YouTube hang when blocking beginning video ads with new website design AGAIN

[Avenger]

Ever since this change a couple months ago youtube videos now hang for several seconds when they start to play with a blank white screen and the "skip ad" button is present on the bottom right side of the video with a circle countdown timer on the bottom left.

Enabling the "experimental filter", clearing the cache and restarting the browser seemed to temporarily work but it has recently stopped despite keeping the filters up to date.


Firefox extension PC


www.youtube.com (videos with adsense enabled by the uploader)

Filters:

 

[philibeur]

Hello i have the same issue and i d'ont find any fix for the moment. With the uBlock filters on Nano AdBlock, i have not this issue, but if i put the uBlock filters on AdGuard, i have again the issue. The issue seems go from AdGuard and not he's filters.

 

[Avenger]

Hello i have the same issue and i d'ont find any fix for the moment. With the uBlock filters on Nano AdBlock, i have not this issue, but if i put the uBlock filters on AdGuard, i have again the issue. The issue seems go from AdGuard and not he's filters.

Yup. It's been several months now and this still isn't properly resolved. It appears that adguard is falling behind other offerings despite the marketing claims that they are "the most advanced". After 5 years it might sadly be time to switch as I can't even seem to get a reply from anyone here that can actually do anything......

 

[Avenger]

So I can confirm this is an adguard problem.

I just installed ublock origin and the problem instantly went away.

Please resolve this.

 

[philibeur]

C'est un dur constat mais malheureusement vrai, sur PC du moins, cependant, sur Android, je ne connais pas de concurrent sérieux à AdGuard.

It's a harsh statement but unfortunately true, on PC at least, however, on Android, I don't know of any serious competitor to AdGuard.

 

[Boo Berry]

The problem is, the filter developers can't fix it unless they can reproduce it. Google seems to be pushing it out to specific accounts, so gotta wait until one of their test accounts starts getting these type of ads.

Do be warned though, this is only the beginning, eventually Google will move to unblockable/unskippable YouTube ads and the only way to block them will be via YouTube Premium subscription. I don't know when it'll happen, but it will at some point, so be prepared for that. Same with Amazon and Twitch, they're already been experimenting with those.

 

[Avenger]

The problem is, the filter developers can't fix it unless they can reproduce it. Google seems to be pushing it out to specific accounts, so gotta wait until one of their test accounts starts getting these type of ads.

Do be warned though, this is only the beginning, eventually Google will move to unblockable/unskippable YouTube ads and the only way to block them will be via YouTube Premium subscription. I don't know when it'll happen, but it will at some point, so be prepared for that. Same with Amazon and Twitch, they're already been experimenting with those.

I don't buy this at all. This has been going on now for over 3 months and you told me the same thing back then initially. Also, if it's apparently so difficult to "reproduce" and limited to "certain accounts" then why did ublock origin not have any issue addressing the problem? Why does this occur to users like me that don't even have a youtube account? Why only on PC and not android?

At this point in time these are just flimsy excuses. Also, unless youtube completely changes how their ads are served which would mean literally having the uploaders hard edit them into the video itself rather then pushing them via third party domains, (which would never happen because it would grant the ad space purchaser unlimited air time as long as the video is up rather then a revolving time slot to whoever is willing to pay for it) the "unblockable ads" theory will never come true and will remain a cat and mouse game involving javascript updates.

I believe adguard has been far too busy resting on it's laurels rather then pushing advancements and the end result is the product falling behind.
I've temporarily switched to ublock origin and will keep an eye on this thread but if the issue still remains unaddressed after a reasonable time frame, (granted it's already been over 3 months) I'll make the switch permanently. There's no point begging the developers any further to do something that they clearly don't have any interest in pursuing, I'll simply move along and so will others.

 

[Blaz]

Just checked random videos and no ad was displayed to me

 

[Boo Berry]

A couple things to note:

1) Yes, it's been going on for months and the filter developers have been consistently adding rules to both the Base filter and the experimental filter, as they're able to, for the new YouTube ads. This is a constant back and forth with Google, as they keep making changes, some of which are only pushed out to specific accounts. It was only recently seemed to have broke again, so yeah, gotta wait for the new ads to appear on the dev's test accounts so they can add new rules once again. Personally, I can't reproduce it at all on my test accounts.

2) You can use uBlock filters in AdGuard for Windows, AdGuard for Mac, AdGuard for Android and the AdGuard Adblocker browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, etc. thanks to scriptlets support. However, it appears you're using an older version of the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension (before scriptlets support was added) so that won't work for you. I seem to recall you use Pale Moon, which would make sense why you're using the older browser extension. I can't see this as a supported configuration by the AG browser extension team (due to the improvements made since that version of the browser extension, including scriptlets support), at least not for much longer because it's been a year or two since they dropped legacy Firefox and Pale Moon support so they'd have to tell you if the older browser extension is still supported or not, like I said I suspect it won't be. Pale Moon (and legacy Firefox) should still work fine with AdGuard for Windows, including scriptlets support as far as I know.

