Use GrayJay.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Privacy
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I use a vpn and change my location to Mexico and all the videos work again.
Funniest part it is will STILL block you if you're using an ad blocker on YouTube Premium.
by issue with ublock getting blocked, always try updating the filter lists
uBlock origin > Open the dashboard > Filter lists > Uncheck uBlock Filters > Check uBlock filters
This will force an update & reapply the filters. Usually the first thing you should try when issues like this pop up
Thanks, this worked c:
I'm getting this since a few days and just refreshing the page always works
I've been using FreeTube for years, it does break from time to time but never for very long, and it's a much nicer experience all round.
i just use yt-dlp to download the video these days. i have lots of filters in addition to ublock's default ones, somehow they're clashing with youtube and i can't properly play any video. yt-dlp+mpv is also much faster on my potato system, and makes me save videos.
yeah same here I just download and watch it's very fast actually and I keep videos for 6 moths (in case if they removed)
yt-dlp gets blocked more often than Firefox + ublock Origin for me.
i always use their latest nightly build, so maybe that helps. also i generally don't watch youtube a lot, so my ip probably didn't get flagged yet
I also do this. If yt-dlp keeps failing, change the VPN location or download the latest build and it works.
I also use Firefox with UBlock and I'm able to view YouTube content via m.yotube.com. Maybe loosen your UBO settings a bit?
I don't directly use youtube anymore to watch youtube videos, ever. It's all through the frontends. No ads period, runs smoother, and none of google's bullshit.
https://yewtu.be/
https://inv.nadeko.net/
https://invidious.nerdvpn.de/
I actually have a redirect extension set up on my browser so that any youtube link just automatically redirects to one of those. But if you don't want to do that, and just want to use one when you're having trouble with some particular video, just look at the url and copy-paste the watch?v=******** part of it onto the end of one of those^.
you can also do this: append farside.link/
- Disable Enhanced Tracking Protection in the little padlock (on the Firefox URL bar, not somewhere in uBlock Origin)
- If you've got a VPN, try disabling it. YouTube likes to be very heavy-handed with their blocking if I have my VPN on vs. not
- Clear your cache. For some reason this can help sometimes, idk why. Can be beneficial to sign out and in again, too. (try Firefox settings > Privacy & Security > Manage browsing data > search "youtube" and delete too.)
- Reload your uBlock filter lists in settings (un-select, then re-select)
- If you're not signed in, this'll make things a million times worse. YouTube, especially nowadays, loves to block clients without a login because they're often used by video downloaders, AI scrapers, etc.
Other than that, there's not much else. Sometimes switching to a chromium-based browser helps too, but I doubt you want to have to entirely switch browsers any time you want to watch a YouTube video.
I ran into this for the first time today, and for some reason the video that didn't play in Firefox with uBlock Origin downloaded just fine with yt-dlp
Is it the first time you’ve encountered this? If yes, they’re likely testing something and you happened to be randomly selected. It should work again the next day. If not, try refreshing your filters.
Yes, new today. Definitely being ab tested. Seems to be IP based though
Use one of the few Invidious instances that still exist while that's still an option, although I have a bad feeling this sorta thing is screwing with Invidious too because I've had a few streams corrupt when skipping through the vid before.
Grayjay is also an option, while it's still an option.
Google has been directly attacking Invidious nodes for about 2 years now. As soon as they figure out a node, it gets IP-banned. All the working instances use IPv6 with huge address blocks or crazy IPv4 address rotation, plus cycling login credentials, ...
Fuck YouTube. The only real solution is PeerTube.
I've never really figured out Peeetube tbh. It never finds me the type of content I am looking for, usually only instance local content.
It's largely because there is very low incentive to create videos for peertube: smaller user base and less revenue options. So you find less videos because there are less.
The iron fist of Metcalfe's Law aka network effects.
I'd like to see more sites sync YT channels , though ofc the problem is YT lawyers (though PeerTube does work perfectly well behind .onion addresses...)
Can you link to the video in question? Have you temporarily disabled your adblock plugin, to confirm that the problem is an anti-adblock function of the video player page?
It's every video, and stops being in issue as soon as I turn ublock off.
Last time I had issues with YouTube+uBlock, clearing cookies+local storage fixed it. Someone also recommended FreeTube to me, but I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet.
Use noutube instead