uBlock Origin's icon now tells you if it's ready to block ads at browser launch

Ashwin
Mar 23, 2023
Google Chrome extensions
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28

uBlock Origin has been updated to version 1.48. The open source content blocker, renowned for its ad-blocking capabilities, now changes its button's color to indicate its readiness at the browser's launch.

Why is uBlock Origin's icon showing a yellow badge?

It's like this, when you open your browser, you expect it to work perfectly right away, in this case you don't want to see ads on web pages. What you need to know is that the extension needs a few seconds after the browser has been opened, to load its filters, in order to use them to block requests, i.e. to prevent ads.

Unfortunately, it isn't that simple, at least with Chromium browsers, especially since version 110 that was released in February this year. What happens is, the browser gives preference to load web pages that were open in the previous session, even before add-ons such as uBlock Origin are ready. As a result of this, you will see ads on web pages.

Most users would blame it on the extension failing to do its job, while the browser is actually the one causing the issue. This isn't a new problem per se, uBlock Origin has been combating Chrome's ever-evolving shenanigans for a couple of years, particularly when it comes to YouTube ads that played at the browser's startup. Version 1.40 of the add-on addressed this way back in 2021 by introducing a new setting to suspend tabs upon launch.

But, Chromium has continued to evolve in complex ways over time, and more users have started noticing ads on the browser's launch. The uBlock Origin 1.48 update brings an important change related to this.

Why is uBlock Origin's icon showing a yellow badge

Users who update to the latest version will notice that the extension's icon color may be different. If the entire button is yellow, it indicates that the plugin is currently loading the filter lists into memory, i.e., uBlock Origin is not ready for use yet. It only takes a few seconds for it to turn to its usual color, maroon.

ublock origin button yellow badge

 

The add-on's icon may also display an exclamation mark in a yellow badge with a yellow background, this means that uBlock Origin is getting ready (loading its filters), and that network requests made by the browser at launch were not processed by the extension on web pages that were loaded.  If the button's background is maroon, but has the yellow badge on it, that shows the add-on is ready for use, but the current web page has not been filtered properly, i.e. you need to reload the page.

ublock origin button normal color

 

This can be annoying if several tabs were loaded. The good news is, you don't necessarily have to refresh the pages on Chromium-based browsers, if you enable a setting which was introduced in version 1.41. The option is enabled by default in Firefox.

For those of you using Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi or Opera, here's how to toggle the feature. Click on the uBlock Origin button, and then on the Settings icon. Switch to the filter lists tab. Click the checkbox next to the option that says Suspend network activity until all filter lists are loaded.

how to prevent web pages from loading before ublock origin is ready

Warning: Enabling the option could negatively impact page loading performance at the browser's launch. This issue only affects Chromium-based browsers.

The uBlock Origin 1.48 update is currently live on the Microsoft Edge add-ons store. The update has been submitted for review at Mozilla's add-on repository. The extensions Chrome web store and Opera add-ons will be submitted a week after the extension is available for Firefox users.

uBlock Origin's change log says that this feature was introduced to reduce the number of reports from users who were asking for help regarding the issue. I think the new color-coded system is a great way to educate users why they are still getting ads.

Summary
uBlock Origin's icon now tells you if it's ready to block ads at browser launch
Article Name
uBlock Origin's icon now tells you if it's ready to block ads at browser launch
Description
uBlock Origin now displays a yellow icon if it is not ready to block ads when you start your browser.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. MPA said on June 8, 2023 at 3:50 am
    Reply

    I miss Netscape. It was everything you could want in a browser. I remember it also included setting up emails and newsgroups.

  2. Someone said on March 25, 2023 at 12:28 am
    Reply

    i use both ublock and AdblockPlus. The second is very good, than uBlock that I’ve noticed some bugs instead. Only problem is the cookies pop-up banners.

    1. Tom Hawack said on March 26, 2023 at 5:30 pm
      Reply

      uBlock Origin AND AdblockPlus : never do that!
      You have all you need in uBO, you can enable/disable provided lists, add your own lists as well as filters and rules.
      Using another Adblock extension with uBO will not only lead to redundancy but to possible clashes (think of one blocked blocking and the other making an exception), and will inevitably slow down. Believe me : avoid that.

      1. basingstoke said on March 27, 2023 at 6:48 pm
        Reply

        It’s much easier to manage “permanent” removals of site elements with ABP, and even revert accidentally saved blocked items. I use ublock for passive stuff, and non-permanent zaps, hell, it’s zaps are better than ABP zaps, but ABP zaps are much easier to manage. I know you can do this with ublock but it seems to me to be far more obtuse.

