YouTube question

[plodr]

Mary, I'm not laughing. When I had to replace my husband's cellphone (he uses in the car for emergencies and it was my old phone from 2005), I had to find a flip phone with big buttons for him to press. He only wants to make calls. He doesn't want to answer calls. I also couldn't see spending a lot each month just to have a phone for emergency use. I finally bought him a $30 Tracfone flip and turned off wifi so he wouldn't accidentally press something and get on the internet.

Our televisions are from the late 1980's and 1990's. I don't understand any of the smart tv things! Heaven help us when we have to replace a tv. I looked and it is still possible to buy a non-smart tv. But who knows how long that will last.

[v_v]

mary3444,

Before you "call it quits trying to get youtube for him" let us try another strategy.  Essentially I am going to provide you with instructions to do two things:  1. delete the current youtube cookies, and 2. how to use the "Private Window in Firefox."  Deleting the youtube cookies should take away all of the data that youtube has stored on your computer right now, and using the Firefox Private Window should keep such data from accumulating again.  The instructions may appear lengthy but that is only because I have tried to describe every step and what you will see clearly and simply.  It should only take you a few minutes to do them -- less time than it takes you to write a post here at Landzdown!  (Smile)


Deleting the Youtube cookies

• Open the Firefox browser;
• On the menu at the top of the browser click on "Tools" and then "Settings";
• A new Settings screen should pop-up (it will either be in a new tab or window depending on your Firefox browser settings);
• On the left side of the Settings screen click "Privacy & Security";
• A new screen will appear with the title of "Browser Privacy" at the top over the middle column;
• Scroll down the middle column just a little bit until you get to a section called "Cookies and Site Data";
• On the right side of this section click "Manage Data";
• A small new sub-window will pop up, entitled "Manage Cookies and Site Data"; this contains a list of all the cookies being stored by Firefox on your computer;
• In this sub-window come down to the column headings and find and click the "Site" heading once; clicking on "Site" will sort all of the cookies into alphabetical order;
• Now that the cookies are in alphabetical order scroll down the list until you find "youtube"; it will probably say "youtube.com";
• Click on youtube; it will highlight the entire line in blue;
• At the bottom left of the pop-up window click "Remove Selected"; this will delete the youtube cookies;
• If there is more than one cookie listing with the name "youtube" then repeat steps 11 and 12 until all of the youtube references are removed;
• When finished, click "Save Changes" at the bottom right of the pop-up window; the pop-up window should disappear; at this point all of the youtube cookies have been deleted;
• You may now close the entire "Settings" tab or window by clicking the "x" on the right side of the tab or the top right corner of the window; (you can also just close Firefox altogether if you wish);

How to use the Private Window in Firefox


So now when you or your husband decide to go on youtube, do the following:

• Open the Firefox Browser;
• On the menu at the top of the browser click on "File" and then "New Private Window"; a new window should open which will say Firefox but it will also have a 'purple mask' prominently displayed;
• So at this point you will have both a regular Firefox window open and also a private window; the regular window will have the normal Firefox symbol and the private window will have the purple mask symbol;
• From now on when you or your husband go to youtube use the private window, the one with the purple mask; when you finish with youtube simply close the private window; by using the private window youtube will be blocked from permanently storing cookies and your browsing history on your computer;
• But while you are using the private window a cookie will be temporarily stored; so if you are using youtube and watching multiple videos one after another then youtube may start showing the notice again because the temporarily stored cookie will be tracking your activity;  if such a notice appears again then simply close the private window and then re-open a new private window (make sure that you close the entire private window and not just the tab); this will delete the temporary cookie and you may continue as usual;
• So again always use the private window in Firefox to view youtube and if the notice appears after viewing several videos then simply close the private window, reopen a new private window, and continue on with your activity.

Hopefully this will help with the situation, and again it is not complicated at all, just lengthy because of the descriptiveness.  The key points are to delete the current youtube cookies and then to start anew by using the Firefox private window for youtube from now on.

Also if you have disabled uBlock Origin you can re-enable it if you wish.  There is no reason for it to be disabled if that did not help with the situation.

Again let us know of your experience and if we can be of any further assistance.


[PS - I just saw plodr's last note.  I am not laughing either.  (Smile)  Not only do I not have a cell phone but I do not even have a television.  So nothing is "smart" at my house!  (Ha ha!!)  But obviously I do have a computer and internet service!]


v_v

[Corrine]

So nothing is "smart" at my house! 

You're wrong about that, v_v.  You're smart! 

[mary3444]

plodr, our tv's are from the early 80's too so are both of our vehicles. Glad we are not alone.

v_v, Sorry it took a few days to answer but I have been looking for brake parts for our car. It is a 1986 Grand National & the parts are very hard to find, but I think I found a place that has what is needed. Guess I am going to have to take out a loan to pay for it (haha). I did download the info you told me to do & you were right it was easy the way you explained it to me. Can't believe just how many cookies I had on from over a year ago. So far it works but I can't use new private window because he would have to go on too many pages to get to youtube. My husband has Macular Degeneration & it is hard for him to move the cursor to find where the pointer needs to go. I try to make it is easy as possible for where he wants to go. Again I can't thank you enough for all the help. For me it was easy to do because of you, hard when you really don't know what you are doing.

I again want to thank everyone who tried to help, like I said youtube was one thing he liked to go on. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I will try not to bother you guys any more but you have always been a lifesaver.

