uBlock Origin Suggested Settings

150 thoughts on “uBlock Origin Suggested Settings”

1. Hello. I tried looking at the uBO wiki but couldn’t find an answer (at least in plain view, I’m still a newbie) so I ask you: what does “no-large-media: behind-the-scene true” do and should I set it to true if I have the “Block media elements larger than …” option enabled?
   Thank you and keep up the good work.

   Reply to 'Mick Foley'

   1. from the wiki…

      Behind the scene network requests

      This wiki page is out of date and in need of revision. When this documentation was created, the behind-the-scene network requests uBlock Origin was able to see and filter originated from many places, such as those from other extensions or from various browser operations (ex.: real-time search suggestions).

      Since then things have changed: uBO no longer can see network requests from other extensions, and behind-the-scene network requests are now quite less frequent. Furthermore, the webRequest API now provides more context to event listeners, such that it is often possible to still filter properly even when it’s not possible to know from which exact tab a network request originates.

      Because of this (and other reasons which will eventually come to light – the “Who Left Open The Cookie Jar?” vulnerability), starting with uBO 1.15.20, the behind-the-scene scope will no longer be on the Trusted sites list by default, meaning network requests from the behind-the-scene scope will be subject to filtering by default.

      […]

      The filtering of behind-the-scene network request is available to advanced users.

      What are behind-the-scene network requests

      Behind-the-scene network requests are network requests which uBlock cannot associate with a specific tab in your browser: these requests come from somewhere, but uBlock is missing information to report exactly from where.

      All network requests without a specific origin are classified as behind-the-scene.

      i’m really not sure how to advise regarding this setting – i have it set to ‘false’ for potentially less breakage, but that may not be necessary

      behind-the-scene stuff is, as it says, requests that uBO can’t associate with a tab (doesn’t know where the request originated) – the ‘Block media elements larger than’ option is for media elements that CAN be associated with a tab – this sets the default for the per-site switch on the main pop-up, ‘click to block large media elements for this site’ – so if you don’t want media elements larger than ‘x’ to be loaded for a given site, you can specify a size and then use the per-site switch

      personalty, i wouldn’t bother unless you need to conserve bandwidth – most all this stuff will be blocked by default anyway if you have blocked JS globally (which you should) – then you can allow JS per-site or certain JS (such as for youtube) globally

      also see…

      No large media elements

      Reply to '12Bytes'

      1. Actually I have it enabled not for bandwidth saving but because I have an 11 years old laptop running Win7 (can’t install a Linux distro on it thanks to the graphic chip…) with only 4gb of ram and I thought that would help in terms of performance. Dunno if this assumption is correct though.
         I guess I’ll have to start getting used to disable js and whitelist sites I uses regularly.

         Another thing: I dumped LocalCDN because I read it’s basically redundant with the arkenfox user.js (and also because like I said the less stuff I have installed the better) but I noticed I have to whitelist a lot more stuff in uBO now to make sites work (Cloudfare mostly), so do you think I should go back to it or keep whitelisting them as I use said sites?

         Reply to 'Mick Foley'

         1. Linux is great for older machines i’ve heard (over and over) – as far as the graphic chip, you *should* be able to use the open source driver at least

            i don’t think (really not sure though) blocking large media will help performance wise, but pages with large media might load faster

            > I dumped LocalCDN because I read it’s basically redundant with the arkenfox user.js …

            true, but sites relying on CDNs will likely take a bit longer to load since that content is no longer loaded locally

            > … do you think I should go back to it or keep whitelisting them as I use said sites?

            totally up to you – personally i still use LocalCDN for speed reasons and because i don’t think the redundant privacy hurts anything

            Reply to '12Bytes'

            1. I reinstalled LocalCDN after all and started getting used to hard blocking mode + JS disabled, it’s actually pretty comfy, pages finally load faster. Sure, the ‘My rules’ panel is loaded with lines now but it can’t be helped I guess.

               Off-topic:

               >Linux is great for older machines i’ve heard (over and over) – as far as the graphic chip, you *should* be able to use the open source driver at least

               I know, I have an even older netbook with Bunsenlabs on it and it goes like a true champ. Unfortunately the laptop I use regularly (and has a bigger screen too) is “infected” with the SiS Mirage 3+ 672 graphic chip and the 2 solutions I found (1: https://gist.github.com/fevangelou/46a2885233c45011ad5c8752f18eac73 , 2: https://linux-sis-driver.weebly.com/linux-ubuntu-distros-and-the-infamous-sis-chips/linux-driver-for-infamous-sis-671-672-771-772-717) don’t work no matter how many times I try… Oh well.

