Brave-browser: Video ads on YouTube have no Skip button

[EbonJaeger]

Description

When watching YouTube videos with Shields off, video ads that play have no Skip button like they should. This was briefly mentioned in the last comment on #1145, but it would be better for this to be its own issue.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Turn Shields off for YouTube
2. Watch videos on YouTube until an ad is played
3. Notice no button to skip the ad on the lower right corner

Actual result:

http://prntscr.com/m1dj0j

Expected result:

http://prntscr.com/m1djas
(Taken from Vivaldi)

Reproduces how often:

Seems to happen for every ad.

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave | 0.58.18 Chromium: 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision | 15234034d19b85dcd9a03b164ae89d04145d8368-refs/branch-heads/3578@{#897}
OS | Windows

Website problems only:

• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?
  
  
  
  • Does not happen on latest stable Vivaldi, which is also Chromium 71
  
  

[stevenbriscoeca]

I just want to add that I have this problem as well, and I really want to encourage the people i'm subscribed to by turning on ads...I just don't have the patience to wait 3 minutes for an ad to finish because I can't skip.

[tomlowenthal]

IIRC, this may be caused by blocking one of the domains that Google uses for ad measurement on YT.

[vicentelyrio]

I'm facing this problem even with all shields off for YT. It's something related to the ad container (a div with these classes: .video-ads .ytp-ad-module) having display: none!important, this div have the counter and the skip button, but for Brave they disabled it.

For now I've created a simple bookmark that I click when a ad starts:

javascript: document.querySelector('.videoAdUiSkipButton,.ytp-ad-skip-button').click()

[bruhhhhhhhhhh7]

Refresh after 5 seconds. It skips it.

IIRC, this may be caused by blocking one of the domains that Google uses for ad measurement on YT.

I hope that it counts toward the creator. I don't want to be watching ads for no reason.

[stevenbriscoeca]

Thanks @vicentelyrio !

I am using stylebot with this rule :
.ytp-ad-module { display: block!important; }
Everything is fixed until they push a fix here

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/ax75ap/youtube_ads_unskippable/

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/azekc1/i_cant_skip_ads_on_youtube_when_i_turn_off_the/

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from community:
https://community.brave.com/t/youtube-ads-not-skippable/46179/6

[mheiduk]

I have this issue too, would be great if the brave team can fix it.

[RobinLenaerts-r0627775]

Been having this issue for a couple months now, would be great if it gets fixed because i dont wanna sit through the 4+ minute ads youtube serves me sometimes...

[Column01]

I have the same issue.
I used Stylus (chrome extension) and added a custom CSS rule for youtube with the above CSS. It's a different application than they used but still works :D

From @stephenbe

I am using stylebot with this rule :
.ytp-ad-module { display: block!important; }
Everything is fixed until they push a fix here

[vicentelyrio]

I liked the bookmark approach because the ad skips right on and I do not need to give a second click on the skip button

[ckothwal123]

+1
I love the browser overall and the speed improvements it has given me over chrome. This is the only issue that stops me from completely shifting to brave. Hope to see this resolved soon !

[vicentelyrio]

I still think Google is to blame for this problem, the button is deliberately hidden only in Brave.

[Column01]

I still think Google is to blame for this problem, the button is deliberately hidden only in Brave.

No, it is very much an issue with the brave ad-blocker. I could probably see the "ad" part of the CSS triggering it to remove it thinking it's an ad when it is the thing protecting us from ads. Google would not invest time and money into making a specific rule for YouTube to disable the ad skip button when using a certain browser, that would be stupid and waste more money than blocking ads loses them in the first place. Plus most people who have this issue have it with the shields off anyways.

[cupcakearmy]

This is still not fixed... Come on bois.

[szaimen]

Sry for asking but why should you disable shields (and adblocking) for youtube and therefore need this feature when you can bypass all ads with adblocking enabled?

[RobinLenaerts-r0627775]

so you dont screw over a youtubers income, they get paid by the amount of watches/clicks they get on the ads over their videos. if you use adblock and bypass the ads, you deny them some income.

[cupcakearmy]

I would like to get ads. I mean I don't like it but I want to support the platforms that deliver content. How are the sites and creators supposed to run otherwise?

[szaimen]

Through Brave Rewards, I assume?

[RobinLenaerts-r0627775]

brave rewards are not available everywhere yet :( belgium for example :(

[cupcakearmy]

While brave rewards are a cool concept (I truly believe they could be the future), it does not solve the underlying issue that even with all the shields down brave still affects a webpage. I expect that if I choose to turn off the shields, brave does not apply any modification to the website in question. In my opinion that is not transparent and I expect from a privacy focused application that it should be transparent as possible.

[w0rdism]

This issue is still occuring, would like if it could be fixed. Any word from this? cc @mkarolin

[Brave-Matt]

Another +1
https://community.brave.com/t/i-cannot-skip-any-ads-on-youtube-using-brave-anymore-i-dont-want-to-go-back-to-firefox-help-please/95732

[LaurenWags]

@ryanbr could you provide a test plan for this one? PR mentions

this will fix a few issues of ad elements showing up on youtube

would love to get some detail on what QA should specifically be looking for.

