YouTube Ads - Removing

[cwuk100]

This seems to be a common thread, but I am unable to find a solution that works. We use a lot of YouTube videos in our schools for sensory etc. These videos can be very long and are often interrupted by adverts, for example a recent advert for the latest Meet the fockers. I would like to remove the ads from being displayed. I know this can be done with YouTube premium, but we are unable to use YouTube premium with Google Workspace accounts, which we use to manage YouTube content. Does anyone have any guidance or experience. We want to avoid things like Ad removers and downloaders are illegal. I have looked at the old "-" in the domain name but this seems to no longer work.

 

[ITGuyNW]

If its just sensory you need, is it worth creating a kids profile? May still get adverts but they will be suitable for kids.

[3s-gtech]

Pihole on the network?

[andy_b]

4 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

Pihole on the network?

DNS ad blocking won't work - they are "served" from the same domain as the actual videos.

 

Needs to be uBlock or some other Browser add-on.

Edited April 24 by andy_b

[Danp]

I find that this Chrome extension stops just about all adverts

 

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/adguard-adblocker/bgnkhhnnamicmpeenaelnjfhikgbkllg

[ICT_GUY]

Brave Browser on the staff machines still works.

Pihole to reduce as much of the adverts on websites in general not you tube.

Works like a charm.

[Lxshm]

ublock origin lite seems to be working fine on max setting

[Davit2005]

58 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

Pihole on the network?

I've found that not sufficient due to the ads been embeded in YouTube and difficult to filter by DNS alone. PiHole is great though and been using it for years, jus moving over to Technitium at home for more flexibility and advanced features.

Edited April 24 by Davit2005

[Danp]

The other option, slightly more controversial, is using a VPN to connect to an Albanian server, which can block YouTube ads because Google has limited ad inventory in that region

[Synkrox]

As you point out it's a breach of their terms blocking ads - And that's a bumpy game of endless whack-a-mole.

If ad-blocking is ont he cards you may as well  roll out Stacher so they download themselves. Then they can drop the MP4 straight into Powerpoint too.

 

Some staff here use Youtube but it's discouraged. We have Jellyfin, IntoFilm, iPlayer, ERA etc ad-free resources that staff can tap into without the agro of inappropriate suggestions/thumbnails/content on Youtube. 

[ICT_GUY]

We have a media server running jellyfin as well.

It is also possible to have a mint linux machine running a free video downloader that you can obtain ad free offline versions of popular videos should you so wish.

Edited April 24 by ICT_GUY

[paulkerton]

You're all discussing some very interesting ways to end up getting block listed by YouTube guys.

The answer remains, that if you post a YouTube video in Google Classroom, that will strip the adverts from it.

[Joeloman]

Regarding ads in YouTube videos.

Smoothwall fast forwards the ad and turns the screen black, so students don't see the ad but see a sign from the company behind the ad and there is a small interruption.
This only applies to Smoothwall Cloud Filter
https://kb.smoothwall.com/hc/en-us/articles/22648453339164-List-of-available-Content-Modifications

 

[AlphamaleZed]

Check my post out using uBlock Origin Lite has worked amazing! Used for Primary & Secondary no complaints.

 

[KDW1987]

Isn't there a way to use pi-hole with a raspberry pi to block this?

[PaddyNewman]

8 hours ago, KDW1987 said:

Isn't there a way to use pi-hole with a raspberry pi to block this?

Sadly not, the ads are served on googlevideo.com which you cant block. 

 

Google/YouTube need some serious pressure applied to them to sort this, otherwise schools will feel they need to continue breaking ToS. 

[FN-GM]

My daughter has YouTube Kids, there isn't any adverts. Might be an easy and quick way to fix the issue.

[DrBeaker]

On 24/04/2026 at 12:44, Synkrox said:

As you point out it's a breach of their terms blocking ads - And that's a bumpy game of endless whack-a-mole.

If ad-blocking is ont he cards you may as well  roll out Stacher so they download themselves. Then they can drop the MP4 straight into Powerpoint too.