               Reply to 'Mick Foley'

               1. > JS disabled, it’s actually pretty comfy, pages finally load faster.

                  sure do, also most tracking and fingerprinting (and malware, pop-ups, etc.) require JS

                  so you’re using uBO without uMatrix i take it?

                  Reply to '12Bytes'

                  1. >sure do, also most tracking and fingerprinting (and malware, pop-ups, etc.) require JS

                     Well they load faster because there’s nothing left to load most of the times, hahaha

                     >so you’re using uBO without uMatrix i take it?

                     Yeah, I’m still at the stage of constantly learning how to use uBO properly. Also from the little I’ve read uBO can actually do a fair amount of the things uM does, so I feel comfortable using just one right now.

                     A question: have you ever thought of making a uMatrix setup guide just like this one? I know you basically already did in the Freaks Firefox guide but having a separate one would be nice.

                     Reply to 'Mick Foley'

                     1. > uBO can actually do a fair amount of the things uM does

                        it can, but if you want granular control uM is easier to work with IMO – actually i think it’s easier period, but it might be a good thing if you stuck with uBO for a bit and learned how to use it well – the wiki is a great resource and it actually covers some stuff that’s missing in the uM wiki

                        > have you ever thought of making a uMatrix setup guide…

                        i recommend uM in the advanced guide only, so no – i broke out the uBO guide from both config guides only because a lot of the stuff was redundant and i got tired of having to edit both guides every time i changed stuff for uBO in one of them

                        Reply to '12Bytes'

                        1. Fair enough.

                           Last question: what’s the rationale you used on selecting these Filter lists? For example, the uBO wiki recommends the “Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list” enabled for medium blocking mode and higher but you have it disabled in your guide?

                           Reply to 'Mick Foley'

                           1. that’s a hosts file list and they can be problematic for some reason – this is even discussed in one of the wiki’s i think – my choices are based on my experiences and pretty much never give me any trouble

2. Hi
   It puzzles me, that the filterlists in UblockOrigin do not update automatically, even though auto-update is enabled. I noticed a while ago, but I don’t know for how long this has been the case. at one point after a manual update, I discovered 3 cookies set by some of these filterlists. I don’t recall which. normally I only allow cookies, if necessary. Any suggestions to why this happens and how to solve it?
   Best Regards

   Reply to 'Jane'

   1. odd, in my case the filter lists are auto-updating as they should

      regarding cookies being set by a filter list, i didn’t even know that was possible – can you provide more detail, such as how you knew they were set by a filter list and perhaps their name(s)?

      Reply to '12Bytes'

      1. to see which cookies are being set by filter lists purge all caches then update list then look under Options-Privacy&Security-Manage Data… sorting it by Last Used

         Reply to 'EC'

         1. hmmm… not sure what to think of that – for the lists i use, cookies were set by…

            fanboy.co.cz
            adtidy.org
            easylist.to

            i tried looking at these cookies with the browser console and i’m not seeing anything that looks nefarious to me – i suspect they are probably set in order to establish the time that the client last updated the lists, perhaps to avoid unnecessary concurrent downloads from the same client – that’s just a guess though and, frankly, i’m not concerned enough to look into it deeper, but if you do, let us know

            thanks for reporting this

            Reply to '12Bytes'

            1. exactly the same cookies as mentioned by you, are set in my browser too.
               Besides: am I supposed to activate “purge all caches” once in a while, given the fact that these filterlists do not auto-update? I’m not quite sure what the term means/involves in regards of UblockOrigin settings

               Reply to 'Jane'

               1. you should not ever have to purge the filter lists cache and they should update automatically

                  i think the purge thing is for when you want to disable a list where purging will remove it from memory

                  when you purge, are you able to manually update this lists? and are you sure they are actually updated? – to test, disable your network connection, purge a list, click the ‘eye’ looking icon (view content) for the list and make sure the list is empty, then enable your connection and manually update and check the list again

                  also…

                  enable the ‘I am an advanced user’ setting and you’ll see a gear icon appear right after that option – click that and then press Ctrl+F and enter:

                  asset

                  and check those settings – here’s mine:

                  assetFetchTimeout 30
autoUpdateAssetFetchPeriod 120
manualUpdateAssetFetchPeriod 500
updateAssetBypassBrowserCache false

                  also check…
                  autoUpdateDelayAfterLaunch 180

                  on a side note, try setting uiTheme to dark … pretty cool

                  don’t forget to disable advanced mode

                  if that doesn’t straighten things out, let me know and we’ll dig deeper

                  Reply to '12Bytes'

