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YouTube Premium?

Relentless Power said:
What I want out of YouTube ‘Premium’, is just able to turn the display off when I’m blastin’ muh eardrums in the gym lifting. :D

Otherwise, I completely block ads entirely without having any issues or interruptions through an Adblock. (There’s a workaround through iOS, but probably not something I should really advocate here for a myriad of reasons.)

The biggest problem I’m seeing with YouTube, is there ads are now becoming to the point where it’s no longer just a single 6 second ad, now it’s 7 seconds. Before it used to be (2) 6 second ads consecutively, now it’s turning into (2) 7 second ads, and then of course the dire 15 second ad. The more powerful Y.T. has become, [especially over the last four years], you can see how they are tweaking the algorithm, ads are more frequent and longer, ‘hidden ads’ are more common, ect.

And I don’t care about content creators not receiving ad revenue or where the money is going, this is about my convenience, and I’m going to shortcut it anyway I can.
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I cannot stand ads. I refuse to waste my life on ads - video or even visual. I cannot stand ads. Google has really been doing everything they can to generate more $. No more free Photo space, removing old free Google Workspace accounts, etc. I could never rely on anything Google. Ads are horrific.

I get Hulu with ads on my Verizon Wireless plan. I refuse to watch because I can't stand the ads.

Last time I tried to use Adblock with YouTube it didn't work - but I probably wasn't using the best adblocker at the time.

I do enjoy those LoFi and relaxing videos more and more as I get older. lol.
 
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Sheepish-Lord said:
I can guarantee that the money you are paying for premium is absolutely NOT going to the creators. It would be a huge headache for YouTube to determine what paid users watch which channels then divide that to those creators. All you’re doing is feeding the beast because they’ve paywalled you with an unnecessary amount of ads and since creators don’t have a recourse such as subscription based similar to Twitch it’s a balance between getting or annoying your fan base.
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Medium pays writers through membership revenue, and it’s calculated by people liking the piece. YouTube could do similar - but I doubt they do
 
Out of interest I fired up AdGuard on my iPad and it says that "advanced" protection such as blocking YouTube ads is a paid-for feature. This is presumably why it doesn't currently block them very well.

Are there any alternative suggestions for ad blocking apps on iOS?
 
Webcat86 said:
But here are my problems:

1. I dislike a lot about Google, including its mind-bogglingly-bad UX, lack of customer service, and pernicious business practices, and try to avoid giving them money where possible. Exception: Google Domains and G Suite.
2. I don't watch heaps of YouTube. I don't watch it every day, and certainly not hours a day.
3. I have very little interest in downloading videos
4. I have zero interest in Music, as I already subscribe to Apple Music

Does anyone here use it and have thoughts on it?
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We've had YouTube Premium pretty much since it released in Canada, and I'd say it's a great service if it meets your needs, even now when we're paying $18 CAD/month for a family plan.
  • My husband watches a lot of YouTube, at least an hour a day, mostly on the TV via a Fire stick. He sometimes downloads videos to watch on his lunch break.
  • Our kids (kindergarten and grade two) watch some kids shows, Nintendo trailers, picture book read-alongs, etc. I like that they're not being bombarded with ads. (Also why I'm happy with them watching things on Netflix and Disney+ vs. broadcast TV. And in case anyone's worried, this is all with a parent, mostly on the living room TV.)
  • It replaced our family Spotify plan for music. While the YouTube Music app for iOS has its quirks, it works well enough now.
The main complaint I had about it (other than the iOS music apps) was that Google restricted the accounts of children under 13 to YouTube Kids and blocked them from accessing the regular YouTube app or YouTube Music. My older kid will probably want to keep track of her own music soon enough; I also wanted them to be able to watch videos ad-free under an account that wasn't mine. (I know I could have just made a shared family account for that, or fudged the ages, but I didn't want to do that.) However, I just checked the Google family site and found new option, marked as beta, to allow access on a child account, I flipped the switch, and it works. Thanks a bunch, OP!

All that said, comparing our lists, it sounds like none of my pros apply to you (replacing our previous paid music service being probably the biggest) so just blocking the ads could be your best bet.
 
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gigatoaster said:
Yes ads can be blocked if you use Safari instead of the YouTube app. Read the messages above.
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I should have been clearer. I am using Safari, I don't have the YouTube app installed. It's not blocking the adverts. The app says that's a paid-for feature. So are there any other apps that people recommend?
 
