YouTube Skips Videos and Mutes Sound for Ad Blocker Users

Users of ad blockers have recently discovered that YouTube videos are now automatically skipping to the end or having their sound muted, making it impossible to watch content. According to media reports, this issue began on May 27, 2024, and appears to affect a significant number of users, though not everyone is impacted. Those affected report that the problem occurs with all videos on YouTube.

This unusual behavior persists even if the user tries to reload the video, click to the beginning, or jump to a different part of the video (in which case the video just gets stuck loading indefinitely). However, the issue disappears immediately if the ad blocker is disabled.

Complaints have come from users of both browser extension ad blockers (such as Adblock Plus) and browsers with built-in ad blocking systems (like OperaGX). Many believe this is another step by Google developers to fight ad blocking. Last year, Google began actively hindering the operation of ad blockers on YouTube. For example, the company added a five-second delay when loading the site for users with ad blockers and, as an experiment, limited such users to just three video views.

Additionally, in April of this year, Google targeted third-party apps that block ads while watching videos, which violate YouTube’s Terms of Service. Google warned that it would soon take action against these apps.

However, it’s not possible to say for certain that these new issues are directly caused by Google’s actions. For instance, in January 2024, users of Adblock and Adblock Plus reported widespread performance problems on YouTube, suspecting Google was to blame. It was later revealed that the issues were due to a bug in the extension itself.

YouTube representatives told 9to5Google that the problems users are experiencing are related to “efforts to improve YouTube’s performance,” and are “not related” to the fight against ad blockers. However, the company also gave a rather vague comment to journalists:

“Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and we have long encouraged users to support their favorite creators by allowing ads on YouTube or trying YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. An unrelated measure to improve YouTube’s performance and reliability may result in suboptimal viewing experiences for users of ad blockers,” company representatives said.

Users are already sharing possible solutions to this new problem (besides disabling the ad blocker). Currently, the following workarounds are known:

• Switching from Adblock Plus and other ad blockers to uBlock Origin resolves the issue.
• Using incognito mode in the browser and logging out of YouTube also works for some people.
• Refreshing the page at the exact moment the video finishes loading and immediately canceling the refresh may help.
• Using the Brave browser seems to allow ad blocking on YouTube as usual, and videos do not skip to the end.