                  1. I found all the mentioned asset settings as well as autoUpdateDelayAfterLaunch and with the same numbers. I think things might work as they should by now: when I hover over the clock-symbol all lists have been automatically updated after the date of my manual update.
                     I feel a bit uneasy about the cache purge action: it is not clear to me how to purge one list without disabling all the others. I will leave it be and cross my fingers for the update problem to be solved.
                     I searched for how to change theme color but couldn’t find where to do this. Is it the colorblind- help out -option in the settings?

                     Reply to 'Jane'

                     1. you can’t purge a single list apparently – sorry, i didn’t realize that

                        to change the theme color, enable advanced mode and in the advanced settings change the value of uiTheme – i didn’t look up what the possible values are, but i found that ‘dark’ works

                        Reply to '12Bytes'

                        1. regarding uiTheme, it says: unset.
                           am I to manually delete these 5 letters and afterwards type: dark?

                           Reply to 'Jane'

                           1. if you want to change the theme, yes, replace ‘unset’ with ‘dark’ – 3 possible values are ‘light’ ‘dark’ and ‘unset’

                           2. ps: don’t forget to disable advanced mode if you weren’t already using it

3. please relax ;) this is not a new issue. Just a big Thank You for all your good work and guidance.
   Merry Christmas

   Reply to 'Jane'

   1. thank you Jane – same to you and yours :)

      Reply to '12Bytes'

4. How do i block the pop up when visiting google (‘Before you continue…’ & youtube (sign-in) popup through uBlock?

   Reply to 'Dave'

   1. by reading the uBO manual :)

      Reply to '12Bytes'

      1. I tried and no luck..also followed your write ups, no luck. I probably need to try the uMatrix route

         Reply to 'Dave'

         1. i don’t use gaagle directly so i don’t know what pop-up you’re referring to, nor do i log on to ThemTube

            Firefox has a built-in pop-up blocker and you could also use CSS if you know how – i use basically the same config as outlined in the advanced guide, less uMatrix (i’m testing without it), and i never see any pop-ups anywhere – i do see stupid CSS-styled overlays on occasion, but i destroy them with CSS

            uBO also has an element hider function you might find useful

            Reply to '12Bytes'

            1. Sorry I should have linked it.

               https://www.ghacks.net/2020/09/27/how-to-deal-with-googles-and-youtubes-aggressive-popups-before-you-continue-sign-in/

               The add to my filter list method didn’t work in uBO
               I’ll play around with the settings.

               Reply to 'Dave'

               1. if you’ve set up uBO according to my guide, check that ‘element hiding’ is not disabled – uncheck ‘Disable cosmetic filtering’ in settings and on the filter lists tab, check “Parse and enforce cosmetic filters”

                  Reply to '12Bytes'

                  1. didnt still help, i’ll keep trying. Thanks

                     Reply to 'Dave'

                     1. what doesn’t work? you can’t hide the pop-up, or the element hider in uBO doesn’t work?

                        Reply to '12Bytes'

                        1. Ah you mean to use use element hider. Yes that does work

                           Reply to 'Dave'

                        2. your recommendations (and settings) do work for for example for translate.google com or maps.google com, but they don’t work for youtube.com. one still gets the “sign in to youtube” popup

                           Reply to 'EC'

                           1. i’m using uBO in advanced mode without uM and i never see a log-on pop-up – are you allowing ‘accounts.google.com’? if so, that may be why

                              if you don’t see that domain in the uBO pop-up, click the ‘+all’ label

                        3. the problem with youtube/google exists only if the users IP is in EU and while using Firefox.

                           using Brave browser there is no need to turn on uBlock at all as well as turn on built into the browser trackers&ads blocking or fingerprints blocking.

                           Reply to 'EC'

                           1. i don’t know what the YT pop-up looks like – if it’s a DIV layer, you can easily kill it with CSS – if it’s a page that forwards, you can possibly use a redirect

                              whatever the case, more people need to stop using the platform

5. The “Fanboy’s Enhanced Tracking List​” filter got moved from the Privacy group to Custom, dunno what that means for the grand scheme of things though.

   Reply to 'tiger_man'

   1. thanks for letting me know – i addressed the change and made a few other small edits

      Reply to '12Bytes'

      1. No problem. I’m not sure about this but if you fresh install uB0 will the Fanboy’s Enhanced Tracking List even be in the Custom group though?

