PSA To people watching YouTube with AdBlockers

You might have noticed that even on Firefox (depending on your lists) YouTube may detect uBlock Origin on Firefox now

There’s already a workaround (found, again, here), but I figured I would use this opportunity to tell people that projects like Piped and Invidious exist, which both allow you to watch YouTube without loading their ads, with improved Privacy and (in the case of Piped) even Geoblocking-Circumvention and SponsorBlock out of the box.

They’re both great tools, and using something like LibRedirect you can even automatically go to Piped or Invidious when clicking/opening a YouTube link (and more).

Both don’t load ads, but unless changed in the settings Individous may still make connections to Google/YouTube to load the video(s) themselves.

Bit of a shameless plug for these projects, but I figured this is a really good time to show these projects as I often see people asking what they are in threads on here

Holzkohlen,

I just use newpipe on android and freetube on linux.

NaoPb,

Thanks for the info. I’m on Linux and I’ll check that out.

JetpackJackson,

Newpipe, Revanced, piped.video and Freetube are my go-to front ends now. Not even cause of the AdBlock thing, just cause.

forensic_potato,
@forensic_potato@lemmy.world avatar

I’d like to add to the sentiment of this post by saying that if you ever used any of those amazing websites, I’m sure the developers will highly appreciate it if those with the means could consider contributing to their projects.

We all know how greedy and shameless YouTube can be, and yet those developers give us incredible products for free. And if you ever saw the entitled requests of some users on their projects’ pages whenever YouTube implements some changes, and they have to rush to fix their code, I’m sure you would appreciate them even more. I’ve personally seen quite a few projects being abandoned because of the sometimes thankless job of being a developer, and I would hate it for any of these to suffer a similar fate.

So if you can and are willing, feel free to join me in contributing to:

deweydecibel,

The irony of these smalltime maintainers asking for donations when their own software is purpose made to hurt the income of smalltime creators. Particularly if they include Sponsorblock.

Hominine,
@Hominine@lemmy.world avatar

lemmy.ca/comment/3988439

porksoda,

I was about to say add uBlock Origin to that list but apparently they don’t accept donations per the bottom of their homepage.

I will not accept donations or sponsorships of any kind.

That’s some fuck you energy right there.

ryannathans,

Not uncommon, the project I am maintainer of doesn’t accept donations either

vlad76,
@vlad76@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

What a King.

forensic_potato,
@forensic_potato@lemmy.world avatar

Lmao serious ‘fuck you’ energy.

Out of curiosity I went to the project’s page and saw more info on why they don’t take donations:

Free. Open-source. For users by users. No donations sought. If you ever want to contribute something, think about the people working hard to maintain the filter lists you are using, which are available to use by all for free.

WeLoveCastingSpellz,

Its crazy all my piped servers stopped working which sucks, if anyone is willing to share a server that works or a self hosted one they could let me in. Hit me up

filister,

It is also possible to install libredirectif you are using Firefox Nightly on Android mike.sg/…/how-to-use-libredirect-on-android/. You can disable the YouTube app and this would force your device to open the YouTube links in your default browser.

clanginator, (edited )

If you’re on Android why not just use revanced or Newpipe? Both are excellent and I haven’t had issues with revanced since this change.

filister,

I am using Newpipe, but libredirect can redirect more websites, not only YouTube.

clanginator,

Ah I see, ty

xnileap,

Could also use Fennec or Mull on f-droid instead of Firefox Nightly with less telemetry from Google and other vendors

MrSilkworm,
@MrSilkworm@lemmy.world avatar

Once there was Vanced and now there is Re-Vanced. (if you’re on Android)

zaknenou,
@zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

and there is also Newpipe! You can import your subscriptions. Only problem is that scam profiles’ comments with NSFW profile pictures are everywhere there, I still don’t know a workaround

noodlejetski,

the workaround is to disable comments, you’re not going to miss out on anything anyway.

AngrilyEatingMuffins,

Thanks!

MomoTimeToDie,

Am I just insanely lucky or something? I just use chrome and it hasn’t complained about my adblock once, and I watch a lot of YouTube.