[Corrine]

Mary, you are most certainly not a bother.  Please visit any time you have a question or just to say hello.

[Corrine]

There has been an arms race between YouTube and uBlock recently. And YouTube users have become the victims of it.

Interesting article by Malwarebytes Labs on this topic. YouTube shows ads for ad blocker, financial scams
.

[mary3444]

Hi Corrine, I know someone asked me what I see when youtube blocks my husband but I could not send a picture of that. When I hit your  article that is what he sees all the time & that can't be X out. When I did the private window for him, it does not go on to the youtube site he had so he can't get to any of his things. Right now he will just not go on as his patience is zero & there is nothing else I can do. I am glad every one now sees what I did get & still do.

Again thanks for all the help
Mary

[pastywhitegurl]

I use Brave browser.  I did encounter those notices for a day or two, and then haven't seen them since.  I thought at the time it may have been triggered when I installed Facebook Purity, as their suggested content was getting annoying, and I wanted to block it.   However, reading the above info suggests that it was a coincidence.  Since that first couple days of having to X out the notices, I haven't seen them again.  Brave seems to have things under control, as I don't have Ublock or any other adblocker extension installed anymore.

[plodr]

I get a newsletter from Jared Newman, a tech writer. About a week ago, he mentioned this blocker for Chrome and Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fadblock/
that he says seems to work.

I haven't installed it because I currently have no problem for the little amount of time I watch YouTube.

[v_v]

The link posted by plodr above at "November 13, 2023, 06:52:34 AM" also has the following verbiage in it:

About this extension

FadBlock is designed to monitor advertisements, automatically seek the ads and skip them on YouTube and YouTube Music as well. It's important to note that this doesn't classify as traditional ad blocking, as the ad content is technically "loaded".

Note: This new version uses extensionpay.com as a payment processor integrated with Stripe for obtaining a one-time lifetime license after an initial free trial period. The storage permission is for counting the "Blocked YouTube Ads".

For whatever reasons these words gives me cause to pause and to be wary of this extension.


While I do not know for sure in terms of what is going on behind the scenes the current 'struggle' between youtube and all of the various adblockers seems sporadic, from the point of view of the consumer.  As I indicated in my "November 04, 2023, 05:46:03 PM" post:

the situation ends up being like a chess match: youtube makes a 'move' and then uBlock Origin makes a 'counter-move' to get around the youtube 'move', then youtube makes another 'move'; right now this cycle seems to just keep repeating itself.

Other adblockers are involved in this too, including browser communities like Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, SlimJet, etc, that all have their own built-in adblockers.

As has been shown throughout this thread and the various posted links and images, youtube is giving several (or even many) different blocking messages to people.  Some have a "Dismiss" button; some have an "x" in the top right corner to close the message; some have neither of these and seemingly no way to get rid of the message other than closing the tab or browser---or allowing ads.

I have found that deleting the youtube cookies also seems to stop the messages; but this is temporary until another new cookie is set.  Based on this factor alone it would seem that using the "private browser" feature in whichever browser one uses would stop these cookies from being set.  One might need to close and re-open the private browser window, but I have done this successfully several times.

Like pastywhitegurl said in her "November 12, 2023, 08:01:33 AM" post, after a flurry of blocking messages during the middle of last week I have not seen any new messages in about four or five days.  So it is hard to tell whether youtube has given up (doubtful at this point) or whether the adblock and browser communities have been relatively successful in their 'counter-moves.'

The steps posted by CaptainTripps in his "November 04, 2023, 09:30:09 AM" post still seem to work if one is using uBlock Origin.  Then there are the 'delete the cookies' and use 'private windows' steps that I have mentioned.  But apparently there will be no permanent methods or fixes until youtube gives up the struggle.  In addition each of our experiences will vary depending upon the browsers used, the adblockers used, and the volume and consistency of one's youtube use.

Humorously all of this reminds me of perhaps the original "raison d'etre" of Freedomlist:  FREEDOM!  (Smile)

v_v

[plodr]

Thanks v_v for digging deeper. I won't be installing it.
It's like Whack-a-mole game! You whack one mole and two more pop up elsewhere.

[ky331]

Just some observations from (one of my) WIN10 systems:
1) in Pale Moon, if I disable uBlock Origin for the Youtube site, then I can watch videos, WITH ads preceding --- and sometimes included within --- the videos.
2) in Firefox, if I disable uBlock Origin on Youtube (but keep MalwareBytes Browser Guard fully-functional), then I can (typically) watch videos, withOUT seeing any ads. [I say typically, because I *think* I recall getting blocked once...]
3) in Edge, if I disable uBlock Origin on Youtube AND ALSO disable Ads/Trackers on Youtube in MalwareBytes Browser Guard, then, while it initially claims to block (each) video, it WILL play (after a short delay) when I REFRESH the screen.

I can't assert that anyone else will replicate these results, but the point it, by tinkering/trying various browsers and blocking settings, you may find a way that works for you.   Disabling Youtube in uBlock Origin in Pale Moon was by far the simplest solution, at least for me.

[ky331]

For what it's worth, I just obtained different results at work (where they may have a group policy in effect... possibly even a contract with Youtube???)...
Suffice it to say that both Edge and Firefox displayed Youtube videos withOUT my having to disable uBlock Origin nor MalwareBytes Browser Guard.   Go figure.