µBlock, a lean and fast blocker

Hi guys,
So over the months Ive been watching how people are having more and more issues using ad blockers on youtube. Of course we know google has been doing this by design. How are you guys managing with youtube videos? Are you still able to circumvent ads with uBO? All youtube videos for me now stop at exactly 1 minute. I was unaffected for a long time, then I started getting various odd hiccups. For the last few months its ramped up considerably. I've been able to partially get around this by updating the lists in uBO, or by refreshing the video, but its not working anymore.

Has it come down to using a CL downloader or if anyone's got any tips to share Id appreciate it. Im on Linux Mint just using pretty much the default filter lists.

 

What browser do you use?
Do you let your browser keep cookies and history, or do you let your browser clear history?
And do you use YouTube signed in, or without signing in to an account?

I use Firefox (snap, on Kubuntu) with uBlock Origin.
I don't let Firefox keep history, I let it clear history when Firefox closes.

I don't use YouTube often, but when I use it, I have never seen ads with YouTube or had any other YouTube issues.
I tested a couple of YouTube videos, and they played nicely, no ads, and no stopping.
I don't use YouTube signed in, I don't have an account.

I use uBlock Origin default filter lists, plus regional: AdGuard Dutch, and some other filter lists, but nothing that should make any difference for YouTube, I think.

I hope someone else can offer you some tips.

Edit; off-topic
In case you don't find a solution for YouTube, other options could be to use for instance the FreeTube client, or the invidious.io front-end.
If you need to download certain videos, you mentioned using a command-line downloader. If you prefer, GUI applications are available as well. For instance, there is the free version of 4K Video Downloader Plus (Ubuntu portable, or deb) (if you don't mind it is developed by a company based in Russia), there is Open Video Downloader (AppImage, by Stefan Lobbenmeier), Parabolic (Snap, or Flatpak), Stacher (deb), and Tartube (deb).
Of the mentioned applications, I only have experience with 4KVD and Open Video Downloader.

 

Thankyou @Stupendous Man for your informative post. It helps to know that everybody isn't affected (at least yet) and I should've at least said what my browser was. Its Firefox 133.03. I update that when I do mint updates which is fairly often. Of course I never see ads on YT either and the thing is, I don't intend to start.

For a long time Ive had minimal settings in uBO and uMatrix to allow Youtube. Its always worked. No cookies. uBO in hard mode except for the YT noops. Always clear browser history on close. FF is always Firejailed. I dont have a google account, so never log in. There may be some things in about:config Ive done (but not recently) that has finally broken youtube. It just seems strange Im getting the 1 minute thing so its not like I cant get on there. Theres been others on reddit with this issue but I dont go there.

Ive used invidious in times past but when I looked recently (about a month ago) it was no longer working because of google clamping down.

I used to use 4K Downloader a long time ago but I stopped when I saw their privacy policy.

Ive looked at youtube-dl but thats not working apparently now either and people seem to be referring to a fork yt-dlp. I'm finding the install instructions confusing because theres some conflicting ideas about how to do it. I'll check out a few you've mentioned that I dont know about.

Edit: Its yt-dlp not yt-dl . I've corrected it.

 

i think, that firefox broke nothing. to trial that, start a fresh profile and test again.

more i think that your settings in ublock/umatrix are causing this. in special umatrix. if you block too much, then you will get ads.
for i had to allow

Code:

jnn-pa.googleapis.com

in umatrix.

meanwhile i switched to adguard (using almost all a lot of built-in lists except languages), privacy badger as a backup, no longer uBo/uM because lack of MV3 in Edge. i keep it same for all browsers here.

in the beginning of dec'24 there were some issues concerning ads in yt, no one know if that was a test running or some of us had to much blocking active. for me i could resolve it and since then i never could reproduce it.

at least we need a youtube address to reproduce.

 

@Brummelchen, how is AdGuard on your side? I have a lifetime license, but every time I try it it slows down my browsing and I end up uninstalling it.

 

As first you said you just used pretty much the default filter lists, I didn't expect you used hard mode, and uMatrix as well. I have no experience with those.
Nor do I have experience with Firejail.
Regarding about:config, it's up to you, of course, to understand what your modified preferences do.

As Brummelchen said he/she thinks your settings in uBlock Origin and/or uMatrix, in particular uMatrix, may be the cause of your issue, perhaps it is a good idea to take a look at those settings.

And as you say there have been others on Reddit with the same issue, perhaps it could be worth checking out if those others found solutions to the issue.

GUI applications like the ones that I mentioned also use yt-dlp. Open Video Downloader, Parabolic, Stacher, Tartube, and more, are all yt-dlp frontends.

 

although i also have a lifetime license for adguard for windows/android, i meant the adguard browser extension which is free. umatrix is still present in some profiles, but is disabled. at first i would recommend to overview uM settings, or disable it to see whats happening.
adguard you may tria also in a fresh profile for comparison.

concerning firejail, it's a sandbox, similar to sandboxie, but for linux. for pure firefox i dont think it has effects, but dealing with components from outside, dont know, maybe.

for downloads i use a (paid) software for windows, loading videos i want to convert (music) or watch later.

 

(Offtopic)
Look here.

