Youtube | Block Ads with Native Ad Blocker

[bluewave]

@Catweazle
I generally uBlock Origin and Vivaldi's Block Ads/Trackers interchangeably. Recently I've been using only Vivaldi's Adblocker and so far I get no ads on any site (except YouTube). So it IS very effective.

I'm also currently not getting any ads on YouTube either and I'm not sure why. So far my theories are

• The videos I watch are not well monetised (unlikely - Marques Brownlee / MKBHD and other popular YouTubers' videos show no ads).
• I have added additional Adblock / Tracker sources to Vivaldi AdBlock. Maybe I've hit on a lucky combination of adblock lists to block YouTube ads, but I don't think I'm this lucky.
• My VPN (Mullvad) lists me as being in Norway. I'm thinking this is the most likely reason for no ads - shifting my VPN server to the US or Canada gets me ads on some videos.

I do use Firefox and Vivaldi interchangeably, but Firefox's foray into advertising does feel like a red flag being unfurled. So Vivaldi it is, and I hope they can keep Manifest v2 enabled even after next year.

I'm assuming that eventually I'll get YouTube ads again on Vivaldi. At least i have until next year to decide what my choices will be.

[Catweazle]

@bluewave, I'm in Spain and some vids showing ads and others don't, ads in the YT page are blocked with the Vivaldi blocker, and the vids which show ads I redirect embedded using the script.

[vdeane]

@Catweazle said in Youtube | Block Ads with Native Ad Blocker:

@bluewave, I'm in Spain and some vids showing ads and others don't, ads in the YT page are blocked with the Vivaldi blocker, and the vids which show ads I redirect embedded using the script.

I think it's interesting that embedded still works for you. Whenever I try that trick (manually, since I have no interest in getting involved in the world of scripts), I get a message saying the video can't be played and to watch on YouTube instead. On the other hand, Vivaldi is mostly successful in blocking ads for me in 6.8 (with some refreshing needed, but that's still a LOT better than 6.7 was), so I guess individual experience varies a lot.

[Catweazle]

@vdeane, yes, this is the lack of the embed redirect or the iFrame script, it can't reproduce vides which are limited to watch in the YT page. This message also appears if you want to insert the video in a forum or social network. There is little to do, luckily are only few videos wich have desactivate the insert possibility, mostly very new music videos or similar. There you can try with an front-end, like PokeTube, LightTube, Piped, Tubo, etc.., or with the SMplayer on desktop, this one digests almost everything you throw at it.

[nirin]

So for the sake of streamlining, I have been trying to get the vivaldi built-in adblock to work as well as uBlock Origin.

I currently use one of the Hagezi blocklists in uBlock, but I found out that Hagezi does not actually block youtube ads at all. So I also have a couple of the uBlock-specific lists active, which are the ones that cover youtube ads. Works fine.

I have now set vivaldi up so it now uses all the same blocklists as my uBlock setup (including the uBlock-specific ones, which took longer than it should have to figure out how to include as I originally couldn't find where the blocklists were available for importing into other programs, but I figured it out in the end).

And... it doesn't work. I load up youtube, and it just does a long black-screen buffering window and then shows a still-frame of an advert. So the ads don't 'play' but they still interrupt viewing the video for roughly the same amount of time (30-60 seconds) before eventually just stopping as the video endlessly buffers.

The best case scenario of options (that I've found so far) are that the vivaldi adblock just fails entirely and the ads play as normal.

So I'm assuming (going from vague rumours I had seen) that youtube has detected vivaldi ad-blocking specifically, and so made it that it just doesn't work? So is there even a point in the vivaldi ad block existing?

Has anyone managed to successfully get the vivaldi adblock to work with youtube ads? Or is it just default to turn it off and use uBlock instead?
And if this is the case... isn't Vivaldi making it so uBlock is no longer going to work in a few months anyway? What would the solution be then? Brave/Firefox?

I only just moved to vivaldi a few days ago (and liking it so far) but not sure it's worth getting used to the new setup if they'd going to self-destruct themselves in a couple months...

[TbGbe]

@nirin You should see
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/93057/how-will-vivaldi-deal-with-google-s-manifest-v3

[nirin]

@TbGbe said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin You should see
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/93057/how-will-vivaldi-deal-with-google-s-manifest-v3

Yeh I have, that's how I knew uBlock would stop working on Vivaldi in the near future.

Also why I was trying to make vivaldi's built-in adblock to function, but from my current extensive testing it... just doesn't work. It isn't capable of blocking youtube ads. Unless there's some combination of lists that I haven't tried.

[luetage]

@nirin I get no ads on youtube and I’ve been using the internal one for over a year. If all your attempts fail you can always load the video embed ☛ https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/747513. It’s also a good idea to use Vivaldi’s internal RSS reader to take care of channel feeds, then just watch it in the reader. And never log in to youtube, there is no valid reason to do that.

