It's Happened. Chrome Killed UBlock Origin

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

Google have killed UBlock Origin on their browser...for me at least.

We knew it was coming but it's a shock.

Already changed default browser to Firefox and downloading Brave as my secondary browser.

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

Looks like Microsoft Edge is still working with uBlock Origin...for now.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Was it the regular version or the lite version?

[Circaflex]

On 19/02/2025 at 00:46, Edouard said:

Google have killed UBlock Origin on their browser...for me at least.

We knew it was coming but it's a shock.

Already changed default browser to Firefox and downloading Brave as my secondary browser.

you can switch to a system wide adblocker like AdGuard and still use Chrome.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

If your feeling adventurous, you can use a raspberry pi (3b works great) and make a pi-hole server for your home network for free.
https://pi-hole.net/

Note - It does not block youtube ads.

[Riggers]

Still working on a Win 10 box with uBlock origin 1.62 and Chrome 133.0.6943.127

When you say "killed", does it just not start or ?

[+Good Bot, Bad Bot Subscriber¹]

On 19/02/2025 at 10:07, Circaflex said:

you can switch to a system wide adblocker like AdGuard and still use Chrome.

Or just not use a browser that is not hostile to users and doesn't respect their privacy.

 

 

On 19/02/2025 at 10:13, Eternal Tempest said:

If your feeling adventurous, you can use a raspberry pi (3b works great) and make a pi-hole server for your home network for free.
https://pi-hole.net/

Note - It does not block youtube ads.

Another box just to block ads seems like over kill when can just use uBlock Origin in Firefox (that also blocks Youtube ads).

[Michael Scrip]

I'm still using uBlock Origin on the latest current version of Chrome...  133.0.6943.127 on Windows 11 Home.

It's still blocking ads for me.

Does this mean that you cannot download the extension anymore?  But because I already had it installed it keeps working?

🤔

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

On 19/02/2025 at 12:31, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

Another box just to block ads seems like over kill when can just use uBlock Origin in Firefox (that also blocks Youtube ads).

Firefox is my preferred browser personally . A benefit (depending on your block lists) is non-pc’s devices, including PlayStation/Xbox (telemetry), mobile devices (apps that run on them) gain a base level of ad blocking while on your network.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 20/02/2025 at 01:10, Warwagon said:

Was it the regular version or the lite version?

It was the regular version. Google also killed AutoPlayStopper which is a shame. I'd been using that for years.

On 20/02/2025 at 02:07, Circaflex said:

you can switch to a system wide adblocker like AdGuard and still use Chrome.

Yes, that's an option. I'm aware of AdGuard but have never really taken a close look.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 20/02/2025 at 02:13, Eternal Tempest said:

If your feeling adventurous, you can use a raspberry pi (3b works great) and make a pi-hole server for your home network for free.
https://pi-hole.net/

Note - It does not block youtube ads.

Not sure I'm that adventurous to be honest.

YT ads aren't an issue as we're YT Premium subscribers and have been since it was called YT Red. We watch a lot of YT and use YT Music as our music streaming service so it's a no brainer for us.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 20/02/2025 at 02:54, Riggers said:

Still working on a Win 10 box with uBlock origin 1.62 and Chrome 133.0.6943.127

When you say "killed", does it just not start or ?

When I opened Chrome a pop up informed me that UBlock Origin and AutoPlayStopper had been turned off and Google recommended I uninstall them.

On 20/02/2025 at 05:21, Michael Scrip said:

I'm still using uBlock Origin on the latest current version of Chrome...  133.0.6943.127 on Windows 11 Home.

It's still blocking ads for me.

Does this mean that you cannot download the extension anymore?  But because I already had it installed it keeps working?

🤔

I had it installed. Refer to my response to @Riggers

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 20/02/2025 at 09:40, Eternal Tempest said:

Firefox is my preferred browser personally . A benefit (depending on your block lists) is non-pc’s devices, including PlayStation/Xbox (telemetry), mobile devices (apps that run on them) gain a base level of ad blocking. 
 

I'm now using FF on mobile with ad blocker and have set it to default. Hopefully, Mozilla sync is as excellent as Google Chrome sync. I was using Brave a lot on mobile but will give FF a go now given the sync with desktop hopes.

[Riggers]

Well, I spoke to soon 😒  ###### Google just switched off uBlock origin and no way to turn it back on. It`s just a test box for some stuff (main box is Fx) so I`ve placed the lite version on...we`ll see how it goes!

