Youtube problem on r3dfox

townsbg · Post by **townsbg** » 29 Jul 2026, 18:56

I decided to replace Firefox on my windows 7 install with r3dfox and it would work except I have a strange issue with youtube. Occasionally I like to watch music vids and after install I noticed that every single vid opened up in a playlist I could tell that it was going to do so because the url has playlist in it. They didn't show up from the search page as playlists but regular music vids. I continued using Firefox for music vids.

That was a few months ago. Trying it again today when I'd search for a vid every single result was either a short or playlist. Who watches shorts when they want to watch music vids? They aren't actual must vids. At least the playlists showed up as playlists rather than looking like vids. Filtering down to vids only resulted in a bunch of blank lines. I don't know if this is a youtube problem or r3dfox but I don't have this issue on Firefox. I cleared cache and tried again but I got the same thing. I'm using version 140 esr.

Post by **Duke** » 29 Jul 2026, 21:29

Is it different with another browser ? .e.g., Firefox 115 ESR:
https://board.eclipse.cx/viewtopic.php?p=9307#p9307

townsbg · Post by **townsbg** » 29 Jul 2026, 22:02

I put that in the post. I don't have that issue on FF 115.

Post by **Duke** » 29 Jul 2026, 22:23

townsbg wrote: ↑29 Jul 2026, 22:02 I put that in the post. I don't have that issue on FF 115.

Sorry, I missed that.
Please, give us an URL with such playlist in it which is exposing the issue.

townsbg · Post by **townsbg** » 29 Jul 2026, 22:44

Here is from earlier. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=until+it+sleeps+metallica

The-10-Pen · Post by **The-10-Pen** » 30 Jul 2026, 09:12

townsbg wrote: ↑29 Jul 2026, 18:56 I decided to replace Firefox on my windows 7 install with r3dfox and it would work except I have a strange issue with youtube. Occasionally I like to watch music vids and after install I noticed that every single vid opened up in a playlist I could tell that it was going to do so because the url has playlist in it. They didn't show up from the search page as playlists but regular music vids. I continued using Firefox for music vids.

That was a few months ago. Trying it again today when I'd search for a vid every single result was either a short or playlist. Who watches shorts when they want to watch music vids? They aren't actual must vids. At least the playlists showed up as playlists rather than looking like vids. Filtering down to vids only resulted in a bunch of blank lines. I don't know if this is a youtube problem or r3dfox but I don't have this issue on Firefox. I cleared cache and tried again but I got the same thing. I'm using version 140 esr.

I read this post EIGHT TIMES and still can't "follow" just what two versions you are comparing !!!
140 esr of **WHAT** ??? Firefox 140? r3dfox 140 ???
I can **NOT** find **ANY** reference of 115 in this post!
Win7 32bit ??? Win7 64bit???
I have to assume if your Win7 is 64 that you match it with Firefox/r3dfox 64 (not everybody does, some intentionally use 32bit browsers on 64bit OSs).

Now then, that *CONFUSION* aside, I tried the 64bit r3dfox 140 on a 64bit OS and I'm not seeing your YouTube issues.

townsbg · Post by **townsbg** » 30 Jul 2026, 13:29

Sorry for the confusion. It's r3dfox 140 esr compared to Firefox 115 on windows 7 64-bit and the browsers are 64-bit. Firefox 115 is the latest for Windows 7 which is why I didn't say anything about the version earlier but it is in a follow up post. I just checked Firefox 140 on Windows 10 just now and it's doing the same thing. I use 64-bit there as well.

The-10-Pen · Post by **The-10-Pen** » 30 Jul 2026, 13:37

Can you show a screencap of what you are "not liking" in YouTube?
Everything is "normal" for me (ie, no "shorts" [agreed, shorts are STUPID and I wish YouTube would abolish them!]).
Geolocation issue? You get a different view than I get?

Post by **Duke** » 30 Jul 2026, 14:11

The-10-Pen wrote: ↑30 Jul 2026, 13:37 Everything is "normal" for me (ie, no "shorts"

Same for me.
In the Settings → Privacy and Security → Cookies and Site Data click on Clear Browsing Data then select:
When = Everything
Browsing and Download history
Cookies and Site data
Temporary cached files and pages

And click on the Clear button. Then close and restart R3dfox and try again.

