I’ve been using AdBlocker Ultimate with Firefox on YouTube. Occasionally I start to see ads but they disappear when the filters update. I can also update the filters manually.
I think you’re confusing some elements of:
- The core software, which was last updated at addons.mozilla.org May 13.
- The GitHub, which had some minor updates 20 hours ago
- The filter lists, which update schedule depends on which one you’re subscribed to, though @Joey_P says recent which seems reasonable.
The core software doesn’t need to be updated to draw from existing updated sources.
Subscribed…? I see no option for that anywhere. Is this not plug and play? You all seem to be indicating that I need to jump through a huge amount of hoops manually each and every day, maybe several times a day.
No, there’s several default lists of sites to block. I think by default it comes with uBlock filters, EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Peter Lowe’s. These update automatically. If really want to be more strict, you can subscribe to others. You really don’t need to do anything except install the addon though.
Yeah, per the extension description:
Out of the box, uBO blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, etc. through the following lists of filters, enabled by default:
- EasyList (ads)
- EasyPrivacy (tracking)
- Peter Lowe’s Ad server list (ads and tracking)
- Online Malicious URL Blocklist
- uBO’s own lists
By default, auto updating of the filter lists should be on so it greys out the Update Now option
It IS possible that you had everything set up correctly and yet you got hassle from YouTube. This thread is full of people saying they had a new issue just come up and everyone else saying “Nope, still works for me”. I suspect that Google tries new ways of defeating the ad blockers on a limited basis so it’s rare that everyone reports a failure at once.
But, out of all the uBlock users, there’s still a lot of people affected, it gets reported and the filter lists are adjusted so it generally fixes itself (from your perspective) in a day or two.
Welp since my post I’ve gotten no more nags-as always, dunno if YT finally waved ye olde white flag and ceased their little crusade, or if the apps finally gained the upper hand.
Today I started getting a weird glitch where Youtube just displays a few rows of suggestions before collapsing into a smaller grid of non-working previews. I sort of assume this is ad block related or maybe just Firefox related though it doesn’t prevent me from just refreshing and getting new stuff in the top (working) three or four rows.
I’ve been having an issue for the past week or so where, when I hit the youtube logo to go back to the main page, I get an ‘audio’ ad. I say ‘audio’ in quotes because I’m not sure if it’s an audio ad or the audio portion of a video ad. I only hear it, I don’t see anything playing. It’s just the normal youtube home page with audio playing over it. I have no idea why it plays sometimes and doesn’t play other times. It doesn’t even seem to matter if I hit the youtube button to return to the home page from a video or just hitting it to reload the page. Reloading the page, with the browser’s reload button, is the only way I’ve found to stop it (though I haven’t tried waiting it out).
I’m thinking this is a glitch and not something on purpose.
Also, a few days ago I was watching something in a private firefox window and the player looked different. I don’t know if it was the private window or the fact that I wasn’t logged in, but it’s the only time I saw it. I assume I got caught up in some A/B testing. I didn’t like the new player. IIRC the controls took up more space in the video any time I touched the mouse/keyboard.
this morning I restarted my laptop and UBlock was not only turned off, it’s not enabled and I can’t turn it back on. Says it’s “no longer supported” 
Are you using Chrome?
yes, I should have said my laptop is a Chromebook.
Chrome is blocking uBlock Origin. They have been for quite a while, but it seems the rollout has been slow and it must’ve just caught up to you. I don’t use Chrome so I can’t help, but if you do some googling for replacements, there’s quite a few suggestions. One I saw popping up a lot was uBlock Origin Lite. I think there’s also some workarounds to get the regular uBO working again.
Do some googling for replacements. I’m sure the internet will settle on a couple of good solutions. One option many people are taking is to ditch Chrome and move to a different browser, so there’s that as well.
I get those (Opera browser) while I’m scrolling, but when I continue scrolling to that point they always resolve into more previews. I’m on uBlock Origin.
I’ve found that if I scroll down immediately upon loading, it’ll resolve them. If I just refresh the page and wait before scrolling down, it locks up at that point.
It’s a fairly new Chromebook and I’m otherwise happy with it. I wouldn’t mind a second computer, though, since I often want to be doing something while streaming or on zoom or whatever…so it’s yet another incentive to get a tablet. I’ve been wanting something new with E ink so I can read outside.
so, what browser, then, Firefox?
I’ve been using Firefox for years and it’s been fine. I use the AdBlocker Ultimate extension and never have an issue with intrusive ads on YouTube or anywhere else.
For some reason I have to use UBlock Origin on Firefox at work but that might be a security problem due to all the layers set up by our IT department.
Firefox seems to work well with both of these ad blockers for now.
Brave
I’d recommend FireFox with uBlock Origin (all free).
AFAIK all browsers except one are based on Chromium (including Brave). Only Firefox is its own thing.
Guess who controls Chromium?
I second the recommendation for Brave.
I used Firefox for years. I started experimenting with Brave about a year ago, and went with it full time six months ago or so. I’ve never had any problems with Youtube with either browser, but Firefox is slow, while Brave is not. And I’ve never needed anything more than the built-in ad blocking with Brave.
What he said 