service, but as already noted, the cost of a YouTube subscription is way too high – by more than an order of magnitude What price are you looking at? I think I’m paying $14/month. Now, i watch a lot of you tube videos. When i realized i was watching YouTube more than i was watching netflix, or any other video service, i decided it was worth paying for it. I’ve even taking to directly paying a couple of YouTubers, either via YouTube or via Patreon. The advantage of paying is that not only do i miss the " YouTube" ads, i also skip through the sponsorships within the videos. Maybe i could do that anyway, but i didn’t notice the “premium controls” to skip forward or back 10 seconds until i subscribed. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/459 "2024-12-23T16:00:02Z")
It’s baaaack. Well, not the nag screen. Getting pre-roll ads and sometimes within if I happen to pause it for a while and resume. A reload does well but it slows things down (and loses my place in the video if I’m resuming). It seems to be the same two ads. Viewers hate seeing the same ads over and over. Hence companies love doing just that. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2024, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/460 "2024-12-25T01:39:18Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It’s a known technique, but I’ve not seen anyone give a definitive reason why. Best guess is that it uses your login credentials and some fingerprinting to keep track of how many videos you’ve watched. My WAG is they are testing us on an individual level, seeing how we react to them blocking us. So those ads we see occasionally on our bypass method of choice is a personal attack against us. Incognito mode looks just like a normal viewer, not a targeted scofflaw. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493.md?page=24)