[barbudo2005]

@nirin

Said:

So I'm assuming (going from vague rumours I had seen) that youtube has detected vivaldi ad-blocking specifically………..

Look this post and you will notice that uBO has had to modify its code on a daily basis to combat YT ads.

https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1atwzem/youtube_detection_ads_breakages_2024_02_18_ubo/

[nirin]

@luetage said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin I get no ads on youtube and I’ve been using the internal one for over a year. If all your attempts fail you can always load the video embed ☛ https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/747513. It’s also a good idea to use Vivaldi’s internal RSS reader to take care of channel feeds, then just watch it in the reader. And never log in to youtube, there is no valid reason to do that.

What combination of blocklists are you using?

As I say, the two results you get with Vivaldi are either the video doesn't play at all (buffering black screen where ads would be, with the video title being the title of the ad that isn't playing), or the video and ads play as normal (so completely not blocking ads).

Are you thinking of the static ads that are on the site and in the sidebar? They get blocked fine. It's the pre-video and mid-roll ads that vivaldi isn't blocking.

I hadn't thought to try playing the video as an embed, but having to do that for each video I can see being a bit of a pain. Not sure how it would handle playlists and view history.

Logging in is necessary for watch history and resume-view to work. uBlock works fine while logged in, so there's no reason for vivaldi not to work.

I am very curious how you are managing to get it to work without dynamic filtering (which seems to be the reason for uBlock's success).

[nirin]

@barbudo2005 said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin

Said:

So I'm assuming (going from vague rumours I had seen) that youtube has detected vivaldi ad-blocking specifically………..

Look this post and you will notice that uBO has had to modify its code on a daily basis to combat YT ads.

https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1atwzem/youtube_detection_ads_breakages_2024_02_18_ubo/

Yeh this is what I had assumed would be going on. But that makes it even more curious that @luetage has full adblocking on youtube using just vivaldi blocklists, which as far as I can tell are just basic DNS blocklists with no special dynamic filtering or regular code updates.

Though I do wonder why you find it funny lol. I assume you use Vivaldi too or you wouldn't be here, so when ads stop being blocked you'll be dealing with it with the rest of us.

[barbudo2005]

@nirin

Said:

But that makes it even more curious that @luetage has full adblocking on youtube using just vivaldi blocklists...

This issue is different for each country. Read the other thread that @TbGbe suggested to you.

Said:

Though I do wonder why you find it funny lol.

It's funny because the Vivaldi team does not make lists, so YT does not modify its code to fight Vivaldi browser.

[barbudo2005]

@nirin

To fight rumors I recommend you to read these threads:

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/93057/how-will-vivaldi-deal-with-google-s-manifest-v3

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/79579/manifest-v3-webrequest-and-ad-blockers

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/94832/youtube-block-ads-with-native-ad-blocker

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/95209/youtube-ad-blocker

[nirin]

@barbudo2005 said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin

Said:

But that makes it even more curious that @luetage has full adblocking on youtube using just vivaldi blocklists...

This issue is different for each country. Read the other thread that @TbGbe suggested to you.

Said:

Though I do wonder why you find it funny lol.

It's funny because the Vivaldi team does not make lists, so YT does not modify its code to fight Vivaldi browser.

Well ok, if YT hasn't modified it's code specifically to defeat Vivaldi... that means the vivaldi adblocker -never worked- and the dev team were just happy to leave it in it's current non-working state lol.

To fight rumors I recommend you to read these threads:

Yeh... I'm not sure what point you're trying to make sorry. From what I can see, all of those threads agree with what I already said. One of them even goes on to suggest "stop using vivaldi built in adblocker, use uBlock instead, vivaldi blocker doesn't work".

Which is fine, because vivaldi currently allows for uBlock to be installed, but in a few months they seem to be going along with the Manifest V3 change, which will mean no more uBlock.

You seem to either be misunderstanding the problem, or you are unaware that the built-in adblocker is insufficient, or you are unaware of what the ManifestV3 change will actually mean. Perhaps you should read those threads too?

I have no provided any rumors.

[luetage]

@nirin Dude, results need to be reproduceable. You don’t say what lists you are using, you give no further information. And youtube isn’t the only website on the web.

So I just created a new profile and made no further customisation than to enable the adblocker. I visited youtube and the latest Taylor Swift video, because I thought this should show ads ☛ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zqJs7JUCQ. No ads to see without any modifications.

I then turned off the internal adblocker and installed ublock lite (which will continue to work). I enabled everything I could within (complete blocking, check all block lists except country ones). Then I restarted Vivaldi and visited the Taylor video again. No ads.