[xrobwx71]

I got the message on multiple PC's at work and simply turned it back on. It is still blocking ads but there is a small note in the ublock setting that says "The extension may soon no longer be supported". I see the same behavior on multiple Win 11 PC's

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 20/02/2025 at 23:25, Riggers said:

Well, I spoke to soon 😒  ###### Google just switched off uBlock origin and no way to turn it back on. It`s just a test box for some stuff (main box is Fx) so I`ve placed the lite version on...we`ll see how it goes!

Ugh, ba**ards!

I wonder how they're rolling this out. I'm also surprised that there is no tech site coverage of this.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 20/02/2025 at 23:51, xrobwx71 said:

I got the message on multiple PC's at work and simply turned it back on. It is still blocking ads but there is a small note in the ublock setting that says "The extension may soon no longer be supported". I see the same behavior on multiple Win 11 PC's

Yes, that's the message I've had on my two W10 laptops for a couple of months.

The other day though, Google flicked the switch.

[xrobwx71]

On 20/02/2025 at 22:29, Edouard said:

Yes, that's the message I've had on my two W10 laptops for a couple of months.

The screenshot is from yesterday and clearly shows it's on and working.

On 20/02/2025 at 22:29, Edouard said:

The other day though, Google flicked the switch.

And I turned it back on.

 

Are you saying you cannot turn yours back on?

[olavinto]

It's not really about "killing" anything specific. It is about Manifest v3 (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate/what-is-mv3) being enforced for all extensions now. This has been coming for over two years, and uBlock Origin Lite is based on MV3: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin-lite/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh. Google even postponed this about years ago when it was first supposed to become a requirement. For some ad blocking insight you can read AdGuard's comments about it: https://adguard.com/en/blog/chrome-manifest-v3-where-we-stand.html.

[turinglives]

I dropped Chrome when it started glitching with my preset tabs. Never managed to fix it, no matter how much troubleshooting I did. Only option was to nuke and reinstall. I gave it a lot of chances but in the end I never got it to work right. Firefox never had that problem, so I switched back to it (was my default in my college years). Haven't looked back since.

[eilegz]

time to switch to firefox

[olavinto]

Manifest v3 is not just a Chromium thing, and it applies to all browsers. However Mozilla has decided to retain Manifest v2 support, at least for now. This will probably change at some point since most extension devs probably aren't interested in maintaining separate extensions for Chromium and Firefox. I'm also a Firefox user, so I am not arguing against it at all, just pointing out that soon we may not have anything but MV3 based extensions available.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 00:01, xrobwx71 said:

Are you saying you cannot turn yours back on?

You know what, I don't know.

The pop up told me UBlock Origin no longer works and I should remove it so given I knew this was coming I didn't even explore that option. I removed it.

Either way, this was happening at some point but your point is valid. I could have checked and maybe extended the staus quo for a few months.

On 22/02/2025 at 03:21, olavinto said:

It's not really about "killing" anything specific. It is about Manifest v3 (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate/what-is-mv3) being enforced for all extensions now. This has been coming for over two years, and uBlock Origin Lite is based on MV3: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ublock-origin-lite/ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh. Google even postponed this about years ago when it was first supposed to become a requirement. For some ad blocking insight you can read AdGuard's comments about it: https://adguard.com/en/blog/chrome-manifest-v3-where-we-stand.html.

Yes, we are aware. This site has covered this extensively.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 04:33, turinglives said:

I dropped Chrome when it started glitching with my preset tabs. Never managed to fix it, no matter how much troubleshooting I did. Only option was to nuke and reinstall. I gave it a lot of chances but in the end I never got it to work right. Firefox never had that problem, so I switched back to it (was my default in my college years). Haven't looked back since.

Ok, fair enough. For me, Google Chrome has been the superior browser when it comes to sync between my browser, GMail, YouTube which I live on and my Google Pixel phone.

I begrudgenly am now using FF again. It has been several years but after taking the time to set up FF it is more than capable. I'm keeping Chrome for YouTube, YouTube Music and GMail but my daily driver is now Firefox.

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 22/02/2025 at 09:51, olavinto said:

Manifest v3 is not just a Chromium thing, and it applies to all browsers. However Mozilla has decided to retain Manifest v2 support, at least for now. This will probably change at some point since most extension devs probably aren't interested in maintaining separate extensions for Chromium and Firefox. I'm also a Firefox user, so I am not arguing against it at all, just pointing out that soon we may not have anything but MV3 based extensions available.

Not sure it will change unless FF gains majorly in desktop market share.

The reason Google pays Mozilla half a billion dollars a year is to show global regulators that Chrome isn't a monopoly.