Description of the issue:
YouTube returns “You’re offline” error when attempting to watch videos with advertisements on Brave for iOS while using Standard or Aggressive setting on “Trackers & Ad Blocking”.
10/14 Edit:
YouTube occasionally returns an “Ad Blockers not allowed” error instead of an “offline” error. However, at present, this can be closed and/or ignored.
How can this issue be reproduced?
- Download latest version of Brave.
- Navigate to YouTube and click on any video that normally has advertising.
(Most any video on the front page will probably work.)
Expected result:
The video should play normally and without advertisements.
Brave Version( check About Brave):
1.57.2 (23.9.27.14) for iOS / iPad
Mobile Device details
iPad Model: iPad (7th generation)
iPadOS Version: 16.7, 16.7.1
Additional Information:
From what I can gather, YouTube has started aggressively cracking down on ad blocking. If I had to guess, whatever they changed in their back-end made it so videos no longer play through Brave’s routing methods, thus the website assumes users are “offline”.
Disabling all of the filter lists does not change this unintended effect. Changing “Trackers & Ad Blocking” from Standard to Aggressive, or Disabled to Standard / Aggressive also has no long-term effect – changing this setting allows for one video which would normally have ads to play ad-free. Completely disabling the Trackers & Ad Blocking setting allows for normal playback, but the video has adverts. Videos also play normally in other apps and browsers, such as Chrome and the YouTube app for iOS. So… that’s happening, I guess.
10/14 Edit:
sola35’s workaround of simply refreshing the page works, so that’s good news. Weird news, but good news.
Relevant Screenshot
Related Topic
- YouTube can no longer be played (Japanese)
10/11 Edits:
- Added link to relevant topic from Japanese community.
- Clarified and expanded Additional Information.
10/14 Edit:
- Added temporary workaround for “Offline” error, as noted by sola35 and added a little note about the “Ad blockers not allowed” error to the opening paragraph.