Can't listen to YouTube any more without bloody ads!

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I sometimes like to listen to long YouTube videos on facts or those Reddit videos of creepy discussions or whatever, to relax or go to sleep to. I don't purposely go looking for ASMR videos where they read out interesting facts and theories because it's always some b***h whispering and I can't stand whispering!

Anyway, before I used to be able to quickly skip through the video to get all the ads watched, then start at the beginning and there'd be no interruptions from ads. But YouTube finally discovered these tactics and now you have no choice but to listen to the crappy ads. I don't mind those unskippable 10 second ads but some go on for like 3 or 4 minutes unless you skip them, and I don't want to have to keep moving from my sleeping position to skip an ad every 2-3 minutes!

Yes I know you'll probably advise me to download adblock but there must be a catch, otherwise ads would become useless because everyone would be using adblock. So I'll probably have to pay for something (either the YouTube app or the adblock) but during these hard times I really can't afford more internet bills. I already pay for Audible - and even on there I can't get all the audiobooks I want, which is so disappointing.

I wish I was rich then I'd never have to see a sh***y ad ever again.

I use the internet on my phone by the way, not a computer.

The only way to get rid of ads on Youtube fully is by paying for a premium subscription, to my knowledge. I used to have an account with Youtube but deleted it & one of the reasons was the ads which annoyed me endlessly.

I also use Audible - it's nice to hear someone else uses that.

I'm still using an Adblock+/ NoScript combo with Firefox like it's 2004. All still free, though ABP has "premium" options now. Haven't seen a youtube ad since 2004 either.

I didn't know there are ads on YouTube and I watch it or listen several hours a day, but then I use Firefox with an adblocker. I can't understand why folks don't just block ads instead of moaning about them.

I use adblock on my Firefox browser so I never see such evil ads that clearly don't care about people on the spectrum or with sensory issues. But I'm surprised YouTube hasn't (yet) ordered me to remove it if I want to watch videos.

Yep. That.

If you're using a phone you can try YouTube Vanced. I also use AdGuard DNS but recently YouTube has found a way around that it seems.

I use Firefox and was wondering why ads kept appearing. It turns out my adblock had become disabled (I did have it previously activated...).

Youtube is beginning to be nothing but ads and "click-bait" and I refuse to go "premium" the content isn't really worth the price.

Most content creators I do like have a patreon or something similar, and I'd rather pay them directly and download their content ad-free.

I blocks YouTube video ads...? Thought they pause your video stream even if the ad isn't playing. I think I learned that while using the FireTube player.

If it works I gotta try it, at least at work where I'm not logged into my Google account.

Download the YouTube clip using something like 4K Video Downloader. When you play back the downloaded clip, it's ad-free!

Because most people I know seem to have ads whenever they play a video on YouTube (and moan about them) so I assumed there's no easy fix to block the ads for free otherwise everyone would do it.



That sounds a good idea. I do that with all my music. I have music player on my phone where I download from YouTube and put them on to music player, no ads and no fees and no internet needed (except when downloading but not when listening). That's why I say Spotify is for suckers.

I convert videos from Youtube to MP3 format, so I do the same as you if that is the method you are referring to?

Spotify is indeed for suckers.

Yes, that's what I do.
It's why I'm reluctant to get a phone upgrade even though I'm well overdue for one, because I fear the new phone might not support free music player. I know what these internet app companies are like, always wanting money out of you.

I don't see any ads when I watch YT videos. That's because I watch them on this website:
https://invidious.snopyta.org/
It seems to have all the YT videos without the annoyance of the user having to be on YT itself at all. You can do searches and browse around there just like you can on YT. AFAIK, the only missing things are the bloat and the ability to log into a YT account, so you can't post comments, though you can read them.

YT URLs of videos, playlists etc. can fairly easily be translated to Invidious URLs just by replacing the left-hand "www.youtube.com/" part with the above URL. Or it can be done automatically using a browser add-on such as Privacy Redirect.

Note: I also use an ad blocker (uBlock Origin) and a script blocker (NoScript). I don't think they're necessary for Invidious, but I could be wrong.

Downloading: I prefer to download most videos because YT videos have been known to get taken down. Sadly, Invidious has recently disabled its downloading feature, apparently because it couldn't cope with the increasing traffic volume. But one of its variants:
https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/
has the downloading feature. There are many variants to choose from.

Another way of downloading the videos is here:
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
It's only suitable for nerds like me, but if you can get it running it works very well. It even downloads entire playlists of videos if you give it the playlist's URL, either in native YT format or Invidious format.

That one is not loading.

But this one is. Seems awesome.