For several months now, there has been a lot of confusion about YouTube’s handling of ad blockers. Now users are increasingly experiencing delays again. This time, however, the reason is not the video platform.
Source: Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash
Until now, it was assumed that the long loading times and the problems displaying video previews were solely due to measures taken by Google. Often there are no video previews at all. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to completely reload the page to switch to full-screen or theater mode. But why is that?
Initially, there was speculation that the delays may have been due to browser choice. However, Google then spoke out and explained that these issues were part of the company’s efforts to crack down on ad blockers across all platforms.
However, the new and significantly more severe problems have a different trigger. The developers of Adblock Plus point out a bug in the recently released version that was identified as the cause of the significant loading times and other glitches. According to the uBlock developers on X Other ad blockers are not affected by such disruptions. The error affects versions Adblock 5.17 and Adblock Plus 3.22. The said changes were eventually reverted and the engine was updated to version 1.1.2.
By fixing this error, YouTube should be usable again at normal speed despite the ad blocker being active. YouTube’s current measures consist of repeated requests to turn off the ad blocker and/or take out a paid subscription. After repeated violations, this may eventually lead to blocking of YouTube videos from playing.
The price for a YouTube Premium subscription is currently 12.99 euros and YouTube Premium Family is 23.99 euros per month.