Back in November, the website and videos on YouTube started to load much longer if users used an ad blocker. Recently, the problem returned, but as it turned out, at least for now, Google is not to blame.

For example, some Reddit users have again started complaining that with the ad blocker installed, Youtube is much slower, and there are problems with video previews, opening it in full screen or theater mode. In addition, the browser starts consuming more processor power than without the ad blocker.

Youtube started slowing video buffer with adblock enabled
byu/NightMean inyoutube

Of course, Google was immediately blamed for the problem, but later it turned out that the culprit was the ad blocker itself, more specifically, the latest update of Adblock and Adblock Plus. This was reported by the add-on’s developer on GitLab, explaining that the problem is in the update of the extension mechanism to version 1.1.1, which Adblock and ABP have switched to. In the 1.1.2 update, the issue was fixed, so users of these ad blockers should update them.