Bypass YouTube’s 5-second Adblock Detector Wait Time on Videos: Here’s How

For over 15 years, YouTube has been the most popular video platform on the internet. It features millions of videos uploaded by people from around the world, covering virtually any topic or curiosity. Advertising on YouTube is crucial for generating revenue for both the website and YouTubers. To combat ad-blocking, YouTube implemented an adblock detector, which has resulted in viewers having to wait for 5 seconds before starting a video.

More than six months have passed since YouTube began implementing its adblock detection system, blocking video playback if users have an ad-blocker installed. Many users began testing alternative ad-blockers since the original AdBlock was completely banned. Though some worked, a lot of them were ineffective, leading to users uninstalling ad-blockers to watch videos.

According to a tweet by wukko, YouTube continues to make things difficult for users, with videos taking around 5 seconds to start when using the Safari browser on macOS. It’s not an internet speed issue, as switching the user agent to Google Chrome results in instant loading. Results vary when tested on different browsers and for different users.

Some users experience this on Firefox, while others on Safari, and it appears that switching to Chrome has a higher chance of success. One adblocker that bypasses not only YouTube’s adblock detector but also the 5-second waiting time is uBlock Origin. In its subreddit, many people discuss the problems and solutions for eliminating these waiting times. One user has posted a solution using a filter.

The fix involves downloading uBlock Origin and adding a filter. If using uBlock Origin, go to the control panel and then to “My Filters” and add this code:

www.youtube.com##+js(nano-stb, resolve(1), *, 0.001)

After applying the changes, open a new tab and check if YouTube no longer forces your wait to watch videos. This solution works for those using this type of ad-blocker, but if you have another one or none at all, you could try changing the “User Agent” to Chrome or even Windows Phone 8, a workaround that emerged last month.

On the other hand, some users without ad-blockers installed still encounter the 5-second waiting time and have YouTube block video playback. In these cases, it could be due to using a browser with a built-in ad-blocker or having tracking protection enabled.