         Reply to 'tiger_man'

         1. glad you brought that up, i should’ve known better – no, it is not available by default on a fresh install – i removed it from the guide – also see: Removing Fanboy Enhanced Tracking

            Reply to '12Bytes'

6. I use the ClearURLs addon but I just discovered this filter list: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt
   Seems to be working pretty well, what do you think? I’m all for 1 addon installed less….

   Reply to 'tiger_man'

   1. very interesting – thanks for sharing!
      it’s very new and reading through the uBO issue you linked to, i’m not sure how well versed the author is in RegEx, so personally i think i’ll let the project bake a while before kicking the tires but, yeah, i too am all for dumping as many extensions as possible

      Reply to '12Bytes'

      1. I don’t know if it’s the author being inexperienced as you said or the fact that it’s a filter list and not an extension like ClearURLs but after using it for a whole day I can agree with you that it needs some serious polishing as I noticed it removes parameters for sites that have no tracking parameters in their urls thus rendering them almost unusable. I’ll stick with ClearURLs for now.

         Reply to 'tiger_man'

         1. thanks for the update – i don’t think i’ve ever had anything break with ClearURLs so i don’t mind sticking with it

            Reply to '12Bytes'

7. Another useful link I forgot to post earlier: https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/discussions/163
   It seems uB0 dev also recommends this filter list.

   Reply to 'tiger_man'

8. Hi
   Regarding Cname: I got the setting: “Uncloak canonical names” enabled; but I’m not quite sure whether I’m actually protected by cname-tracking or whether ublock “just” detects this kind of tracking and leave further action of how to deal with this up to me. The cname is not blocked=green, and when I open the logger no blocking here either as far as I can see.

   Reply to 'Jane'

   1. i’m not 100% certain and i don’t have time to look into it at the moment, but i’m fairly sure that when you enable uncloaking you can prevent the tracking because, when you enable the setting, you’ll see hosts in the uBO pop-up interface that are colored blue and those are the ones that cname uncloaking exposes and therefore they can be blocked

      Reply to '12Bytes'

      1. Thank you
         Best regards/Jane

         Reply to 'Jane'

9. uB0 v1.38.0:
   The setting “Prevent WebRTC from leaking local IP addresses” has been removed since it is no longer necessary in modern browsers, except for Firefox for Android where the issue is still present.

   Reply to 'black_mamba'

   1. thanks for mentioning that – i’ll update the guide accordingly

      Reply to '12Bytes'

10. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that Spam404 filter list is discontinued and has been replaced in uBO with a total of three other filter lists against malware: Online Malicious URL Blocklist, Phishing URL Blocklist, PUP Domains Blocklist.

    Reply to 'Xenthos'

    1. thanks for notifying me!!!
       i updated the guide to reflect the change, plus made a few other changes/edits – see the Revisions section for details

       Reply to '12Bytes'

       1. I’ve tried the ‘My filters’ tab setting right now and allowed first party and blocked 3rd party fonts.
          The issue I have is that this doesn’t only block fonts, but also icons?
          For example if you switch to reddit.com https://postimg.cc/8jDcLsT1
          What’s up with that? Is it a bug or a feature?

          Reply to 'Xenthos'

          1. they’re not actually icons in the traditional sense – they’re “fonts”, but i’m not recalling the correct name at the moment

             you can look at the logger and see where they’re coming from and then edit the filter accordingly, so then the filter becomes

             *$font,third-party,domain=~somedomain.com

             Reply to '12Bytes'

             1. on blocking remote fonts – i normally block third-party fonts. noticed you’re recommending blocking all fonts by default/using exceptions. are you able to elaborate as to what changed, or maybe point me to some documentation? note: not a question of validity.

                filter lists – how does one figure out which filters to add, are necessary and/or whats redundant?

                as usual – thank you.

                breaking the thread rules:
                yes to clown world.