3) Like it or not, unblockable ads for YouTube are coming. This means any and all ad blockers won't be able to block YouTube ads anymore, as they'll be integrated into the videos themselves. They've been experimenting with it for several years now, but they're smart enough to not push it out to everyone overnight, as that'd cause major backlash. Instead they have seemed to have adopted the slow and steady approach to this. Their endgame? Pushing YouTube Premium subscriptions to those who want to block the ads. Amazon and Twitch are doing the same thing too.

Honestly if indeed you're using Pale Moon with the older AdGuard Adblocker browser extension and you're choosing to stick with Pale Moon (or any legacy Firefox browser for that matter), you're probably going to be better off just dropping the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension and replacing it. Not only has it been a year or two since the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension dropped support for legacy Firefox and Pale Moon, the experience isn't going to be good at all due to being limited to the old browser extension that hasn't got any of the newer features, newer syntax filter rules won't work, no bug fixes and no updates since dropping support for legacy Firefox and Pale Moon. Not sure if uBlock Origin officially supports Pale Moon or not, though I wouldn't be surprised if gorhill didn't officially support it at all (and dropped all support for legacy Firefox). If I had to guess, there's probably a fork of uBO specifically for Pale Moon on its addons site.

 

[Avenger]

A couple things to note:

1) Yes, it's been going on for months and the filter developers have been consistently adding rules to both the Base filter and the experimental filter, as they're able to, for the new YouTube ads. This is a constant back and forth with Google, as they keep making changes, some of which are only pushed out to specific accounts. It was only recently seemed to have broke again, so yeah, gotta wait for the new ads to appear on the dev's test accounts so they can add new rules once again. Personally, I can't reproduce it at all on my test accounts.

2) You can use uBlock filters in AdGuard for Windows, AdGuard for Mac, AdGuard for Android and the AdGuard Adblocker browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, etc. thanks to scriptlets support. However, it appears you're using an older version of the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension (before scriptlets support was added) so that won't work for you. I seem to recall you use Pale Moon, which would make sense why you're using the older browser extension. I can't see this as a supported configuration by the AG browser extension team (due to the improvements made since that version of the browser extension, including scriptlets support), at least not for much longer because it's been a year or two since they dropped legacy Firefox and Pale Moon support so they'd have to tell you if the older browser extension is still supported or not, like I said I suspect it won't be. Pale Moon (and legacy Firefox) should still work fine with AdGuard for Windows, including scriptlets support as far as I know.

3) Like it or not, unblockable ads for YouTube are coming. This means any and all ad blockers won't be able to block YouTube ads anymore, as they'll be integrated into the videos themselves. They've been experimenting with it for several years now, but they're smart enough to not push it out to everyone overnight, as that'd cause major backlash. Instead they have seemed to have adopted the slow and steady approach to this. Their endgame? Pushing YouTube Premium subscriptions to those who want to block the ads. Amazon and Twitch are doing the same thing too.

Honestly if indeed you're using Pale Moon with the older AdGuard Adblocker browser extension and you're choosing to stick with Pale Moon (or any legacy Firefox browser for that matter), you're probably going to be better off just dropping the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension and replacing it. Not only has it been a year or two since the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension dropped support for legacy Firefox and Pale Moon, the experience isn't going to be good at all due to being limited to the old browser extension that hasn't got any of the newer features, newer syntax filter rules won't work, no bug fixes and no updates since dropping support for legacy Firefox and Pale Moon. Not sure if uBlock Origin officially supports Pale Moon or not, though I wouldn't be surprised if gorhill didn't officially support it at all (and dropped all support for legacy Firefox). If I had to guess, there's probably a fork of uBO specifically for Pale Moon on its addons site.

Not sure where you got this idea from... I haven't used Pale Moon in over 3 years. I'm running a regular Firefox release currently albeit with a lot of modifications to strip out unnecessary bloat in the UI.

Regardless, you still haven't been able to answer the most critical question I asked, (or you're avoiding doing so) as to why ublock origin was able to easily fix this in short order and apparently the adguard devs are struggling with it. Even when it was temporarily fixed a while back it was still only done so with the experimental filter which means they weren't certain it was actually rectified.

Either way, your solution of adding ublock filters to adguard is convoluted and lacks logic. If I'm going to install a different set of filters to adguard in order for it to function as intended then I might as well just use those filters with the extension they were designed for. I shouldn't have to frankenstein together an adguard solution because they devs either can't figure it out or simply can't be bothered to.

Regarding "unblockable" youtube ads, again this is already a thing if you classify the ads that the youtube account manually edits into the videos themselves but as I already stated, as long as youtube is running their own set of ads off another domain and injecting them to the user prior to the actual uploaded video playing they can always be blocked. It will of course always be a cat and mouse game as they update the code on the website but it's still blockable and I can't see this format changing if they want to continue selling a revolving door of ad spots.