      2. Tom Hawack said on March 27, 2023 at 8:47 pm
        Reply

        @basingstoke, I do agree that managing removals of style elements, in fact styling may be easier with another extension than uBO (though feasible with uBO) but then with a dedicated style extension : using ABP together with uBO, if it may be easier for styling site elements as you mention it, nevertheless has the drawback of being basically comparable to uBO and as I see it (and have read often) is NOT advised, be it by simple good sense : redundancy and possible clashes : i.e. if ABP says “Remove” and uBO says “Don’t remove” (@@exception for instance) then we face a race, possible slowdowns, inconsistency. I mean, they don’t go together because their action field is the same.

        Personally I use a Style Editor, ‘Stylish’ here, to remove, edit site elements. A Style Editor … styles, it’s not an AdBlocker, it won’t interfere with uBO. In some cases it’s faster than uBO when it comes to removing site elements : for instance there’s a uBO filter which blocks an ad’s area, that area may be blocked once the page is fully resolved …. whilst if I add a rule to ‘Stylish’ to perform that removal, the removal is done much faster than with uBO : I happen to remove with Stylish what uBO does with its ‘Cosmetic filtering’ just to avoid, you know, the element, because removed lately, making the page rendering less “smooth” :=)

        But the main thing is that we get along with our aspirations, if it works the way we like it then that’s the main thing. We all have our ways of, our little habits. There may be ultimate ways pros know, but we’re not all pros :=)

    2. Mystique said on March 26, 2023 at 4:03 pm
      Reply

      I don’t know about AdblockPlus being any better than uBlock origin (provided you are using the proper uBlock Origin) but it is clearly working for you. I feel like the doubling up is probably part of your problems that and maybe you could afford to add some additional filters to your filter lists such as the ones in the annoyance categories regardless of what you are using that will help you with your cookie problem or you could consider installing an extension such as “I still don’t care about cookies”. They might also have a filter list but I do not recall exactly.

  3. Mystique said on March 24, 2023 at 3:12 pm
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    Anyone would think google would want ads to slip through… funny that.
    Google always Googling.

  4. Shove your warnings... said on March 24, 2023 at 1:59 pm
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    “Warning: Enabling the option could negatively impact page loading performance at the browser’s launch. This issue only affects Chromium-based browsers.”

    DUHHHHHHH….

    The whole point is to block ads, I don’t care even if the browser would need a good 5 minutes to launch the first time just so I won’t see any ads, EVER.

  5. upp said on March 23, 2023 at 9:58 pm
    Reply

    Mozilla takes the review process very very seriously, not like Chrome which uses 100% automated bot and that’s why there is full of malware extensions from Chrome Store, as recent Save cookies.txt extension infected a whole subreddit of yt-dlp and it was removed from Chrome Store, but it still managed to steal so many bank accounts of many users..

    1. Anonymous said on March 25, 2023 at 12:31 am
      Reply

      Not very serious when you found tons of malware lol. Check the Firefox subreddit.

      Btw you may not know, it’s free to publish in Firefox addon store but you need to pay to publish in Chrome addon store.

    2. Iron Heart said on March 24, 2023 at 1:06 am
      Reply

      @upp

      Only a minor percentage of Firefox’s extensions are manually reviewed. The rest gets automatic reviews just like what happens on the Chrome Web Store.

  6. Graham said on March 23, 2023 at 6:29 pm
    Reply

    I just keep the icon hidden with the add-on running in the background. Out of sight, out of mind.

  7. John G. said on March 23, 2023 at 4:04 pm
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    Ublock should have more filters added by default! :]

  8. Pierre said on March 23, 2023 at 2:25 pm
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    That’s right, I have this update in Edge : ublock Origin from the Edge extensions store

  9. Tom Hawack said on March 23, 2023 at 1:26 pm
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    Waiting for updated uBlock Origin 1.4.8 to appear on AMO …

    One thing I don’t understand is this :

    When searching AMO for updated extensions with [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?sort=updated&type=extension] ‘uBlock Origin’ is often displayed even when not updated : Mozilla loves uBO so do we …

    But when uBlock Origin has an available update, as now with ver. 1.4.8 [https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases] AMO takes it time to deliver it… seems incoherent.

    It’s always possible to install latest uBO (or any other extension) from its its homepage (when available and with caution), I never do) or download it and install it manually from Firefox, but then the extension’s Release Notes don’t appear in the extension’s about:addons column…

    Not to mention that when Firefox itself is updated the release notes appear only later on.

    Said.

    1. upp said on March 23, 2023 at 9:59 pm
      Reply

      Mozilla takes the review process very very seriously, not like Chrome which uses 100% automated bot and that’s why there is full of malware extensions from Chrome Store, as recent Save cookies.txt extension infected a whole subreddit of yt-dlp and it was removed from Chrome Store, but it still managed to steal so many bank accounts of many users..

