Are you using chrome or Firefox?

I usually watch YouTube on a laptop hooked up to my tv, so I downloaded freetube and just imported my subscriptions. It's got sponsorblock and other features built in, but you can't like or comment on videos. Overall though I've been using it for about 6 months now and wouldn't dream of going back to YouTube and trying to constantly deal with them fucking it up more daily.

I had good luck with paying for YouTube Premium. Can use a VPN to get it so dirt cheap I wouldn't bother with working around it.

inconvenient but cobalt.tools

i'm using safari on macOS, and i've had pretty good luck with Ad Guard Pro. when i get the adblock warning, i switch my user agent. when that doesn't work, deleting my cookies usually does the trick.

I use Piped + LibreTube, and I self-host Piped to get better and more consistent load times. Works very well, only minor issues every now and then.

Did you delete Google and Youtube cookies when you reloaded the UBlock stuff? That's a necessary step.

unpopular answer: youtube premium as bundled with a wider google subscription, aka Google One or the like

Brave usually zero ads

Like the majority I am using Ublock and Firefox, but I've noticed over the last month it is very slow to catch up to YouTube ads and I'm seeing them make it through a lot more often.

AdGuard is still working for me on all platforms. (Mac OS Safari, iOS Safari)

Never mind. See below.

I've been using ProtonVPN on my router with adblock and antimalware features enabled, and uBlock on Firefox and I've never encountered a problem when I click on YouTube links.

I normally use invidious anyway.

I have to log out, clear cookies, update/clear block lists, then log back in.

Piped has been working great for me

revanced hasn't had any issues or required any workarounds