The only thing I do for blocking on my computer besides Vivaldi is using a hosts file which runs on my operating system ☛ https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

[nirin]

@luetage said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin Dude, results need to be reproduceable. You don’t say what lists you are using, you give no further information. And youtube isn’t the only website on the web.

So I just created a new profile and made no further customisation than to enable the adblocker. I visited youtube and the latest Taylor Swift video, because I thought this should show ads ☛ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zqJs7JUCQ. No ads to see without any modifications.

I then turned off the internal adblocker and installed ublock lite (which will continue to work). I enabled everything I could within (complete blocking, check all block lists except country ones). Then I restarted Vivaldi and visited the Taylor video again. No ads.

The only thing I do for blocking on my computer besides Vivaldi is using a hosts file which runs on my operating system ☛ https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

Interesting. Could be a regional thing?

Here, using a basic adblocker does not block youtube ads. It generally results in a black/blank screen with the buffering circle, and the title of the video being the name of the advert that is meant to be playing. This lasts for the length of the ad (at best) or runs indefinitely.

I have run tests with (vivaldi adblocker):

• Default settings
• Default settings + pete lowes
• Default settings + Hagezi (tried Normal, and Pro, and Pro++, at different times).
• Various combinations of the above
• uBlock default lists (this doesn't work well with vivaldi at all, breaks all thumbnails and all sorts of other issues)
• uBlock default lists + default settings (this didn't help matters).

And sure, youtube isn't the only website on the web.... it's just the biggest and most commonly used one (well, it's either that or reddit, I would assume youtube still rates higher though).
But ads on reddit are just inline, and easy to block. Any third-rate adblocker script can manage it. Youtube is actually difficult, and an actual test of an adblocker's capabilities.

I just disabled uBlock (which I had been using to watch youtube in the background, no ads at all for a long time), re-enabled Vivaldi adblock with the stock settings, and restarted the whole browser and reloaded the same video. Immediately started just playing adverts. No black screen or buffering, no block at all, it's just straight up playing the adverts lol.

Youtube may be running really old ad mechanisms in your country, I know they commonly roll out changes regionally, though their current setup for ads has been running for a long time now so I dunno how they haven't gotten to you yet.

Edit: Tried your taylor swift link. Immediate ads. Are you sure you're not running uBlock or some other extension? The behaviour on my end seems to be 'the norm' and expected behaviour, so something weird is happening on your end. Filter lists can't block current-gen youtube ads, without also blocking the video from playing. And vivaldi doesn't have anything but filter lists running.

[Pesala]

@nirin Standard uBlock Origin works fine for me on YouTube. However, I do see some ads on restarting Vivaldi. They disappear after a while. Close the YouTube tab, restart Vivaldi again, then reload the page, and the ads are gone.

One trick that often works is History Back, History Forward.

I had no joy with Vivaldi’s built-in ad-blocking for months.

[mib2berlin]

@nirin
Hi, are you logged in on YT for your tests?
In these long treads some user gets blocked with uBlock, meant no ad's but no streaming at all.
I guess blocking level depends on user behave too, heavy users gets more ad's and get blocked faster.

Cheers, mib

[nirin]

@Pesala said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin Standard uBlock Origin works fine for me on YouTube. However, I do see some ads on restarting Vivaldi. They disappear after a while.

One trick that often works is History Back, History Forward.

I had no joy with Vivaldi’s built-in ad-blocking for months.

standard ublock origin works fine for me too. I don't see ads on restarting (but I also have the uBlock option which blocks network traffic until the lists have finished loading).

The problem is that uBlock won't work on vivaldi in a few months (maybe 1 year, if they stick to the longest possible timeframe, but no guarantee of that). So we'll be left with vivaldi adblock (which doesn't work).

Sure that's a year away. I may use vivaldi in the meantime. But Floorp+Sidebery is basically vivaldi with better vertical tabs and without the bloat. The only loss is the vivaldi android app is better than any of the firefox apps, and vivaldi is a bit more polished.

The whole manifest v3 thing is a real pain.

[nirin]

@mib2berlin said in Vivalidi AdBlock failing for youtube (even with corrected blocklists):

@nirin
Hi, are you logged in on YT for your tests?
In these long treads some user gets blocked with uBlock, meant no ad's but no streaming at all.
I guess blocking level depends on user behave too, heavy users gets more ad's and get blocked faster.

Cheers, mib

Yes I'm always logged in. Doesn't effect it (for uBlock).

Not being logged in may be an explanation for why Vivaldi works for that other guy. If he's not logged in maybe youtube is feeding much simpler ads, and not the newer in-stream ads. Seems weird they use two systems, but it's not impossible.

However as I say, uBlock handles it fine, so if using Vivaldi means not being able to log into youtube then that still counts as a total failure unfortunately. Is a good thought though, may explain the difference.