: R3dfox-BrowsingData.png (21.39 KiB) Viewed 971 times

The-10-Pen wrote: ↑30 Jul 2026, 13:37 Geolocation issue? You get a different view than I get?

Well, it looks like he is in the USA like you so I guess it must be something else.
That said, I'm using uBlock Origin among some other extensions.

The-10-Pen · Post by **The-10-Pen** » 30 Jul 2026, 16:00

In an attempt to recreate his issue, I disabled uBO and was YouTubing with ZERO extensions and all config settings at default, out-of-the-box, as-is, no changes, just download, extract, disable the built-in uBO, execute. No YouTube "shorts", just standard regular ol' music videos on about a dozen different searches.

edit: not logged into Google for my tests

Post by **Duke** » 30 Jul 2026, 18:11

townsbg wrote: ↑30 Jul 2026, 13:29 I just checked Firefox 140 on Windows 10 just now and it's doing the same thing.

Are you logged in to Google when this happens ?
If so, is it the same behavior if you're not logged in to Google ?

townsbg · Post by **townsbg** » 30 Jul 2026, 23:11

I believe that I am on 10 but I'm not on R3dfox on 7. I tried clearing cache and selected everything but that didn't resolve the issue. I also have ublock installed.

From the link I used earlier it only shows playlists and shorts. The shorts aren't full vids and the playlists don't necessarily have vids I care to watch plus they autoplay which I also hate. You can tell that it's a playlist because it says "Mix." You can see I'm logged out of youtube.

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Interestingly enough I don't have that on a blank profile nor am I getting it if I do troubleshooting mode. Disabling and re-enabling plugins I've narrowed it down to ubo. I suppose I need to look at that plugins filtering. I think I did some for youtube but it should also be on Firefox since I have it installed on Firefox as well.

The-10-Pen · Post by **The-10-Pen** » 31 Jul 2026, 05:02

You can take matters into your own hands and force better control.
YOUR web, YOUR way. YOUR YouTube, YOUR way.

My r3dfox profile is *VERY* limited, hardly ever used.
In fact, every time I did a test to try to repeat your issue, it was from a brand new download.
I don't have any r3dfox profiles that have a long history of use behind them.
This is not the case for Duke.

So, just a theory, YouTube is "nice and clean" for me because it hasn't built a "server-side profile" of my IP Address / Browser.
But again, just a theory. And again, not the case for Duke.
So I think it is *NOT* some sort of "server-side profile".
At least, not in this situation (I do think that YouTube builds "server-side profiles").
I say this because I can do the EXACT same searches at home versus at work and get DIFFERENT RESULTS.
Same goes for spanning a half dozen computers at home, EXACT search gets DIFFERENT results.

But as far as TAKING MATTERS IN YOUR OWN HANDS, there are ways to FORCE *never* getting "shorts".
This is one (out of fifteen!) userscripts that I use on YouTube.
I did NOT use this in the r3dfox tests that are NOT giving me "shorts", this is from my "everyday profile" (Chromium-based, not Mozilla-based).

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name - YouTube 10 - Remove Shorts / Popular / Also Watched / New To You / Explore
// @version 2025.4.4.0.1
// @match https://*.youtube.com/*
// @match https://m.youtube.com/*
// @grant none
// @run-at document-start
// ==/UserScript==

(function () {
    'use strict';

    const hideHistoryShorts = false;
    const debug = false;

    const commonSelectors = [
        'a[href*="/shorts/"]',
        '[is-shorts]',
        'yt-chip-cloud-chip-renderer:has(a[href*="/shorts/"])',
        'ytd-reel-shelf-renderer',
        'ytd-thumbnail-overlay-time-status-renderer[overlay-style="SHORTS"]',
        '#guide [title="Shorts"]',
        '.ytd-mini-guide-entry-renderer[title="Shorts"]',
        '.ytd-mini-guide-entry-renderer[aria-label="Shorts"]',
        'grid-shelf-view-model',
        'ytd-shelf-renderer',
        'ytd-movie-renderer',
        'ytd-channel-renderer',
        'ytd-horizontal-card-list-renderer',
        '#spinner-container',
    ];

    const mobileSelectors = [
        '.pivot-shorts',
        'ytm-reel-shelf-renderer',
        'ytm-search ytm-video-with-context-renderer [data-style="SHORTS"]',
    ];

