PSA: YouTube Adblock Detection

Browser Support Ad-Blocking
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This is something that seems to be appearing quite often around the internet and I figured I’d try to create a topic exclusively on it. Below are some things to keep in mind. All information is from what I’ve experienced and learned from others. This isn’t anything official from Brave.

You’ll encounter this on any browser or with any extensions

Every web browser and adblock is encountering this message. Nobody will be immune. That said, Brave is keeping up and slightly ahead.

Switching to Firefox, Vivaldi, or whatever else won’t save you. Neither will using uBlock Origin, AdBlock, Undetectable Adblocker, or any of the bunch of things out there.

What can be done about it?

  • Be mindful of what extensions you’re using. Some will more easily trigger this message. One such extension is Enhancer For YouTube which has an adblock component in it that people were unaware. Fewer extensions used = less chances of issues.

  • Try not to add a lot of custom content filters. The more you add, the higher chance of breaking content or getting adblock detected. Ideally you shouldn’t need to have added anything.

  • Be mindful of using multiple adblockers. If possible, use only Shields.

  • Keep your components and browser up-to-date. YouTube is actually pushing out new blocks multiple times per day to try to counter anything that Brave, uBlock Origin, and other adblock are doing to try to circumvent detection.

To update components Brave on Android or Desktop, go to brave://components and make sure things like Brave Ad Block Resources Library and Brave Ad Block Updater are at their latest by hitting the Check for updates button.

NOTE

Adblock components are being updated multiple times per day. Brave automatically applies those updates, but it’s set to check like once every 5 hours (some discussion is occurring about updating more frequently). Manually checking and updating will make sure you’re using the latest quicker and may help resolve the issue.

If an update is applied, it’s good to exist Brave and reopen. You should notice the issue is resolved at that point.

I may have more to add later, but these are the key parts. I do know some had to do things like clear cookies for Google in order for the message to go away, but that’s not happening often enough for me to include on a key part of the suggestions.

And no, unfortunately there’s no way to manually update the components on iOS at this time.

TL:DR

Make sure:

  • You have everything updated at brave://components

  • Brave is updated to its most recent release

  • You are using little to no extensions. If you have an issue, remove them entirely or test in private or new profile. You’ll tend to see issue won’t persist when you do this.

  • Don’t use custom filters if possible.

  • You may have to clear cookies/cache, as some have reported the warning will continue to show until then.

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But is this going to have a solution from Brave or is it impossible now and from time to time are we going to skip messages? On Twitch I’m also getting ads with Brave when I didn’t before.

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Not sure which way you mean. Google is trying to push hard on YouTube in order to push ads on people. Brave and others are doing all they can to circumvent it. All we can do is wait and see if Google gives up or if they keep pushing. Right now it just seems more like they are trying to scare or annoy people into watching ads.

This comes and goes. Places like Facebook and Twitch hide ads as content. There is not any reliable way to completely block ads on them without breaking playback or occasionally blocking legitimate content.

That said, things are always being rolled out. Such as I went to Twitch after seeing your question and I saw an ad. Then I went to brave://components and updated everything (I have a habit of checking all). A few things updated and when I went back, ads had stopped. Not sure how long that will last, but it’s definitely seeming to be a recurring idea.

Which circles back to this. Websites are constantly updating things and trying to bypass adblock. Meanwhile, you have many people (mostly volunteers) who are consistently investigating these changes and helping to create new filters to block ads.

It is not a simple or quick process at all.

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Adding these lines of code to the blocker’s filters seems to work and the message does not appear.

ublock

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As stated in the original post I made, be careful about adding custom filters like that. Sometimes you’ll find things that temporarily work but then later can be detected. This then would lead you to having it appear again and not go away even if Brave adjusts filters to hide it.

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Another update. Try updating brave://components. Also test in private window mode, no extensions.

Brave Ad Block Updater - Version: 1.0.1652 (or better)
Brave Ad Block First Party Filters - Version: 1.0.37 (or better)

Once updated, force refresh of all the youtube pages.

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Until we defeat YouTube blocking of ad blockers, I’d recommend everyone to use YouTube ReVanced on Android, as well as other alternatives such as NewPipe and LibreTube.

