Ad Blocker in Firefox Fails

[Eric Idle]

Hi All,

For unknown reasons, Ad Blocker no longer is working in my Firefox. I uninstalled it and then reinstalled it with no luck. The ads mostly appear in youtube. Previously I never saw ads in youtube so it's a big surprise to see them all of a sudden appear.

Is there any way to get this back to working again or should I try a different ad blocker? Recommendations?

Thank you!

 

[velocityg4]

Try a different ad blocker. Youtube may have done some update to their system. Which defeats your adblocker and will do so until your ad blocker updates to block whatever changed.

Personally, I use Privacy Badger in combination with uBlock Origin. Which works well enough.

 

[allan.nyholm]

I would also recommend uBlock Origin and then SponsorBlock too - to automatically skip those pesky in-video ad-reading/sponsor messages.

 

[Eric Idle]

I would also recommend uBlock Origin and then SponsorBlock too - to automatically skip those pesky in-video ad-reading/sponsor messages.

Thank you for your reply. I installed UBlock Origin and still get youtube ads. I guess I'll have to install a 3rd ad blocker. Good lord this is miserable.

 

[Eric Idle]

Sigh...no luck. Even with SponsorBlock installed I still get ads on youtube. I need a 4th ad blocker?

 

[winxmac]

I use Adguard plus uBlock Origin on Firefox, Chrome, and Edge... I leave uBlock Origin with its default settings while I customize Adguard to my liking... I only use the browser extension of Adguard and with those two in my browsers I don't encounter any ads on websites except sponsorship ads on YouTube which I just manually skip...

 

[NY Guitarist]

I have a few ad blockers in Firefox but I think the ones that catch Youtube ads are Ghostery and uBlock Origin

I never see ads.

 

[Eric Idle]

I have a few ad blockers in Firefox but I think the ones that catch Youtube ads are Ghostery and uBlock Origin

I never see ads.

I have tried EVERYTHING now and nothing works. I have 5 ad blockers installed and still I get tons of youtube ads. I am just about to give up on Firefox. Been using it since day ONE so this is a big loss for me. I just don't get it. Why does Firefox allow ads all the time?

 

[hagjohn]

Hi All,

For unknown reasons, Ad Blocker no longer is working in my Firefox. I uninstalled it and then reinstalled it with no luck. The ads mostly appear in youtube. Previously I never saw ads in youtube so it's a big surprise to see them all of a sudden appear.

Is there any way to get this back to working again or should I try a different ad blocker? Recommendations?

Thank you!

Look in the safelist or whitelist or whatever it is called now. Some Ad Blockers exempt YouTube.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Be sure once a blocker is installed you go through the settings to enable them and learn how/what they block.

Here's what I'm using:

1. AdBlocker Ultimate
2. DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
3. Ghostery – Privacy Ad Blocker
4. uBlock Origin
5. Enhancer for YouTube™

Firefox browser privacy prefs set to 'Strict'. Stronger protection, but may cause some sites or content to break.

Strict blocks the following:
Social media trackers
Cross-site cookies in all windows (includes tracking cookies)
Tracking content in all windows
Cryptominers
Fingerprinters

 

[Piscatorius]

Be sure once a blocker is installed you go through the settings to enable them and learn how/what they block.

Exactly! That is an accurate comment. You have to get to know the ad blocker you are using and set it up properly so that it works according to your preferences. Personally, the only ad blocker I use is AdGuard. Nothing else, and I never see ads. On my iMac 14,3 I use AdGuard for Mac (mainly because of Safari), on my laptop with Ubuntu I use the respective AdGuard browser extensions.

 

[Eric Idle]

Look in the safelist or whitelist or whatever it is called now. Some Ad Blockers exempt YouTube.

Sadly, my whitelist is blank so that's not the source of my problem. I don't get it. I have used Firefox with Ad Blocker for YEARS with no issues at all. And then out of the blue it just stops working. Nothing I do can stop ads from appearing, only on youtube.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

First thing I'd do is to CLEAN OUT all the current ad blockers. With so many of them, I'm wonderin' if they could be "blockin' each other out" ???

Then, I'd re-install Firefox.

Then, I'd try something like AdGuard.

If you still get ads in Firefox, then it's time to start considering OTHER browsers for your YouTube viewing. I use mainly Safari or Brave.

 

[Eric Idle]

OP:

First thing I'd do is to CLEAN OUT all the current ad blockers. With so many of them, I'm wonderin' if they could be "blockin' each other out" ???

Then, I'd re-install Firefox.

Then, I'd try something like AdGuard.

If you still get ads in Firefox, then it's time to start considering OTHER browsers for your YouTube viewing. I use mainly Safari or Brave.

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try. The strange thing is that on my work PC, Firefox blocks all ads using ad blocker. I never see a single ad. Only on my Mac are there problems.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try. The strange thing is that on my work PC, Firefox blocks all ads using ad blocker. I never see a single ad. Only on my Mac are there problems.

I'm fairly confident it's something in your preferences/settings/configuration.

Also: is it possible you installed some software/malware that is causing the problem?

 

[allan.nyholm]

Update all the blocklists .. copy whichever Raw hosts file from https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts into uBlock Origin's custom filters section.

Perhaps take the harshest one - the one at the bottom. That'll take you right into zen I believe. Also will more than likely have a negative impact on your other web browsing.

Also, try using uBlock Origin's Purge all caches button - then update filter lists from that same page in uBlock Origin settings.

I'm only using uBlock Origin on Firefox and Google Chrome and I don't see ads.

Depending on where you live in the world, there's more than likely a local block list too for you.


I'll echo what everyone else has said.. clear out Firefox's profiles and start fresh on macOS. You can do that from within Firefox itself or close and quit Firefox, then type

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p

in Terminal to bring up the profile window. Delete profiles there and create a whole new one.

Logout of your Firefox account beforehand though

 

[Eric Idle]

I'll echo what everyone else has said.. clear out Firefox's profiles and start fresh on macOS. You can do that from within Firefox itself or close and quit Firefox, then type

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p

in Terminal to bring up the profile window. Delete profiles there and create a whole new one.

Logout of your Firefox account beforehand though

Thank you for your reply. I do not have a Firefox account. I do not see anywhere profiles can be deleted. Is this for people who have accounts with Firefox? If yes, does that mean this suggestion is a dead end?