Several users have reported that their YouTube videos automatically skip to the end. And yes, it is a bug instead of a feature YouTube experimented with earlier this month. The weird behavior appears to happen only to those who have installed an ad blocker on their device, according to user reports spotted by 9to5Google.
As per user reports, the video skips to the end when it's played from the beginning and also when the video is replayed. Sometimes, the video starts loading endlessly when the user skips to any part of the video. However, everything starts working as expected when the ad blocker is disabled.
The publication notes that the behavior is mostly visible in the case of users who have installed AdBlock on their devices. However, a very small number of users who didn't have an ad blocker installed reported the behavior.
There is a common belief among many users that this is some new trick YouTube has played to limit people from using ad blockers. However, it could be possible that the video-sharing platform may not be at fault. YouTube was previously accused of slowing down videos and causing crashes, which turned out to be a bug affecting AdBlock and AdBlock Plus.
This doesn't mean the Google-owned company doesn't do anything to stop people from using ad blockers on its platform. YouTube has previously resorted to displaying pop-up messages with countdown timers and issuing warnings that people who use third-party apps that block YouTube ads could see buffering when streaming videos.
YouTube uses various formats of advertisements as a source of revenue and to fund creators on its platform. While there are users who can go to lengths to dodge ads altogether, YouTube's decision to put unskippable ads has been criticized by many.
The company offers the YouTube Premium subscription to remove ads from its videos, better 1080p quality, and let users download videos for offline access. After the latest price hike, it starts at $13.99/mo for the individual plans and goes up to $22.9/mo for the family plans, which can be shared among six users.
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As an online publication, Neowin too relies on ads for operating costs and, if you use an ad blocker, we'd appreciate being whitelisted. In addition, we have an ad-free subscription for $28 a year, which is another way to show support!
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