                Reply to 'joeshmoe'

                1. if i’m understanding you correctly, nothing changed – i recommend blocking fonts in uBO settings -OR- don’t block them in settings and, instead, allow all 1st party fonts and block 3rd party using the filter *$font,third-party

                   see: Per site switches and Ctrl+F *$font,third-party

                   > filter lists – how does one figure out which filters to add, are necessary and/or whats redundant?

                   you don’t have to worry so much about redundancy – if you look on the Filter Lists tab you’ll see stuff like ‘EasyList 29,620 used out of 61,788’ (yours nums may be different) – this is because uBO is doing its magic and eliminating redundant filters

                   as for which lists to enable, that’s a harder question to answer – my selections are based on some degree of experience where, for example, i find EasyList to be plenty sufficient while other ad block lists have caused problems for me

                   next to all the list items are icons which you can click to gain more info about them

                   > breaking the thread rules…

                   rules? what rules? stray off-topic all you want

                   Reply to '12Bytes'

                2. ps: i changed the remote font setting for advanced users and added a footnote for the Block remote fonts item in the ‘Settings tab’ section

                   Reply to '12Bytes'

                   1. pss:

                      > … this is because uBO is doing its magic and eliminating redundant filters

                      i neglected to mention that uBO is building its filter list by looking at all of the enabled lists, so in other words it will dump redundant filters across multiple lists – maybe that goes without saying but i just said it :)

                      Reply to '12Bytes'

                      1. — i recommend blocking fonts in uBO settings -OR- don’t block them in settings and, instead, allow all 1st party fonts and block 3rd party using the filter *$font,third-party–

                         alright. i read it wrong. good deal.

                         –rules? what rules? stray off-topic all you want–

                         it’s too big. everyone is at street level debating the name/function of street signs. a very small percentage of us are outside of things enough to ascend from the map and see where the highways and roadblocks reside. how it all fits together. we are in trouble.
                         to recognize this would create an environment where people would have to objectively look inward/outward. i.e. reality and critical thinking. people have been engineered at this point to avoid/deny it. it would be bad for business.

                         i digress.

                         thanks again!

                         Reply to 'joeshmoe'

11. Fyi: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Advanced-settings#suspendtabsuntilready
    It’s redundant to set it to true as unset already enables it on Firefox, if you want you can mention the pref for Botnet, err, Chrome users, but since you’re focusing on Firefox I’d remove that bit from this guide. You’re choice obviously.

    Reply to 'panama_man'

    1. i don’t recall seeing that before in wiki – i think i’ll leave the setting in here anyway, just in case the default changes – thanks for letting me know though!

       Reply to '12Bytes'

12. 12bytes,

    Shouldn’t this part of the text say “true” instead of what is intended: and change suspendTabsUntilReady to yes?

    AHappyUser

    Reply to 'AHappyUser'

    1. > Shouldn’t this part of the text say “true” i…

       what part of the text?

       Reply to '12Bytes'

       1. ‘Settings’ Tab -> First paragraph after Footnotes -> Line #3. I have copied actual text after the colon.

          Reply to 'AHappyUser'

          1. there’s no footnotes on the settings tab, nor any paragraphs – i don’t understand what you’re referring to

             you mentioned something about suspendTabsUntilReady earlier – you can read about that here

             Reply to '12Bytes'

             1. Sorry about the goose chase. I think the value for SuspendtabsuntilReady can be unset, yes, or no whereas I’ve been using your old config where the value was set to true (see 22 Nov 2019 revision). Combine that with the comment below from panama_man, I guess it shows how much I implicitly trust your config :-) and have become lazy to not read man pages!

                Reply to 'AHappyUser'

13. You can clear that part with the advanced user settings: “suspendTabsUntilReady to yes”
    That option is no longer there.
    Looks like the addon’s author moved that directly into the “filter list” tab: “Suspend network activity until all filter lists are loaded”

    Reply to 'Xenthos'

    1. thanks for pointing that out – i appreciate it :)

       Reply to '12Bytes'

14. how create a ‘noop’ rule (allow) for the Filter update Lists settings page

    Reply to 'jason21'

    1. i’m not sure what you’re asking – can you be more specific

       Reply to '12Bytes'

    2. I think you mean this note above? NOTE: If you block 3rd-party globally or locally, uBO will not be able to update its filter lists until you create a ‘noop’ rule (allow) for the Filter Lists settings page which you can do from the dashboard pop-up interface while viewing that page.

       1.open uBlock Dashboard
       2.go to Filter lists page
       3.open uBlock user interface popup while on Filter list page
       4.click in Third column (local dynamic filtering rules) on the 3rd-party row (it should change to gray from pink or red)

       Reply to 'EC'

15. I was just following this guide, as i had previously followed the Firefox privacy guide but it seems you have changed it since I last used it. Anyway I found that the dummy guide settings might need to be updated as some of those options come up with a triangle in uBlock stating out of date.

    Reply to 'namesareforgames'

    1. you just need to update the lists; settings > filter lists … then click the ‘update now’ button

       Reply to '12Bytes'