YouTube: Pre-roll ads, ads on page, and video "overlay" ads not blocked

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

Description

Seeing several reports recently about YouTube ads not being blocked. This seems to vary between but not be limited to:

Pre-roll ads that play before content streams
Ads displayed on the YT page itself (outside of video)
Ads that display/overlay the video itself ("inside" video) Image below depicting all three types displayed. User reports also show that this is not necessarily restricted by OS (although majority have been Windows) - Windows, macOs and Linux systems have reported this behavior.

Diagnosing the issue is difficult given that I'm unable to reproduce this on my end when testing (using macOS and windows 7/10). Would be good to know if there is any specific or pertinent information to collect from users that would help highlight what the issue is (cc @lukemulks) - So far I've been collecting Brave version, OS info, and URLs to the videos where ads are displayed.

Steps to Reproduce

Visit YT and stream video content (I imagine this would be easiest to produce when streaming videos with a high view count - more likely to be monetized).

Actual result:

Ads are displayed on page and in video.

Expected result:

Ads should be blocked.

Reproduces how often:

Users experiencing this issue report that this behavior is consistent for them.

Brave version (brave://version info)

Release channel v0.59.35 Beta v0.60.23 Dev v0.61.16

Website problems only:

Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? Yes
Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? No

Additional Information

User reports - will add more to the thread as I come across them:

rebron commented 5 years ago

@Brave-Matt we need an example video, I'm having trouble reproducing this myself. Went through a handful of videos and can't find one yet.

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

@rebron that's the thing - I can't produce this personally. If you follow the links above you'll see user submitted images of the ads displaying.

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

From reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/b0yqfw/youtube_ads_suddenly_started_appearing_using/

JamesTheHacker commented 5 years ago

I'm the Reddit poster. For me the following videos display ads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v30wXiZ41Ds
removed, wrong link. Will find another.

Brave Version: Version 0.61.51 Chromium: 73.0.3683.75 (Official Build) (64-bit) OS: Windows 10 Pro

Swennet commented 5 years ago

Same issue. I have a lot of YouTube video ads that play, and the skip ad button is removed. Sometimes, after watching the entire first ad, it just repeats the same ad again or displays a new one, seemingly infinitely. Refreshing the page sometimes makes no ad play.

Very annoying and frustrating. Especially the fact that this happens with both the blocker turned on and off.

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Community: https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-masthead-ad-blocking-not-saving/51343/5

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from community: https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-masthead-ad-blocking-not-saving/51343/4

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/bh8hsu/shield_is_not_working_properly_ads_showing/

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Community: https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-ads-not-getting-blocked-by-shields-desktop-mobile/45671/8

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/bco6jp/youtube_ads/

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/b0yqfw/youtube_ads_suddenly_started_appearing_using/

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Community: https://community.brave.com/t/ad-blocking-problems/59959/4

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from community: https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-ads-not-skippable/46179/12?u=mattches

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from reddit:

rebron commented 5 years ago

cc: @ryanbr Can you take a look at this one?

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

ryanbr commented 5 years ago

I'll take another look in the next few days (not easy since youtube uses many adservers), but will probably be fixed in adblock-rust.

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Community: https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-ads-continue-despite-ad-blocker/72052/2

ryanbr commented 5 years ago

Okay, From a private window. Cookies Cleared. And VPN'd to South Africa (Random I know).

https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/gif/youtube.gif

Note the Items (well the amount of items that are being blocked,) I didn't see any obvious ads?

This is on Brave Release.

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from Community: https://community.brave.com/t/can-there-be-an-option-to-allow-javascript-automatically-without-us-having-to-manually-do-it-everytime/57131/9?u=mattches

Xronis commented 5 years ago

Hi,

For me it doesn't happen all times but when it does it is both banners and pre-roll ads.

OS: Win10 Installed Extensions: None Connected to VPN: Yes (Corporate policy) Shields: 3rd parties trackers and connections upgraded to HTTPS are ON, scripts blocked OFF. brave://adblock: Nothing additional

I am still new with Brave, so if I am missing something let me know.

Cheers

ryanbr commented 5 years ago

With the new adblock in Brave Nightly, can we get that tested? does the ads show up there?

Xronis commented 5 years ago

Hi,

Sorry for the late response I was on vacation and didn't really check my emails until now that I returned. So far so good, no pre-roll ads yet. I will let you know if any pop up.

Thanks for the support, Cheers

Arcim commented 5 years ago

Hello all,

all was fine and blocked, until I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader and unfortunately let it install with the browser add-on. Since then Youtube started push through adverts without the skip button. No popups or banners so far. Although I am not sure if there was any other update to system or to Brave itself. I will try to make a fresh install of Brave and let you know if anything changes.

Cheerio Jan

Arcim commented 5 years ago

Hello all,

all was fine and blocked, until I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader and unfortunately let it install with the browser add-on. Since then Youtube started push through adverts without the skip button. No popups or banners so far. Although I am not sure if there was any other update to system or to Brave itself. I will try to make a fresh install of Brave and let you know if anything changes.