Also, FFmpeg and FFprobe are needed to get all functionality.
(copy the files to `/usr/local/bin`)
The repo of yt-dlp provides an automated daily build here.
For Linux:

Code:

https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/download/latest/ffmpeg-master-latest-linux64-gpl.tar.xz

If you want to automatically install all dependencies, it's better to install with pip.

For extra convenience:
Integration in the right-click menu on Firefox with the "Open With" extension:
Screenshot.

 

Thankyou for all your responses guys.
OK. I haven't been keeping up with deeper tech stuff on uBO, uMatrix FF etc. When I heard about changes at YT and google putting the screws on I thought its time to review things. So here I am, admittedly rusty on things.

@Brummelchen, mentioning FF was just a longshot. Just looking at any possibilty. Looks like a process of elimination is in order then. I'll do some tests. I loved SBIE on Windows and I was really glad to get Firejail for Linux. Sandboxes are great.

@Stupendous Man Sorry if I wasnt clear enough. When I said "just used' I meant just using default filterlists as opposed to using any/all of the others. I didn't mean it to include the other settings in uBO.

As I said, I had no trouble using YT, no ads, with what Im using and how Ive set things, which have largely remained unchanged as I described. This has just come fairly recently from YT. At first occasional buffering and the odd ad that tried to get thru which I immediately terminated by refreshing the video, then it came to this permanent 1 minute limit a couple of weeks ago.

uMatrix has very minimal settings and no assets to update.

I cant get on reddit. Thats why I thought I'd try here as uBO plays a major part in my arsenal, plus knowing this thread is still going.

Im no Linux expert. I'd prefer a downloader with a GUI with yt-dlp and something easy to install, update, uninstall. Im still wary about manually placing things in the Linux file system. The thing that complicates this is that getting apps through the software manager (which is recommended) can be out of date and this app needs a lot of updating.

@nicolaasjan thankyou for your Links. With yours and @StupendousMans links I've been trying to find something thats easy to follow. So far, most of it is above me.

 

Just try it. ️
Don't forget to make a Timeshift snapshot of your system before experimenting.

 

Ubuntu.com is one of many websites that has Google-analytics trackers.
Both Edge and Firefox have the same DOH NextDNS.

Look at the difference between the 2 browsers that have the same number of connected domains:

Firefox:

https://ibb.co/Hqknvwb

Edge:

https://ibb.co/yS7LtGP

I prefer the uBlock Origin behavior that I detect in Edge.

 

is there any list which deal with

Code:

sp_message

(cookie consent) elements in pages?
just to ask, because i do not remember ublock to deal with this not adguard does. i need to use a css to turn it off and enable scrolling.

 

Is there a way to block these annoying product ads on Google? I hadn't seen them in a while, but lately I get them more and more.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ASUS ZenBook A14 &sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

As I don't use Google often, I hadn't seen those Google Products and Product Sites categories, lately.
As those are Google search categories, I suppose adblocker filter lists won't block those Google Products and Product Sites categories.
I suppose the easiest thing to do is to select the "Web" category in Google's menu bar. The Web category results do not include the Products and Product Sites categories.

Edit
What also works is to use this filter rule:
www.google.com##div.ULSxyf

That filter rule blocks Products, Product Sites, and the Video category as well.
A side effect is that it blocks all results in the Product category in Google's menu bar as well, but I guess you won't mind that.

And I don't know how long the filter rule will work, until Google changes some code again.

 

What a bummer, the filter also seems to remove all other websearch results. But I can always switch to the web tab, didn't even notice this, thanks for the tip.

 

I'm not sure what you mean.
Perhaps it is because I use Firefox, and you use a different browser?
I did not expect a different effect of the filter rule in a different browser.

You could try the element picker yourself. After you choose an element to block, you can use the sliders to adjust the filter to create.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Element-picker
"The slider on the left-hand side is to adjust the depth of the elements to target. For example, filters with lower depth typically remove large areas of the web page.
The slider on the right-hand side is to adjust the specificity of the filter to create. For example, higher specificity tends to cause fewer elements to be filtered (down to a single one), while lower specificity tends to cause more to be filtered."

You're welcome, Rasheed.

 

Just add &udm=14 to your search query.
Or add Google Web "https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14" to your settings and make it the default search engine.

Screenshot

 

If I add the rule that you gave me to the ''My Filters'' list, then all results under the ''all'' tab won't be displayed. Of course the ''web'' tab works just fine, but Google always shows me the ''all'' tab.

I suppose this will always make Google show me the ''web'' tab? Can you give me a bit more instructions, on how to do this in Vivaldi? I can add certain parameters to the search settings, but it doesn't do anything in Vivaldi.

 

Thanks. That is definitely not what that filter did in Firefox. I guess the Google search results page is different in Firefox and in your browser (Vivaldi, I suppose). So I presume you'd need to use the element picker (and the sliders) to create a filter rule that works for your browser.

 

Yes.

In Settings ---> Search engines, click on `+` and then fill in like this: screenshot.
It worked.

 

Wow thanks, when I search on this udm14.com page, then it opens the ''web'' tab. Now I just have to figure out how to change the search parameters in Vivaldi, anyone?

To be honest, I have also tried this in Firefox, and I got the same results, not sure what's going on.

 

See above.

 

My bad, forgot to open the screenshot. But it really doesn't work, what the heck am I doing wrong? My bad, it does work when you search in the addressbar, but I was opening the link from this topic, so silly.