How to Undo YouTube’s Terrible New Layout
YouTube, have you ever heard the expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Why, instead of making all the changes to your platform , did you start fiddling with the user interface of your site ? The video player now shrinks in the top left corner, with a bloated feed of suggested videos below it, and the description and comments shrink in the right third of the page. This means: “Graphic design is my passion.”
Nobody is happy about these changes, but YouTube doesn’t seem to care. Unlike other types of changes a site makes, the new layout appears to be largely permanent. There is no way to go back to the old look or abandon experimental developments. If you open YouTube and see the new UI, then you’re stuck with it. (However, one Reddit user claims their layout came back on its own after four weeks.)
While YouTube seems pleased that the changes have become a permanent fixture for more and more users, those users aren’t giving up without a fight. The Internet, of course, doesn’t like being told what to do and finds a way around these forced changes.
In a post on r/YouTube last month, Redditor Chaski1212 shared a workaround: Chaski1212 wrote a block of code that reverts all YouTube changes back to the old UI, and it actually seems to work. While I don’t have the new layout in any of my Google accounts yet, many Reddit users have shared that the code returns the old layout in their accounts, so it appears to be a foolproof solution for now.
How to return the old YouTube layout
First, you need to install uBlock Origin on your browser. This is an extension that can block many different elements on web pages while you browse (namely, advertisements). However, you can set filters in uBlock Origin for advanced settings. This is where the code Chaski1212 comes into play.
Once uBlock Origin is installed in your browser (it works with Chrome , Firefox , Microsoft Edge and Opera ), open the extension and click the three gears to open the control panel. Here, click “My Filters” and paste the following:
! New Youtube UI Fixyoutubeyoutube.com###related #thumbnail.ytd-rich-grid-media:style(margin-right: 8px!important;height: 94px!important;width: 168px!important;min-width: 168px!important ;)youtube.com###linked #avatar-link.ytd-rich-grid-media, #linked #attached-survey.ytd-rich-grid-media, #linked .ytd-rich-shelf-renderer .button- container. YTD-rich-shelf-renderer:style (display: no! important;)youtube.com###related #dismissible.ytd-rich-grid-media:style(display:flex;flex-direction:row!important ;)youtube.com###related #details.ytd-rich-grid-media:style(width: 100%!important;min-width: 0!important;)youtube.com###lated #contents ytd-rich -item-renderer:style(margin:0!important;margin-top:8px!important;)youtube.com###related ytd-rich-grid-row #contents.ytd-rich-grid-row,#related h3 .ytd-rich-grid-media,#related ytd-rich-section-renderer #content,# related #rich-shelf-header.ytd-rich-shelf-renderer:style(margin:0!important;)youtube.com ###related ytd-rich-item-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-row,#content.ytd-rich-item-renderer:style(width:100%!important;)youtube.com###related #video -title.ytd-rich-grid-media:style(font size:1.4rem!important;)youtube.com###lated .ytd-channel-name a,#related #metadata-line.ytd-video-meta- block span:style(font-size:12px!important;)youtube.com###related ytd-rich-grid-renderer #contents:style(padding-top:0px!important;)youtube.com###related . ytd-rich-shelf-renderer ytd-rich-item-renderer.ytd-rich-shelf-renderer:style(width:130px!important;min-width: 130px!important;)youtube.com###related #contents. ytd-rich-shelf-renderer:style(display: flex !important;flex-direction: row !important;gap: 8px !important;flex-wrap: nowrap!important;max- width: 400px! important; overflow-x: scroll! important; overflow-y: hidden! important)youtube.com###related .ytd-rich-shelf-renderer .yt-core-image:style(object-fit: Cover!important;)youtube.com###related ytd-rich-section-renderer # contents:style(margin-left:0!important)youtube.com###lated #contents ytd-rich-section-renderer ytd-rich-item-renderer:style(margin-top:0px!important;)youtube.com ###related .ytd-rich-shelf-renderer ytd-rich-item-renderer.ytd-rich-shelf-renderer[hidden=""]:style(display:block!important;)youtube.com###related #dismissible.ytd-rich-shelf-renderer:style(margin:0!important; border-color: Transparent!important)youtube.com###title yt-formatted-string.ytd-watch-metadata:style(font size : 20 pixels! important; font weight: 700! important; line height: 28 pixels! important)youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.kevlar_watch_grid, false)youtube.com##+js(set , yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.small_avatars_for_comments, false)youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.kevlar_watch_comments_panel_button, false)youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.web_rounded_thumbnails, false )youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.web_watch_rounded_player_large, false)youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.kevlar_watch_max_player_width, 1280)
This mess of code should tell uBlock Origin to fix almost every problem with your YouTube player. If I ever see a YouTube UI change, I will immediately use this code. Let’s hope YouTube doesn’t find a way around this hack or, better yet, scrap this redesign altogether.