Try going into protocols under options and choosing stealth instead of smart protocol, then connecting back to Albania. I had the same issue and so far this has worked for me.
Thank you for your reply.
Thing is, switching to NordVPN Albania does work. All else is exactly the same (to my knowledge, maybe there is a setting in ProtonVPN, but I have been talking to Proton support too).
So there must be something ProtonVPN is doing differently than NordVPN.
if Uzbekhistan works, I can do that I suppose. Albania was nice because it was near the top of the list.
edit: Nope…got ads on Uzbekistan too
When was your post please?
Support told me my ticket was ‘forwarded to the appropriate team’, even when I asked for more info or time line for fixing.
They proposed Moldova, Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan instead, the latter 2 worked for me.
It’s strange Uzbekistan does not work for you, maybe depends on the server you end up at.
Does not give much confidence things will be reliable soon.
Given all the Black Friday promotions now, I guess I’ll be cancelling ProtonVPN then. A pity because ProtonVPN would have been my preference now.
These are both only browser extensions right?
I am using the iOS YT app.
I suppose I could install firefox on my phone and use that to watch YT but partially defeats purpose of vpn for me.
Yes, in the end I decided to cancel ProtonVPN and go back to NordVPN (currently Black Friday deals).
Main reason was that I could not wrap my head around why their servers are not properly functioning as if from Albania. This made me a bit concerned on the quality of their VPN service (I’m no expert but Albania should be Albania…).
Support did not give the insights I asked for nor could they provide a time line on fixing this. So yes, … switched back.
If anyone at Proton is reading this, it probably would be good to give an update for others running into this issue to maybe avoid losing more potential customers.
I’m having trouble with this too. Specifically bought a VPN for the YouTube ads, didn’t have VPN before. Myanmar worked a couple of days but now I’m getting German ads, others give me French ads. Trying Turkmenistan now 
People are saying it works with other VPNs, so if it’s not working in a couple of days I will switch I guess
Read the rest of the thread lol
ProtonVPN and NordVPN both excel in connectivity and resource management. While ProtonVPN’s customer service may not match the excellence of its competitors, it still surpasses NordVPN in this aspect. NordVPN’s customer service is notably poor, with agents often unprofessional and quick to deflect blame onto users’ devices rather than addressing service issues, giving a frustrating experience. Ultimately, ProtonVPN stands out for its balanced performance, positioning it favorably against NordVPN in these key areas.
I have just tried and Albânia is also NOT ad free for me 
It’s probably just YouTube feeding ads to Albania now. Not a proton issue. I also have ublock installed so idk. I also have my browser locked down so nothing can get access to my real location via GPS, time zones or anything, so maybe that also helps. Could be YouTube has your real location from something and knows to feed you ads
Try going into protocols under options and choosing stealth protocol, then connecting back to Albania. I had the same issue and so far this has worked for me. Fingers crossed!
Sorry, yes, meant NetShield.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that happens when people in certain location (let’s say Canada), connects to the same VPN server (USA), when Google and other services like Apple, collects GPS location and other meta data, they will detect that you’re located in certain locations and automatically any new connections to that IP will show as they’re at Canada and not USA as the VPN intended.
We’re aware of the issue with YouTube not recognizing the Albanian servers as Albanian and trying to find a resolution. To remove ads from YouTube, try connecting to the Turkmenistan or Tajikistan servers in the meantime, as a workaround.
But the proton team are lazy or neglected idk because my experience in both nordvpn and protonvpn they asked for the HAR file to resolve the streaming service, u know nordvpn solved issue in 1 day but protonvpn team still not solved almost 1 month till days running so that’s why. I am very disappointed with the proton team. And other countries servers are blazing fast except for my country. They are still working to resolve to it’s almost 2 months gone… Now I am using expressvpn, nord for backup
Try going into protocols under options and choosing stealth protocol, then connecting back to Albania. I had the same issue and so far this has worked for me.
Thanks for replying.
NordVPN does not show the ads when connected to Albania. So either VPN must be doing something different.
Thanks for replying, did not work here.
Is there still an issue from Proton’s side? Because It still seems to be an issue when I connect to any of the suggested servers.
Some insight is that when I first start a video it never tries to play an ad, but eventually it does play one. Never on start though.