I use Firefox and the uBlock Origin addon as my default browser setup. It works great…except for on youtube. I used to use it happily for youtube with all Ads blocked, but two recent youtube changes made me have to use a different browser and extension, just for youtube.
-
Firefox users started noticing degraded performance on youtube vs when they viewed youtube with Chrome.
-
uBlock Origin users in Chrome and Firefox appear to be being targeted with an intermittent covert punishment of having any videos above 360p throttled so that they buffer heavily.
So my current approach, just for youtube, is Chrome with Clear Skies ad skipper extension which gets me good performance and no ads.
What is your setup for youtube without ads?
I’m also interested in youtube alternatives, especially for music.
Here’s my no-ads YouTube set
windows, Linux Block ads and sponsored sections, optinal invidious proxy, no YouTube login, offline subscription list
https://smartyoutubetv.github.io/
Android TV, Block ads and sponsored sections, smart tv optimized, youtube login if you want to see your subscriptions
android, Block ads, offline subscription list
Firefox and uBlock Origin works just fine for blocking YouTube ads. You probably have some other add-on interfering with it that triggers the adblock detection. Restore your adblocker default setting and disable other extensions for YouTube and it should work.
use Invidious instances with the help of privacy libredirect plugin to redirect youtube links to invidious instances. you won’t see another youtube ad again.
I switched to Arch Linux as my operating system a few years ago, and here I use the FreeTube app from the AUR. It’s a third party frontend for YouTube, similar to Nitter for Twitter (X).
And for work (Windows) I watch YouTube via Invidious instances, e.g. https://yewtu.be also a third party frontend for YouTube
It’s a third party frontend for YouTube, similar to Nitter for Twitter (X).
if I remember correctly, it scrapes the Youtube page directly by default, unless you explicitly enable Invidious proxy. only then it would be comparable to a third party front-end (since that’s when it actually uses one).
https://piped.video or https://viewtube.io on desktop, https://libretube.dev/ on mobile.
Youtube works 👍 on Firefox Windows 11 with Ublock origin for me. I could view 1440p. No major issue. Aside from adblocking, I use Ublock origin to block tracking cookies and remove “accept cookies” banners on sites.
Firefox, uBlock Origin, adguard DNS, sponsorblock (crowdsourced video sections with auto skip), DeArrow (crowdsourced clickbait replacement), nyancat seek/progress bar, playback speed control, Dark Reader.
Same setup on Windows desktop and my Android devices.
I’ve noticed videos stopping and buffering after the first few seconds, but not always, and seemingly less so again. It was acceptable to me.
-
Piped on desktop
-
LibreTube and YouTube Revanced on Android
-
uyou+ on iOS
-
SmartTubeNext on Android TV
-
youtube-webos on LG webOS
You missed Newpipe.
It is one of the favourites for browsing youtube without ad blocker.
I don’t see the advantage of using newpipe when you can get youtube revanced.
Vanced simply applies some of the patches over youtube app if I understand currently(I have never used vanced myself), while newpipe is an app to use various video sources (such as youtube, soundcloud, media.ccc.de etc.) created entirely from scratch.
Yep NewPipe works with various video sources and Vanced is not youtube revanced, you can do a lot of things (called patches) to have a incredible youtube app.
Here you can see all the patches possible in YouTube Revanced : https://revanced.app/patches?s=com.google.android.youtube
I suggest for all to uninstall Newpipe and try YouTube Revanced. (or LibreTube for a privacy-friendly youtube app)
-
Freetube on my PC and NewPipe on my phone. The user experience isn’t as good, but no ads of any kind.
OP, treat yourself to using https://freetubeapp.io/ on desktop. It is in my opinion at least a much better experience than YT via web browser ever was.
Does it support sponser block? Its kind of needed with many of the sponsers spots now pushing 2+ minutes for a 10 minute video.
Yes it does! It has also implemented DeArrow for better/normal video thumbnails and titles. Here is a pic of some of the settings >>
Cool, DeArrow is a pleasent suprise too. Can I contribute times and titles to them?
Don’t know about this, have never done it myself - but i assume so?
If we are talking mobile LibreTube has its kinks, but overall I’m happy with it. RiMusic for YT Music. Both on Fdroid.
Vivaldi with built-in ad block. Every once in a while YouTube changes something and ads get through for a couple of days. Then a Vivaldi update fixes it again quickly. I assume Vivaldi is too small a target for YouTube to care more.
I dont think there is an easy solution for the lacking performance, but to force yt to use a set qulity you can use the FF addon Enhancer for YouTube (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/enhancer-for-youtube/)
The simplest thing has been to use Brave + uBlock. NewPipe doesn’t allow me to search within the same channel, so I discarded it.
For YouTube WO ads on desktop I use Brave, on mobile I use NewPipe, everything going smooth for years.