    const feedSelectors = [
        'ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-grid-video-renderer [overlay-style="SHORTS"]',
        'ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-video-renderer [overlay-style="SHORTS"]',
        'ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-rich-item-renderer [overlay-style="SHORTS"]',
    ];
    const channelSelectors = ['yt-tab-shape[tab-title="Shorts"]'];
    const historySelectors = ['ytd-browse[page-subtype="history"] ytd-reel-shelf-renderer'];

    function removeElementsBySelectors(selectors) {
        selectors.forEach((selector) => {
            try {
                const elements = document.querySelectorAll(selector);
                elements.forEach((element) => {
                    if (element.dataset.removedByScript) return;
                    let parent = element.closest(
                        'ytd-video-renderer, ytd-grid-video-renderer, ytd-compact-video-renderer, ytd-rich-item-renderer, ytm-video-with-context-renderer'
                    );
                    if (!parent) parent = element;
                    parent.remove();
                    parent.dataset.removedByScript = 'true';
                    if (debug) console.log(`Removed element: ${parent}`);
                });
            } catch (error) {
                if (debug) console.warn(`Error processing selector: ${selector}`, error);
            }
        });
    }

    function removeElements() {
        const currentUrl = window.location.href;
        if (debug) console.log('Current URL:', currentUrl);

        if (currentUrl.includes('m.youtube.com')) {
            removeElementsBySelectors(mobileSelectors);
        }
        if (currentUrl.includes('/feed/subscriptions')) {
            removeElementsBySelectors(feedSelectors);
        }
        //if (currentUrl.includes('/channel') || currentUrl.includes('/@')) {
        //    removeElementsBySelectors(channelSelectors);
        //}
        if (hideHistoryShorts && currentUrl.includes('/feed/history')) {
            removeElementsBySelectors(historySelectors);
        }

        removeElementsBySelectors(commonSelectors);
    }

    function debounce(func, delay) {
        let timeout;
        return (...args) => {
            clearTimeout(timeout);
            timeout = setTimeout(() => func.apply(this, args), delay);
        };
    }

    const debouncedRemoveElements = debounce(removeElements, 300);

    function init() {
        if (debug) console.log('Remove YouTube Shorts script activated');
        removeElements();

        const isFirefox = navigator.userAgent.includes('Firefox');
        if (isFirefox) {
            window.addEventListener('popstate', removeElements);
        } else {
            document.addEventListener('yt-navigate-finish', removeElements);
        }

        const observer = new MutationObserver(debouncedRemoveElements);
        observer.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });
    }

    if (document.readyState === 'loading') {
        document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', init);
    } else {
        init();
    }
})();

townsbg · Post by **townsbg** » 31 Jul 2026, 13:55

The-10-Pen wrote: ↑31 Jul 2026, 05:02 You can take matters into your own hands and force better control.
YOUR web, YOUR way. YOUR YouTube, YOUR way.

My r3dfox profile is *VERY* limited, hardly ever used.
In fact, every time I did a test to try to repeat your issue, it was from a brand new download.
I don't have any r3dfox profiles that have a long history of use behind them.
This is not the case for Duke.

So, just a theory, YouTube is "nice and clean" for me because it hasn't built a "server-side profile" of my IP Address / Browser.
But again, just a theory. And again, not the case for Duke.
So I think it is *NOT* some sort of "server-side profile".
At least, not in this situation (I do think that YouTube builds "server-side profiles").
I say this because I can do the EXACT same searches at home versus at work and get DIFFERENT RESULTS.
Same goes for spanning a half dozen computers at home, EXACT search gets DIFFERENT results.

But as far as TAKING MATTERS IN YOUR OWN HANDS, there are ways to FORCE *never* getting "shorts".
This is one (out of fifteen!) userscripts that I use on YouTube.
I did NOT use this in the r3dfox tests that are NOT giving me "shorts", this is from my "everyday profile" (Chromium-based, not Mozilla-based).

Thanks maybe I'll use it but how do I implement it? I know that Youtube remembers search and browsing history but I turn those off always.

The-10-Pen · Post by **The-10-Pen** » 31 Jul 2026, 14:42

You need to use something like Tampermonkey, Greasemonkey, Violentmonkey, or FireMonkey.
I prefer Tampermonkey (but mine is heavily modified "to my liking").

re: YouTube "remebering" search and browsing history, my point here is that THEIR SERVER remembers you.
You cannot prevent that level of "remembering" by deleting your cache/cookies or not being logged in, THEIR server has its own "remembering".