So my adblocker now also removes youtube comments? That's more of a feature than a hurdle!

Newpipe working for me right now. I hope it lasts.

uBlock Origin (I'm still seeing the comments, though).

There is no fucking way in hell I'll ever a) watch ads b) pay for Youtube Premium. They created this monopoly with no alternative option and now we're suppose to just get fucked while they get even more obscenely rich beyond all tasteful levels. Yeah, I don't think so. And given how I ditched everything Google, if it ever comes to it, I'll ditch Youtube too. It's basically the only thing I still even use from Google because there's just no alternative.

For people who only go off headlines and comments and don't read the article, here's the important bits:

• This only affects some users, not everyone
• The issue is that comment sections are disabled and video descriptions claim to be empty
• The issue goes away with a refresh, you don't need to turn off the adblocker, though you'll have to refresh every video
• It affects all videos
• The link to adblockers is due to everyone who is reporting the issue being a user of an adblocker, and turning it off fixing the issue permanently until it's turned on again
• There's no specific browser or adblocker mentioned in the article
• It affects Premium users too

edit: added "the article" after "don't read" to clarify

The issue is that comment sections are disabled and video descriptions claim to be empty

jokes on them, my enhancer for youtube always disables comments

This is why I will never get premium. You pay the motherfuckers money and still have to take it up the ass.

Imagine being a paying Premium member and still get caught by this.. That said, the YouTube comments are worth shit, so not much is lost there. The descriptions can be quite annoying when missing.

I really should start looking into yt-dlp or something. Anybody know if that's still working fine these days?

I just use it without account and subscribe to my favorite channels using external RSS feed reader. This way I still keep track of my fav content and doing it entirely outside of Google. If they track me as guest, I really don't care that much.

I think GrayJay already found a way around it lol

I usually find the comments more useful than the video, sometimes more entertaining too.

Don't forget the phone. Almost everyone with a smartphone is either an Apple or Google user via it, and everyone seems to forget that.

Ironically, YouTube is one case that's much better with personalized recommendations. I even open links from social media in incognito tabs so as to not pollute my recommendations accidentally.

Any time I happen to open Youtube's main page in an incognito tab, it's filled with complete trash that's offered to my region by default. It's not even my usual snobbery talking — the content is like wall-to-wall Jerry Springer Show.

Then you really should watch better videos.

Soon will be a good time to quit YT completely. Suddenly, you’ll have lots of time to do all the things you were supposed to do long ago. You know like taking a walk, cooking nice food, reading books, getting to bed early etc.

One thing is certain: Your distro's repository's version of yt-dlp - even on bleeding edge distros - is likely out of date, and you'll have to find and run the appimage version from the devs.

68% of people who responded to the poll at the link say that they are not affected. Only 10% of responders are.

Probably A/B testing.

I'm not lowering my security for Google.

My ad blocker won't let me watch YouTube. I didn't know there was a problem. Good ad blocker.

The issue is that comment sections are disabled and video descriptions claim to be empty

So it makes the page even better?

It is just another turn of the enshittification downward-spiral. There have been steps before this and there will be more to come. Maybe this will drive users away.

You can decide if you need the platform and look for alternatives - but where to? Content creators want the range and the monetization of yt. Classic lock-in.

There are alternative frontends for yt. But the content stays there.

I'll stop using YT before i start watching ads.

You can just pass the --update flag when invoking yt-dlp. I don't think the package itself needs to be up to date in order to work reliably.

Are you still seeing the ads?

Same. Especially since there's more AI slop.

No, ads are still blocked.

Splendid. Thank you!

I dont care. Smarttube works as usual, I dont have any problems. I use the official YT Android App to write comments.. so ..

One way I've found around it is to open videos in new tabs and then they play normally. Playlists or clicking in the same tab doesn't work. Then I just Ctrl+W the tabs to advance the "playlist".

When adblox inevitably fixes this, you can block comments, and a bunch of other crap, on purpose with Unhooked

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-recommended-videos/

Yeah but if you were a YouTube Premium subscriber surely you'd disable the adblocker on youtube.com so you never get this issue.

"there's currently no way around it"

"The issue goes away with a refresh"

lol. sounds more like a bug if it's also affecting Premium users though

there's no point. I tried the free trial of youtube premium cause i'm on Qutebrowser and the adblocking isn't the greatest. even with Premium i'd still randomly get ads every now and then. IF i were paying for it I'd be pissed.

Now I circumvent this by just opening all the videos in MPV.

“Who’s still watching in 2026”

For Android user I can recommend Newpipe. For the desktop I use FreeTube

Both have occassional issues when YT rolls out their latest enshittification features, but the devs are quite responsive.

Regardless, YT is a loosing battle, so prepare for the day when Google will win this arms race. That is why alternatives like PeerTube are important.

Why? So they can serve you ads on top of something you're already paying money for?

True that

Another happy NewPipe user here... yeah, AFAIC I'm enjoying YT access with NewPipe while it lasts. The day NewPipe is locked out I'm ditching YT entirely.

I expect I won't be alone who will switch to PeerTube or another alternative. So hopefully content will remain available 🤞

Right. That isn’t a problem at all. The only times I use either is when I’m looking for time stamps, but I can live without that.

Reading reviews on Google Maps in private browsing mode also got blocked for me.

I had this happen to me. I simply disabled ublock origin's quick filters and everything worked fine after.

So I can still watch the video, just not read the comments that I never read anyway, and can't click the "link in the description ", which hurts creators way more than it hurts me.

Makes sense ... ?

My brave browser's still working fine.

But... you do not get ads if you have Premium, that's the point.

You occasionally still get ads, even with premium.

I've had premium for a couple years now, no idea what you're talking about

first

No issues ublock and FF.