Anyways, I think I've got the idea now. The adguard devs apparently are worse then the ublock ones or can't be bothered and are using the "unable to produce" angle as an excuse.

It's been a good 5 years. I'll move along.

 

[Boo Berry]

Not sure where you got this idea from... I haven't used Pale Moon in over 3 years. I'm running a regular Firefox release currently albeit with a lot of modifications to strip out unnecessary bloat in the UI.

Ah, fair enough (I guess my memory is getting bad, eh?). But nonetheless, my question is why are you running the old version of the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension (I can tell by the screenshot of the filters above)? It doesn't make sense to me at all to stick with an older version of the browser extension when I'm assuming you're updating Firefox, since there's been many improvements, enhancements and countless bug fixes since that version of the browser extension was released. Even more so there's a standalone version of the AdGuard Adblocker browser extension for Firefox, allowing Javascript rules to work (which a version allowing this actually can't be uploaded to the AMO store, so has to be downloaded/installed separately, but it's available on the GitHub releases page - this is the best version of the AdGuard Adblocker Firefox browser extension).

Regardless, you still haven't been able to answer the most critical question I asked, (or you're avoiding doing so) as to why ublock origin was able to easily fix this in short order and apparently the adguard devs are struggling with it. Even when it was temporarily fixed a while back it was still only done so with the experimental filter which means they weren't certain it was actually rectified.

It's simple... can't reproduce it. I have multiple YouTube accounts and none of them are showing any ads. Same with the AG filter developers, they can't reproduce it either. So it sounds like the uBO filter developer(s) were able to. Google's been very random at selecting who gets the newer ads and who doesn't. Nonetheless, so far I don't believe any of the devs have got the new ads to show yet. Believe me, they'd love to receive those new ads so they can fix it, it's pretty frustrating not being able to reproduce it. As for why uBlock Origin is working for you, you're probably using a recent version of uBlock Origin, so that could explain why it works there.

So, that leaves a couple possibilities;

1) You're one of the unlucky ones and got the newer YouTube ads on your account.

2) The older browser extension you're using can't block the newer YouTube ads and the current rules in the filter lists won't do anything, since it's possible/likely it requires scriptlets support to block them, which that old browser extension version lacks so the filter rules using scriptlets do nothing.

Either way, your solution of adding ublock filters to adguard is convoluted and lacks logic. If I'm going to install a different set of filters to adguard in order for it to function as intended then I might as well just use those filters with the extension they were designed for. I shouldn't have to frankenstein together an adguard solution because they devs either can't figure it out or simply can't be bothered to.

I don't agree. The AG devs adding scriptlets support enabling uBlock Origin extended syntax (and Adblock Plus extended syntax) filters to be used has allowed users to use almost any type of filter they want, regardless of the extended syntax a specific ad blocker uses. In fact, I believe the devs plan on adding uBlock Origin's filters to the filter subscriptions list so users can easily add them without having to add them as custom filters. The majority of uBO rules should actually work in the latest version of the browser extensions. Also, they're always adding new things like new selectors, modifiers, enhancements to the syntax enhancing cosmetic filtering, etc. and other things to the browser extensions and adding filters that use them, which older versions of the browser extensions can't use. For example there's always a chance a filter rule blocking the new YouTube ads requires a selector/modifier not available in the older browser extension. That's why it doesn't make sense to me to use an older browser extension. Here's another example: there's been multiple commits for YouTube to AdGuard's filters over the last few weeks, some of which are using scriptlets which the older browser extension can't use. I think you get my point.

Now, I do have one idea you could try. Have you tried completely clearing the browser's cache and removing all YouTube (and maybe even Google) cookies to see if the ads become blocked? Perhaps the ads are cached, hence why they keep appearing? That kind of thing happens more than you'd think it would. It's probably a long shot, and using a newer version of the browser extension would likely help more, to be honest.

@Blaz I did do a little searching on the uBO and Nano GitHub issue trackers and commit history for any potentially helpful hints, but I'm not seeing anything that stands out to me. I did find a couple uBO filters within these two links (assuming an equivalent isn't already in the AG filter lists, I haven't checked, so ignore this if they're already there) which might be useful to add for YouTube:

https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/7636#issuecomment-698949445
https://github.com/NanoAdblocker/NanoFilters/issues/554#issuecomment-688268423

 

[Blaz]

I saw the first rule in our youtube.com issue thread, but I cannot see any ads

 

[philibeur]

In my side, it seems temporarily fix with the last nightly.

 

[KiwiKid]

Same issue as Avenger for me also. Installed uBlock Origin and issue goes away....

 

[Boo Berry]

What happens if you use uBlock Origin's filters in AdGuard?