 

Some staff here use Youtube but it's discouraged. We have Jellyfin, IntoFilm, iPlayer, ERA etc ad-free resources that staff can tap into without the agro of inappropriate suggestions/thumbnails/content on Youtube. 

 

Exactly that. You're be breaking the T&C's of YouTube/Google otherwise and they (the school) won't support you if anything happens.

 

 

On 25/04/2026 at 07:25, PaddyNewman said:

Sadly not, the ads are served on googlevideo.com which you cant block. 

 

Google/YouTube need some serious pressure applied to them to sort this, otherwise schools will feel they need to continue breaking ToS. 

 

Nothing has changed in the past decade it seems them with this. Something someone in govt should be able to sort out with the tech providers.

 

[thimon]

16 hours ago, FN-GM said:

My daughter has YouTube Kids, there isn't any adverts. Might be an easy and quick way to fix the issue.

I have actually seed ads in YouTube kids, although appeared to be a limited run and not very long. 

[AlphamaleZed]

On 24/04/2026 at 23:03, KDW1987 said:

Isn't there a way to use pi-hole with a raspberry pi to block this?

Nah unfortunately not also look into https://technitium.com/dns/ an enteprise version of it.

[AlphamaleZed]

On 25/04/2026 at 07:25, PaddyNewman said:

Sadly not, the ads are served on googlevideo.com which you cant block. 

 

Google/YouTube need some serious pressure applied to them to sort this, otherwise schools will feel they need to continue breaking ToS. 

They have way too much power. it's every major tech company and toxic ads.

Facebook ads were even worse I've seen full porn show up on that!

 

[Davit2005]

On 24/04/2026 at 23:03, KDW1987 said:

Isn't there a way to use pi-hole with a raspberry pi to block this?

PiHole been a DNS based blocker it does not block all YouTube ads. The only way is with uBlock or similar but then you are in merky T&C waters as others have said.

[ICT_GUY]

23 hours ago, DrBeaker said:

 

Exactly that. You're be breaking the T&C's of YouTube/Google otherwise and they (the school) won't support you if anything happens.

 

 

 

Nothing has changed in the past decade it seems them with this. Something someone in govt should be able to sort out with the tech providers.

 

Well the number of inappropriate adverts popping up without the adblocking is insane.

 

We had a very upset teacher worrying because an advert about a prist having intimate alone time popped up while he was showing a video.

Hence using brave browser for youtube is now mandatory. 

Pihole does do a great job of reducing the number of adverts generally, but it is not bullet proof. RM is pretty decent but again not completely bullet proof.

I have found a multi layered approach seems to work. 

[tom_newton]

You'll not get super far with pihole or other DNS blockers.

The trajectory of ad blocking was DNS/URL, which is still useful, but not when it is google you are trying to work around, then we moved on to actually adjusting the DOM (ublock does this, as does Smoothwall cloud, and to an extent, on prem (which has in-page regexes, a bit more blunt instrumenty)). Even that is now useless when the ads are served in the same video stream as the content, and ad blockers are increasingly detectable.

To my mind, the only solution here is for an ad-free version of youtube to be officially offered to schools in the same way youtube premium is offered to individuals. I am pushing folks to join me in campaigning to make this a reality, and take the constant worry and fight away from Schools.

[AlphamaleZed]

3 hours ago, ICT_GUY said:

Well the number of inappropriate adverts popping up without the adblocking is insane.

 

We had a very upset teacher worrying because an advert about a prist having intimate alone time popped up while he was showing a video.

Hence using brave browser for youtube is now mandatory. 

Pihole does do a great job of reducing the number of adverts generally, but it is not bullet proof. RM is pretty decent but again not completely bullet proof.

I have found a multi layered approach seems to work. 

bruh what kind of advert was that

 

Brave browser - are you using cloud filtering where it is done by extension? We are restricted to Chrome/Edge so uBlock was the best ways.

 

T&Cs im not really too fussed. If they ban YouTube for schools it's probably safer that way then exposing young children to all sorts of ADs.