What Is the “Experiencing Interruptions?” Message on YouTube?

If you are seeing the message "Experiencing interruptions?" while watching videos on YouTube, this is not a technical issue or a problem with your internet connection. The message is part of a new tactic being used by YouTube to detect and disrupt users who have ad blockers enabled. It's also a ploy to get you to sign up for YouTube Premium. It's sneaky and probably illegal in the EU.

Why Are You Seeing The Experiencing Interruptions Message?

YouTube has recently implemented new anti-adblocker measures. These changes are designed to detect when viewers are using ad blockers and interfere with video playback as a form of pressure. The "Experiencing interruptions?" message is part of that strategy. YouTube is deliberately throttling video playback and creating artificial buffering in order to encourage users to disable their ad blockers or subscribe to YouTube Premium. They also recently increased prices on Premium again and have started introducing ads to Premium as well...

Does it Happen on All Browsers?

This issue is affecting users across all major browsers. However, it appears to be most common for users on Mozilla Firefox. Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers are also affected, though in some cases the countermeasures may behave differently.

Ad blockers that are widely impacted include:

• uBlock Origin
• Adblock Plus
• AdGuard
• Other custom or lesser-known browser extensions

What Can You Do About It?

There are a few different things you can do to solve this problem, but not all of them are long-term fixes or something that you might want to do. I personally think the first option listed below is your best choice, so consider it.

Wait for Updates to Your Ad Blocker

This is a constantly evolving battle between YouTube and ad blocker developers. The most effective solution is to make sure your ad blocker is updated to the latest version. We have a full guide on getting around the AdBlocker issue here.

Use a Different Browser or AdBlocker Temporarily

If the issue is worse on Firefox, you can try using a Chromium-based browser to see if the behaviour is different. This is not a permanent fix, but it may offer a short-term improvement. Though I personally would just stick with Firefox and Ublock and wait for them to patch the issue.

Disable Your Ad Blocker on YouTube

Disabling your ad blocker on YouTube will stop the interruptions, but it comes at the cost of seeing ads. YouTube tracks whether ads are displayed, so this can prevent further disruptions if you are not ready to fully stop using the platform. This will probably drive you mad though as the ads experience on YouTube is a total disgrace at this point in time.

Subscribe to YouTube Premium (JOKE!)

This is the official way to remove ads, according to YouTube. It is a paid subscription that disables all ads and some interruptions, but it's not something that 99% of people want to do. Not only are ads annoying and overbearing, they are also mostly scams and NSFW content these days. Which is why running an AdBlocker is considered as important as an antivirus tool.

Alternative Platforms?

There are quite a few other options you can use, but we can't mention them here, sadly. If you head on over to r/YouTube you'll find plenty of posts offering some good solutions for other platforms that you might find quite interesting.