Cheerio Jan

Also the ads are pre-and also mid-roled and I noticed that some are in my native language so it knows where I am...

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/cvxk4o/your_guys_getting_ads_in_youtube_now/

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/cybigd/brave_stopped_blocking_yt_ads/

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/czqgpm/anyone_else_getting_youtube_ads_on_the_desktop/

Brave-Matt commented 5 years ago

+1 from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/d1oz7i/youtube_showing_midvideo_ads/

ryanbr commented 5 years ago

Okay, ads in the Youtube space are considered either pre-roll or mid-roll embedded videos. What Youtube ads aren't, Annotations, Cards These are considered part of the site, while Annoying. They aren't considered an advert.

What I'm trying to debug specifically is the pre-roll and mid-roll ads only.

Okay, I tested 2 sites. One on a Norway IP (VPN). Checking from EU country:

https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/gif/youtube-ads.gif

From NZ: (using the sample clip provided by @JamesTheHacker

https://secure.fanboy.co.nz/gif/youtube-ads2.gif

TL;DR: From my testing on both videos. If Brave sheilds is enabled / Cross site trackers, I don't get ads. The moment I disable Shields and refresh the site I'll get an instant pre-roll ad as seen in the gifs. (may needed to clear the cookies to ensure youtube would show the pre-roll advert).

What I need from the users trying to help debug the issue:

Test in private mode with no extensions enabled, with only Sheilds enabled,
Clear Youtube cookies first in the options, then visit the problematic youtube site.
A Screen shot of the sheilds window open and the sheilds cross-site trackers being listed., showing the ad in the background. Like so: https://imgur.com/a/Ms9BT5Q (I have no ad showing in my case, because I can't replicate it)
Go into Shields / Cross-site trackers.

Ctrl-A (Select all Cross-site trackers)
Crtl-C (Copy to Clipboard)
Ctrl-V (Paste) into pastebin.com,

Like so: https://pastebin.com/18EAphvt (For Privacy, trim each line leaving the first 50-60 chars of each line or so)

If you've used Ublock Origin, this may help also. Additional Testing with UBO (enable in private mode). Only enable these filter lists Easylist/Easprivacy in UBO options. Does enabling ublock origin extension stop the youtube ad? If it does block the ads, post a screenshot of (like so: https://imgur.com/a/Hov5tSF). If you tube ads are showing, even with UBO being enabled. Screenshot the blocked items (but show the 'allowed' items, or just the whole blocked items screen)
Can you replicate the same ads on a different PC (with Brave Sheilds on)?

Note: Some extensions will insert ads in to websites, which we can't block. Or there could be malware causing the issue.

Brave-Matt commented 4 years ago

+1 from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/fj72rz/youtube_has_apparently_partly_circumvented_braves/

tstoeger2 commented 4 years ago

Edit: I don't know what changed, but now I do have a list of cross-site trackers, and it also seems to be blocking ads now.

Here's what I'm getting: Pre-roll and mid-roll ads.

Seems like all ads are typically 30 seconds and not skipable. After they play, they sit on the end screen for several seconds before either playing a second ad or resuming the video.

The only extension I had was Google Translate, which I just removed in the hopes of fixing this issue (not sure why it would, but it's the only thing that's changed that I can see).

This just started happening last night after I forced my computer to shut down (it had been "powering off" for like 20 minutes, so I held down the power button).

Windows 10, Brave version 1.7.98

I have no cross-site trackers listed (in normal or private browsing), so there was nothing to copy into pastebin.

Successfully replicated in private and normal browsing

Bravd ads private

bernardbr commented 4 years ago

@tstoeger2, I've got the same behavior here!

jonathansampson commented 4 years ago

@tstoeger2 and @bernardbr, can you both navigate to about:components in the browser, and confirm that your Brave Ad Block Updater is version 1.0.551 or greater? If it isn't, please click Update next to it.

tstoeger2 commented 4 years ago

@tstoeger2 and @bernardbr, can you both navigate to about:components in the browser, and confirm that your Brave Ad Block Updater is version 1.0.551 or greater? If it isn't, please click Update next to it.

@jonathansampson It is up to date.

whitleyhorn commented 4 years ago

AHHHHHHHHH. All of a sudden I get ads all the damn time on Youtube. They can't be skipped and shields are up. It is driving me crazy. They happen both before and in the middle of videos.

whitleyhorn commented 4 years ago

Now it's not just YouTube, I'm getting ads on other sites, like babypips.com. But shields are up.

bernardbr commented 4 years ago

@tstoeger2 and @bernardbr, can you both navigate to about:components in the browser, and confirm that your Brave Ad Block Updater is version 1.0.551 or greater? If it isn't, please click Update next to it.

Hi, @jonathansampson!

Sorry about my delay!

My version is higher than 1.0.551