On Windows, you can use FreeTube; it’s in beta but works fine most of the time. Alternatively, you can download ATube - YT App or myTube! from Microsoft Store.

There are browser-based alternatives too; use Invidious instances to watch YouTube videos without ads.

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We’re blocking the youtube attempts already, “So until we defeat…”

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But, the thing is–those fixes are just temporarily. You constantly have to update the filter to make it work for everyone, and even then, it won’t block it for all users because of different use cases.

We’re playing a Twitch game all over again.

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This is true with all adblocking. Websites are constantly adding new scripts, changing ad servers, and doing the best they can to force people to see ads. What you’re seeing here is how the internet works and a lot of the frustrations we have.

It’s not even just the internet. Look at how much spam email we get, junk offers to our mailboxes, scam calls, etc. People are always trying to find new ways to collect our data, advertise, and take our money.

Over time we develop technology like spam detection, antivirus, antimalware, adblockers, filters, etc. But none of those are ever perfect and they take a lot of work to detect and deter these problematic behaviors.

And as you speak of places like Youtube ReVanced and all, it’s important to note even those go through the same process. Such as you had complaints like below:

image
image812×671 50.6 KB

image
image754×853 41.6 KB

image
image703×119 30.9 KB

So it all gets hit in different ways and at different times.

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It’s getting worse, youtube works for a while than gets blocked. If it’s between youtube and adblocking, ad blockers win and I don’t need youtube. I hate ads, 99.9% have no interest to me and 100% annoy. I can live without youtube. I already logged out of my youtube account.

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Being logged in increases chances of getting the anti-adblock message. I don’t have a YouTube account nor I’m planning to get one, for that and the privacy reasons.

I still haven’t got the message everyone complains about. :smile:

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Yeah, tried that here, it worked as long as I was logged out, but when I logged in, my videos were blocked again. I can watch videos on a private window, or when I disable Brave shields.

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@lucasrato the idea of it working in private window suggests it might be an extension you have that’s interfering (as extensions aren’t loaded in private window by default). If not that, then might just be that you need to clear cookies.

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It works on a normal window, as long as I’m not logged in. The issue seems to be with me logged in + shields on. Yes, I cleared cache and cookies, and this causes me to log out from YouTube, and videos work. But as soon as I log in again, the YouTube block reappears.

I don’t have any other extension that acts on YouTube, I had uBlock Origin, although I didn’t use it for YouTube, it was for some paywalls, I’ve already uninstalled it.

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@lucasrato I had basically the same thing. I played around with disabling shields and enabling uBlock Origin, etc. What got me past the point you’re at was some combination of deleting all Youtube cookies right from the EditThisCookie extension pane on Youtube itself, then disabling uBlock and removing custom filters, then going into “clear site data” within Brave settings and removing the youtube.com and youtubenocookie.com domains entirely by searching “youtube”, then searching “google” and pruning a bunch of cookies there including deleting the “myaccount.google.com” domains and several others (anything that wasn’t specific to another unrelated app like Google Docs), then logging in and out of my Google account.

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This is a big misunderstanding by some people. It doesn’t have to be an extension that is made for any particular website. There’s a myriad of ways that any random extension can screw up code in general. This is where we have browser crash, websites not load, false adblock detection, etc. It’s amazing.

So even if you think it might not have anything to do with YouTube, perhaps it might be worth testing with all of your extensions disabled just to see if it still occurs. Disabling will be a way to confirm either way if it’s extensions or something else. If you see the notice doesn’t return with extensions disabled, just means have to find the culprit in the ones you thought wouldn’t be a problem.

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Ublock has a solution for this but it requires me to turn off the trackers and ad blocking. It would be nice to see these two options separated to turn tracking off while allowing ads.

Ublock has specific instructions on how to solve this YT block. But you cant have Brave ad block + Ublock running at the same time.
image

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We’re using the same rules/filters here, There isn’t a need to run uBO + Brave to fix youtube ads. Brave by itself defeats it. This is how I test it, The moment a user adds (ANY) browser extension this will add a new variable that will create issues.

Testing Brave new profile/private window mode is always the best test. Or test in Brave Beta/Nightly.

1 Like