YouTube just struck down ad blockers again
But here are a couple ways to get around it.
Last June, YouTube ramped up its long-running fight against ad blockers. The company had started loading ads directly on its servers instead of on the user’s device, a clever move that made it much harder for blockers to stop ads from showing. But if there’s one thing to know about the internet, it’s that it always evolves.
Users quickly found new workarounds using modified extensions, custom scripts, and even alternative browsers. For a while, things seemed balanced again. Until now.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
Over the past few days, it looks like YouTube has decided to crack down harder than ever. Across social media and Reddit threads, users have been reporting that the site simply stopped working. Videos won’t load, thumbnails vanish, and on mobile, key buttons like like, share, and subscribe are disappearing from the Shorts player. What initially looked like a random outage turned out to be something much more targeted: YouTube’s latest strike in the ad-blocking war.
Here’s what’s happening. For desktop users, especially those running extensions like Adblock Plus or uBlock Origin, the YouTube homepage now fails to load properly. Even when it does, videos stall endlessly.
This isn’t a bug, it’s deliberate. YouTube is getting better at detecting when an ad request doesn’t go through, or when its system spots “bait” ads being blocked. The platform can even check for traces of known ad-blocker extensions in the background, confirming when users are trying to hide them. Once that’s detected, access is slowed down or completely cut off.
Was listening to music in the background and youtube suddenly stopped working, anyone know a fix for this?
by u/Critical_Score in youtube
For mobile users, meanwhile, the issue manifests differently. The app still opens, but the interface glitches, with crucial features missing. YouTube has acknowledged the Shorts issue and promised a patch, but for desktop users, there’s no sign of reversal, because technically, this isn’t a problem to fix. It’s a policy.
The timing also makes sense financially. In its recently concluded Q3 2025 earnings report, YouTube’s ad revenue hit $10.3 billion, a strong number, but clearly not strong enough for Google. This renewed crackdown sends a clear message: You either pay for YouTube Premium, sit through the ads, or find new tricks to beat the system. And if history has shown us anything, users will find a way.
Kelechi Edeh
How to (sort of) get around YouTube's ads
For now, a few methods still work. If your YouTube has stopped working, you could try switching to another browser like Brave Browser, firefox or Opera Air, or install uBlock Origin Lite, which still seems to work for now. Otherwise, you might just have to give in and cough up the $13.99 for a premium subscription.
Either way though, if you do decide to wait for the next big workaround the internet dreams up, just know that this fight probably isn't ending anytime soon.