Lumun,
@Lumun@lemmy.zip avatar

You are probably lucky, for now. I’m pretty sure they are rolling it out in waves. Boiling the frog and all that.

Thorny_Insight,

They’re probably A/B testing it on only part of the users. I didn’t get it for a long time either, but when it appeared the first time it just kept showing up again and again after that.

Thorny_Insight,

I was having really bad time with the constant adblocker warning pop-up yesterday so I disabled all other extensions, restored uBlock Origin to the default settings aswell as cleared the catche and updated filter-lists. Then I cleared all Firefox cookies and restarted it. This morning I did not get the warning unlike the few past days, so far so good. I’m sure this isn’t a permanent fix, but for those of you still struggling with it, these are the steps you might want to try.

yoz,

Thanks mate

db2,

I’ll stick with revanced, there really isn’t anything they can do to stop it long term.

twistedtxb,
@twistedtxb@lemmy.ca avatar

Revanced is pretty much perfect for my needs.

And SmartTube on my Android TV.

Bandicoot_Academic,

Just a note for people wanting to install it:

The only official website is www.revanced.app and www.github.com/revanced , all other websites are unoffincial and can sometimes spread malware. Unfortunetley the official site has terrible SEO and shows up very low in search results. Also the revanced team dosen’t distibute prebuilt apks for copyright reasons, you have to patch the stock apk yourself.

AstridWipenaugh,

What’s the most turnkey solution with good features? I’m an experienced developer and can self-host, but I’m not looking for another thing to maintain.

Morgikan,
@Morgikan@lemm.ee avatar

They all have pros and cons. For me, I wanted something that would be accessible from one central point across a zero tier network. This way I wasn’t having to maintain database copies of free tube via rclone or other tool and handle merges. That pretty much just meant Invidious. Someone had actually made a tool to automate docker container deployment and build out the PostgreSQL tables. It turned out to be the simplest solution for me.

Here is a link: github.com/tmiland/invidious-updater

squid,

Do away with YouTube and use software like freetube, no adds, sponsorblock, and google can’t track my habbits

OpenHammer6677,

I’ve started using Freetube since this adblock issue. The only feature I’m waiting for is the ability to open in new tabs. Other than that, it’s an improved YouTube user experience

Staiden,

Thank you.

Player2,

Revanced also works with no problems

EnderofGames,

I stopped using Revanced for NewPipe when it was giving me trouble. But I have a friend that swears by Revanced.

They are Android only, iirc. Practically the mobile app version of the projects someone listed in another comment.

tallwookie,

started using FreeTube (the installed version) - after importing my YT account data it’s basically the same thing as YT just outside the browser - but without ads/etc

GreasyTengu,

switched to freetube yesterday, pretty good so far, though I cant figure how to import my playlists over.

tallwookie,

no playlists yet but you can export your subscriptions (from youtube) - docs.freetubeapp.io/…/importing-subscriptions/

mihnt,
@mihnt@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    GreasyTengu,

    ah, makes sense why it wouldn’t take the playlists i exported from youtube then.

    iHUNTcriminals,

    I think the last update made it better. I used to get errors loading pages and feeds… It would still work but it would post an annoying error bubble. Now it doesn’t! This is one of my must haves for a Linus install.

    Sir_Kevin,
    @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    I did the same yesterday and was pleasantly surprised with how much more responsive it is compared to normal YouTube in a browser. The interface is very snappy. FreeTube also has Sponsor Block built in as an optional feature.

    weeahnn, (edited )
    @weeahnn@lemmy.world avatar

    I would love to use it, instead of YouTube but two things hold me back.

    1. Sometimes I like to just browse the home page and watch some recommended videos, and Freetube does not have that.
    2. Blocking channels with Freetube is kinda bothersome. Having to copy-paste the name of every channel I don’t want to see is tedious, especially since I use the Blocktube extension, and at this point have hundreds of channels blocked. I would be happy if there was a similar option in Freetube, or if I could import my blocklist from BlockTube.
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