Additionally, I am still not seeing skip button on YT ads when shields are down, am I doing something incorrectly? My steps are:
Clean install of 1.4.x
Navigate to YT
Toggle shields off for YT
View a video with a pre-roll ad such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rNhH3BT_Sw
--> pre-roll ad shows and there's no skip button. Fired up Chrome (no ad blocker installed) and saw the skip button on this video.

[ryanbr]

This should be fixed in 1.4 from this PR: https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4403

[LaurenWags]

@kjozwiak @bsclifton can you guys take a look at this one? The PR referenced in https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/2763#issuecomment-584881696 doesn't have a milestone but I think it landed in 1.5.x, not 1.4.x. So not sure if we need to uplift something or this issue can be moved to 1.5.x milestone.

update: I tried to view the same video, shields down, on 1.5.x and still no skip button.

Brave | 1.5.86 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) dev (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 449cb163497b70dbf98d389f54e38e85d4c59b43-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#801}
OS | macOS Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G103)

Brave | 1.4.84 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 449cb163497b70dbf98d389f54e38e85d4c59b43-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#801}
OS | macOS Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G103)

[LaurenWags]

Had additional discussions with @ryanbr and did some more investigation. For the exact same 15s pre-roll ad on Chrome, Vivaldi and Brave (shields down):

• Chrome shows the skip button
• Vivaldi shows the skip button
• Brave (with shields down) does not show the skip button

Tested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lam-HQoNYKU with
Chrome 80.0.3987.100
Brave 1.4.84 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 and 1.5.86 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87
Vivaldi 2.10.1745.27 (Stable channel) (64-bit)

Gifs available by request, some are too large to post

[ryanbr]

Okay, I have implemented a fix. https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4603 Just needs to be reviewed.

[LaurenWags]

Per process, opened follow up issue https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8209

cc @kjozwiak @rebron @bsclifton in case you want to consider the follow up issue for uplift to 1.4.x once fix is confirmed.

[LaurenWags]

Verified using

Brave | 1.4.84 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 449cb163497b70dbf98d389f54e38e85d4c59b43-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#801}
OS | macOS Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G103)

• Skip button does not appear as expected, logged follow up issue https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8209 and referenced https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/2763#issuecomment-585081422 in it.

Verification passed on

Brave | 1.4.84 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 449cb163497b70dbf98d389f54e38e85d4c59b43-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#801}
OS | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

• Skip button does not appear as expected, encountered https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8209

Verification passed on

Brave | 1.4.86 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 449cb163497b70dbf98d389f54e38e85d4c59b43-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#801}
OS | Windows 10 OS Version 1803 (Build 17134.1006)

• Skip button does not appear as expected, encountered https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8209

[bsclifton]

Sorry for all the confusion folks - https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4403 was only merged to 1.5 (which was master at the time). We can uplift to 1.4, per comment here:
https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4403#issuecomment-578346143

@ryanbr https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4094 is only pushed as far as developer channel (1.4). We can uplift there, but a PR would need to be submitted manually (I tried running the automatic tool for uplift and it ran into problem cherry-picking)

@ryanbr:

• Can we please uplift https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4403 to 1.4, as this was never done
• Is https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4603 still needed?

[Ladrason]

@bsclifton
Sorry if this is an unnecessary comment or I'm bringing something unrelated up.

I've had problems with adds not getting their skip button as well on Windows. I'm right now on Brave nightly 1.6.24 and as can be seen here and here the skip button still doesn't appear when an ad starts.

Edit: here's the the build and OS information if it's needed.

• Brave: 1.6.24 Chromium: 80.0.3987.100 (Official Build) nightly (64-bit)

• Revision: 3f00c26d457663a424865bbef1179f72eec1b9fe-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#864}

• OS: Windows 10, version 1909 (build 18363.657)

[LaurenWags]

@bsclifton I do not get a skip button on 1.5.x either 😞 see:
https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/2763#issuecomment-584886721
https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8209#issue-564102098

Just tried again on 1.5.x:

Brave | 1.5.90 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 (Official Build) dev (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 449cb163497b70dbf98d389f54e38e85d4c59b43-refs/branch-heads/3987@{#801}
OS | macOS Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G103)

Confirmed that same ad on Chrome does have a skip button, but when ad shows on Brave (shields down), there is no skip button.

[ryanbr]

@bsclifton both https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4403 https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/4603 are needed .

[LaurenWags]

removing release-notes/include label as this issue was not fixed in 1.4.x and will be addressed with https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8209 per https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/2763#issuecomment-585280056

[marcottt]

still have same issue..... there is some action to do ?

[Ladrason]

@marcottt

They are working on fixing it. You can follow the progress here.

If you want a quick fix you can install Stylebot and add

.ytp-ad-module {
    display: block;
}

to the edit CSS section in the extension when you're on youtube.