You need to follow instructions. Once installed you need to go in Settings>Safari>Extensions and toggle the app.

I realised I’m not using it anymore. I have BlockBear, give it a try.
 
Sheepish-Lord said:
Yes and you should. Too many active ad blocker programs/filters and it slows down your web experience.
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I’m also looking at AdGuard on my iPad but I’m confused with the options. There’s AdGuard and then AdGuard Pro for £8.99 - but the free AdGuard also has a premium upgrade as a subscription. The descriptions seem the same. Is there any difference between them?
 
@Webcat86 I was looking at that too.

The subscription is £4.99 a year in the UK. The Pro version seems to be £8.99 as a one off (I can't see anything saying it's an annual subscription).

However the subscription offers £0.99 a month so that might be worth using first, to see if it works. I'd hate to pay £8.99 only to find YouTube ads are still there or it breaks too many sites.

But hopefully someone might recommend free alternatives.
 
gigatoaster said:
You need to follow instructions. Once installed you need to go in Settings>Safari>Extensions and toggle the app.

I realised I’m not using it anymore. I have BlockBear, give it a try.
Click to expand...

I've just tried BlockBear and it doesn't block any YouTube ads at all. And yes, I did read the instructions and yes I did toggle it on (as I did for AdGuard).

There are huge numbers of ads now showing on YouTube, including general ads in the sidebar which AdGuard used to block - I think maybe they've tweaked the site to try and evade blockers. It's not really usable on my iPad now (on my Mac uBlock kills all these off very well).
 
JW5566 said:
@Webcat86 I was looking at that too.

The subscription is £4.99 a year in the UK. The Pro version seems to be £8.99 as a one off (I can't see anything saying it's an annual subscription).

However the subscription offers £0.99 a month so that might be worth using first, to see if it works. I'd hate to pay £8.99 only to find YouTube ads are still there or it breaks too many sites.

But hopefully someone might recommend free alternatives.
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Yeah. I’d happily run the free one and then pay for the full upgrade but not if it turns out the Pro one is different to what I’d been testing. Most apps I see with upgrade options include a lifetime purchase as an upgrade alongside monthly or annual, rather than being a separate app, so I’m assuming it’s not identical
 
JW5566 said:
I've just tried BlockBear and it doesn't block any YouTube ads at all. And yes, I did read the instructions and yes I did toggle it on (as I did for AdGuard).

There are huge numbers of ads now showing on YouTube, including general ads in the sidebar which AdGuard used to block - I think maybe they've tweaked the site to try and evade blockers. It's not really usable on my iPad now (on my Mac uBlock kills all these off very well).
Click to expand...
Have you restarted the browser or laptop? AdGuard was blocking YouTube for me last night
 
@Webcat86 I just tried the paid (subscription) AdGuard and as you can see from the attached, despite being fully on (it shows the icon in Safari and says "YouTube protection is enabled"), it's not blocking anything more than it did (didn't) before.

I've tried force quitting everything etc. and trying new pages to help rule out anything being cached.

What I used to see until a few days ago was "Skip Ads" but the screen was blank, so it was stopping it from loading.

IMG_1217.jpeg
 
JW5566 said:
@Webcat86 I just tried the paid (subscription) AdGuard and as you can see from the attached, despite being fully on (it shows the icon in Safari and says "YouTube protection is enabled"), it's not blocking anything more than it did (didn't) before.

I've tried force quitting everything etc. and trying new pages to help rule out anything being cached.

What I used to see until a few days ago was "Skip Ads" but the screen was blank, so it was stopping it from loading.

View attachment 2018097
Click to expand...
That’s weird. Did you change your DNS?

Check this: https://1.1.1.1/dns/

So far your Mac, all good with uBlock Origins? Check their custom lists, they have some by countries.

Your problem now is on your device, correct? What is it again? Try turn it off & one also.

I really really want to block all your ads!!!
 
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I’ve had YouTube premium since 2018 when it first became available in the U.K. I’d waited for years for it to come to the U.K. having seen YouTube red being available in the US. Ironically it was the ability to download videos for offline use that originally attracted me to it. Now I don’t think I could watch YouTube with adverts.

