[Unofficial] Status of YouTube Ad-Blocking on Mobile Devices

Browser Support Mobile Support
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Full disclosure: this isn’t a “technical support” topic so much as a “status report”. Apologies for categorizing it as “browser support”, but it was either this or “uncategorized”, where it would get lost. I just figured a “quick and dirty” topic about what’s going on might be helpful.
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I’ve tested Brave Browser on my AndroidOS device and my iPad. As of the writing of this topic, Brave functions as follows on these platforms:

  • iOS / iPadOS (Desktop View)
    Nov 19, 2023 Edit: No ads, no “ad blockers not allowed” pop-up, fully functional website.

Original post

“You’re offline” error on videos opened in a single tab. Refreshing the page or opening a video in a new tab circumvents this.
“Ad blockers not allowed” timed pop-up on some video pages.
(I haven’t found a way around this… in Desktop Mode.)

  • iOS / iPadOS (Mobile View)
    No ads, no “ad blockers not allowed” pop-up, but website is mostly non-interactive while watching videos. Video controls, playlists, and AirPlay / 'casting still work.
    'Casting causes some videos to be locked to 30 FPS, even in 720p quality or higher. 60 FPS always works as intended on the device, itself.
    (In other words, the video page just contains the video and playlist.
    No comments, no video info, no rating buttons.)

  • AndroidOS (Desktop View)
    No ads, no “ad blockers not allowed” pop-up, fully functional website.
    'Casting untested?

  • AndroidOS (Mobile View)
    No ads, no “ad blockers not allowed” pop-up, fully functional website.
    'Casting untested.

The developers are very aware of what’s going on with the iOS build and are painfully aware that other ad-blockers on other platforms (uBlock Origin, AdBlock Plus…) have gotten around the problem. They are working on a solution.

For the time being, I’d personally recommend using Mobile View for watching YouTube videos. If all you want to do is watch videos, don’t mind watching them in 30 FPS, and have no desire to* rate or comment, then it’s perfectly fine.
(Sidenote: I really should’ve tried Mobile View a while ago. It fixed a lot of my little aggravations with 'casting to a Roku TV…)

If you absolutely need that 60 FPS viewing experience, switch back to Desktop View. You’ll have to refresh and YouTube might passive-aggressively threaten you, but that’s how it is, right now.
If you want to edit / audit your playlists, or comment on or rate a video, either Desktop View or the official app works. Just remember to immediately pause any video you tap into, within the app, otherwise you’ll get an ad.

Hope this helps! Have a great day!

Edit 1: Fixed a typo.
Edit 2: Corrected a misunderstanding.
Edit 3: (Hopefully) Final update: the Desktop version of YouTube works, again, on iOS~!
Edit 4: Nope.
Edit 5: Once again, the Desktop version is working without incident. But. For. How. Long?

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11/02 Edit: Never mind. It’s right back to the “error”. Dang it.

Original post

Bumping this topic simply to say that… it works, again. And… I have no idea what changed! There was no update to Brave, itself, so I guess the Shields got independently updated at some point?
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So, yeah! Browsing and using YouTube via the iOS / iPadOS version of Brave works without a problem, now, even in Desktop Mode!
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Thank you so much, Brave Team~! It’s nice to be able to 'cast videos at 60 FPS on TV, again~ (After disabling that “highest quality possible” setting in Media, anyway… Heh.)

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Okay. Two days since the latest Brave iOS browser update and… it seems like YouTube works in Desktop Mode, again. I haven’t gotten any “offline” or “ad block is illegal” messages at all. So, hopefully, it’s finally been fixed once-and-for-all.

(Or, until Google decides to do something even more drastic, I guess…)

Once again, thank you very much, Brave Team!

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