# 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:** 25
**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:** [March 10, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/481 "2025-03-10T14:32:05Z")
I have a paid YouTube subscription, but i use ublock on chrome for other reasons. Yesterday, chrome updated and turned it off. But i was able to turn it on again (against warnings by chrome that it’s not supported) and it still seems to be working for now. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/482 "2025-03-10T16:04:54Z")
uBlock Origin Lite with filtering mode set to “optimal” works well for me, and is supported. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/483 "2025-03-12T21:29:45Z")
I lost my uBlock Origin overnight when Chrome pushed a restart. I tried to turn it back on, but I can’t get it functioning again. Chrome refuses to allow it. Now ads are showing up on pages. I need some way to restore functionality. ETA: I installed uBlock Origin Lite and set it to optimal. Ads are gone again. Thanks, [ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)! ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/484 "2025-03-15T22:50:01Z")
uBlock Origin is back. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/485 "2025-06-03T21:46:23Z")
YouTube is getting ornery again, it informed me ad blockers aren’t allowed again today. I’ve reset uBlock Lite and now it seems to be working again. For now, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/486 "2025-06-03T22:00:05Z")
I’ve been using uBlock Origin in Firefox, and I just started having the same problem yesterday. How does one reset uBlock? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/487 "2025-06-05T16:13:49Z")
sorry for the delayed reply, I’ve been distracted. I just clicked on the extensions icon on chrome, reset my ublock origin lite settings. It seems that YouTube is just putting up warning messages about ad blockers not being allowed, I just close the message and the videos still play without ads. Here’s the message I get now [![](https://i.postimg.cc/sXDCZyM5/latest-youtube-warning.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/sXDCZyM5/latest-youtube-warning.jpg) ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/488 "2025-06-05T16:17:10Z")
Yeah, until you hit the final one, and can’t bypass it. I switched from Adblock + to UBlock Origin last night, and still got the (penultimate) warning. A+ hasn’t been updated in over a month, but UB had one just yesterday. Didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/489 "2025-06-05T16:18:41Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Yeah, until you hit the final one, and can’t bypass it. Well, I’ve been bypassing it for almost a week now, haven’t reached an ultimate one. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/490 "2025-06-05T16:27:21Z")
Not seeing any problems here in the UK. Yet? Firefox with ublock origin. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/491 "2025-06-05T16:41:44Z")
Each time these come up it seems to be randomly targeted. At least, there’s never any consensus on who is getting messages. I actually got the ad block message on Monday and haven’t gotten it since (including checking just now). I assumed that uBlock updated in the meanwhile but if people are getting it now… maybe not? ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/492 "2025-06-05T17:00:46Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that message in Brave. I’m now using Brave on all my PCs including on my Chromebook (in Linux mode, not the Android app). I’m using it on my Android phone and my iPad. For some reason, though, Brave can’t keep the screen on when streaming a YouTube video, so you have to occasionally jiggle the mouse or touch the screen for longer videos. I only use Chrome at work now, where it’s mandated. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/493 "2025-06-05T17:31:48Z")
I just updated Brave on my phone and the screen no longer times out on YouTube! ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/494 "2025-06-05T18:04:26Z")
Uh oh… I just started to get nastygrams here too. We’ll see how this plays out. I am not paying anything to Google. They Are Evil. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/495 "2025-06-05T18:08:24Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever seen that message in Brave. Based on your post, I just dl’ed Brave. YT now works wonderfully ad-free…at least for now. Not sure at this point if I’ll use it for anything else as I’m so used to Firefox. Many, many thanks for sharing. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/496 "2025-06-05T18:44:02Z")
I just now got my first (in a long time) warning message, which I clicked through. I use Opera browser, which has been working very well for me since I started on it, a couple of years ago I think. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/497 "2025-06-05T18:53:37Z")
I received a warning today too, on Firefox with uBlock Origin. It has been my experience thus far that Youtube might win for a day or two but then there will be a uBlock update that sets things back to how I want them to be. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/498 "2025-06-05T19:12:02Z")
I wanted to switch to Firefox instead of Brave, because Brave is still Chromium. The problem was that Brave is about twice as fast as Firefox on Linux running on a Chromebook. Someday, Brave’s built-in adblocker might stop working (since it’s still Chromium). I guess at that point, I’ll switch to Firefox. On an Android, Firefox allows extensions (including uBlock) so I used that for a while, but I switched to Brave just to keep everything consistent. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/499 "2025-06-06T04:52:09Z")
Happened to me on Brave. I was using just the default blocker. I downloaded UBlock, and it seems to have taken care of it. If these annoyances return, I already learned how to handle them. Honestly, at this point it’s just flat-out baffling. **No one** is behind them on this. Friendly reminder that even creators who _rely on ads for their income_ have forcefully spoken out against ads that have something offensive, are targeted to minors, or contain malware. Maybe some users get hit harder than others, but there is **no** scenario where this results in a massive rush to YouTube Premium. It’s as if someone at YouTube was hellbent on being as annoying as possible (which I’m certainly not ruling out). ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493/500 "2025-06-06T11:59:08Z")
Back to normal here. I didn’t make any changes (didn’t refresh ublock etc), but the pissygrams have ceased and videos work fine again. I really have no idea what they are playing around with… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-forbidding-ad-blockers-concerns-if-any/991493.md?page=26)