A few months after it launched I decided I wanted to cancel it as I thought it was an unnecessary expense. I only lasted about an hour as I couldn’t stand the adverts so I promptly resubscribed again.

I switched to the family plans about 3 years ago because my husband and kids watch YouTube videos. Also my husband is an android users so he benefits from YouTube music.

I think it’s worth every penny. YouTube has so much content and it’s not only tech videos that I watch on there. I watch documentaries, true crime all sorts. Having the ability to listen to videos with the screen off and Picture in Picture mode is also added value.
 
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I have a premium account.
However, I found a bug on the YouTube app.
The bug is video quality is blurry when downloading playlist even if Full HD.
I reported this bug to Google, but they never fixed! I’m very angry!
Google is really terrible and misleading.


Thread 'Google never fixed the YouTube app bug'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/google-never-fixed-the-youtube-app-bug.2345552/
Device
iPhone 7 Plus
iPad Pro 9.7”
 
Before i got my Apple TV 4K in 2019, i used to use my PC & Ublock Origin for watching YouTube without ad's.
After getting my Apple TV, it didn't take me long before i subbed to YouTube Premium since you can't exactly block ad's on a Streaming Device & since i started using YouTube on my Apple TV more than my PC.
 
JW5566 said:
@Webcat86 I just tried the paid (subscription) AdGuard and as you can see from the attached, despite being fully on (it shows the icon in Safari and says "YouTube protection is enabled"), it's not blocking anything more than it did (didn't) before.

I've tried force quitting everything etc. and trying new pages to help rule out anything being cached.

What I used to see until a few days ago was "Skip Ads" but the screen was blank, so it was stopping it from loading.

View attachment 2018097
Click to expand...
Oh, duh, I just remembered we’re talking about iPad. I was talking about my Mac when I said it worked last night.

Are you using the app or browser?
 
Webcat86 said:
Oh, duh, I just remembered we’re talking about iPad. I was talking about my Mac when I said it worked last night.

Are you using the app or browser?
Click to expand...

I'm using the browser (Safari) - I never liked the app so uninstalled it years ago.

On the same wifi network my MacBook is happily blocking all the ads with uBlock in Chrome (I don't use Safari on my MacBook).

On my iPad in Safari, AdGuard used to do a reasonable job of half blocking the pre-roll video ads and all of the side ads. Last few days they're all back.


gigatoaster said:
That’s weird. Did you change your DNS?
Click to expand...

I have not changed my DNS as far as I am aware or used any other apps that might have done. I've checked the app is installed (yes), that all the block lists are toggled on (yes), in Safari settings AdGuard is enabled as both blocker and extension. In Safari I see the blue shield in the URL bar and if I click this, it says "youtube.com protection is enabled" whilst at the very same time, ads are playing in the webpage which it is not blocking!!

Tried the premium version, no difference (this is running for 7 days on a free trial).

I tried turning my iPad off/on - no difference.

I've also tried a few random websites that used to have no ads showing, including here, and ads are back on those too. Something is wrong somewhere!! I would not expect any of the common "ad choices" Google ads to pose a problem to a blocker.

This is looking more like an issue with my iPad now.
 
JW5566 said:
I'm using the browser (Safari) - I never liked the app so uninstalled it years ago.

On the same wifi network my MacBook is happily blocking all the ads with uBlock in Chrome (I don't use Safari on my MacBook).

On my iPad in Safari, AdGuard used to do a reasonable job of half blocking the pre-roll video ads and all of the side ads. Last few days they're all back.




I have not changed my DNS as far as I am aware or used any other apps that might have done. I've checked the app is installed (yes), that all the block lists are toggled on (yes), in Safari settings AdGuard is enabled as both blocker and extension. In Safari I see the blue shield in the URL bar and if I click this, it says "youtube.com protection is enabled" whilst at the very same time, ads are playing in the webpage which it is not blocking!!

Tried the premium version, no difference (this is running for 7 days on a free trial).

I tried turning my iPad off/on - no difference.

I've also tried a few random websites that used to have no ads showing, including here, and ads are back on those too. Something is wrong somewhere!! I would not expect any of the common "ad choices" Google ads to pose a problem to a blocker.

This is looking more like an issue with my iPad now.
Click to expand...
I emailed AdGuard earlier today asking about the versions and they just replied. Might be worth contacting them and seeing what they say about why it’s not working
 
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