      1. Iron Heart said on March 24, 2023 at 7:36 am
        Reply

        @upp

        Except only a tiny number of Firefox add-ons are manually reviewed, the rest gets an automatic review similar to the Chrome Web Store. Sorry to burst your bubble here.

    2. TelV said on March 23, 2023 at 2:05 pm
      Reply

      Agree with you Tom Hawack. Last UBO update was March 18 (v1.47.4) and no other update shows when running a check which I just did.

  10. John G. said on March 23, 2023 at 12:52 pm
    Reply

    Thanks @Ashwin for the article. :]

  11. upp said on March 23, 2023 at 10:22 am
    Reply

    Good job, Chrome is so shady and Chromium-based also suffer he same issue if they don’t change the default behavior which likely.

    1. Iron Heart said on March 23, 2023 at 1:51 pm
      Reply

      @upp

      It’s not the first time I see you spreading BS about Chromium, but anyway: Extensions are inherently NOT a robust way of domain blocking. Neither uBlock Origin nor any other extension is. Built-in adblockers (like the one in Brave) directly interact with the network stack (without the roundabout way of extension APIs), there is no delay after the startup of the browser contrary to what would happen with uBO.

      It’s annoying that Firefox users don’t recognize uBO as the glorified bandaid that it is, as no adblocker ships with the browser. Same story with Chrome. But that doesn’t have to be true for all browsers just because it’s true with those two.

      1. upp said on March 24, 2023 at 3:38 am
        Reply

        @Iron Heart: Stop speading BS, the reason why uBlock is less effective on Chrome because it was gutted, eventhen it’s still 10x better than any type of built-in adblock from those specific browsers that barely blocks anything, and don’t even allow users to config anything.

      2. Iron Heart said on March 24, 2023 at 7:27 am
        Reply

        @upp

        > the reason why uBlock is less effective on Chrome because it was gutted

        It wasn’t gutted at all, Manifest V3 isn’t in effect yet. You know nothing.

        > eventhen it’s still 10x better than any type of built-in adblock from those specific browsers that barely blocks anything, and don’t even allow users to config anything.

        Oh yeah? I see zero ads with Brave, running it with roughly the same lists as uBO. How can it be 10 x better than that? What am I missing? Do you think the ad cares about which blocker blocks it? LMAO.

      3. upp said on March 24, 2023 at 11:15 am
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        @Iron Heart: Stop your BS, it IS gutted even in MV2, MV3 makes it totally dogshit.

        When you need to block ads that the list doesn’t even contain, especially anti-adblock, anti-debugger… and shit then you have to care because you can’t just rely on other people to write filter for you, people can’t keep feeding your mouth forever lmao, but you’re NOT a power-user that’s why you accept such adblock with zero configuration, okay ?

      4. basingstoke said on March 23, 2023 at 2:19 pm
        Reply

        The world survived for 15+ years without any browsers having “built-in” ad block, but now it’s “not robust” and a “glorified bandaid”, dude, if it works, nobody cares.

      5. Iron Heart said on March 23, 2023 at 2:32 pm
        Reply

        @basingstoke

        The article describes that uBlock Origin actually doesn’t work for a time after the browser starts due to API performance constraints. That’s problematic especially if tabs with open websites are saved between sessions, which is the case for a lot of people. Then ads and tracking scripts may load upon restart, before uBlock Origin has started. That’s not robust, period.

        And yes, it is a glorified bandaid, it exists solely because some browsers don’t do adblocking ootb for business reasons.

      6. basingstoke said on March 23, 2023 at 6:23 pm
        Reply

        “some browsers don’t do adblocking ootb” .. yeah no it’s actually the other way around, most common browsers don’t do this – the ones that do are the exception. I’m willing to give you the point, that perhaps they somehow can function better when being built into a browser – but also my experience with browsers is typically: reboot PC, open browser – none of my previous tabs open up immediately (which would be a pretty odd behavior, actually, now that I think about it?), but instead I am given an option to restore my last session, or parts of it – so when I re-open my browser, it gets to “load up” by itself for at least a good few seconds, without any of my past tabs being loaded.

        So i hope you can see how some of your comments “seem” a little extreme, at least from my personal perspective. If it’s the case that ublock origin users must give their browser a few seconds before restoring their tabs (and they must turn off immediate/automatic tab-reopening), that seems like a much easier thing to do, than to integrate an adblocker into a browser.

    2. Deep Fried Shirt said on March 23, 2023 at 10:34 am
      Reply

      Vivaldi, Opera and Brave are not implementing everything Chrome does. Also there is going to be this browser called Arc, currently in beta for Mac that is Chromium, bit has uBlock Origin built-in.

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