Every now and so you'll try to watch a music video, trailer, or gameplay prune on YouTube just to encounter a very abrasive message: 'The uploader has not made this video available in your country'.

It's a mutual fault to assume that all YouTube videos are available everywhere in the earth, but it doesn't quite work like that. YouTube isn't merely populated with user-created content - it also hosts licensed content including movies and Television receiver shows, and some of these are just licensed for specific countries. Even some music videos and trailers end up region-locked.

That ways that sometimes you won't be able to watch a video at all in your country. Other times, simply but as irritatingly, you might take to pay to buy or rent a video that'due south free to picket elsewhere in the earth.

Luckily, there are ways to featherbed YouTube'due south regional filter and watch videos that are blocked in your country. Here's how to practise it.

Sentinel region-blocked YouTube videos with a VPN

The most reliable fashion to become around the region filter is merely to use a VPN.  This is a service which lets you browse the web every bit if you were in a dissimilar land. You can endeavour this with a free VPN, though we recommend a paid service such as NordVPN which currently sits at the top of our all-time VPN ranking.

A paid-for VPN like Nord offers fast connection speeds, more than server options than a gratuitous one, and doesn't identify limits on how much data you lot tin stream via the service. Make sure you choose a VPN that has servers in the country you want to pretend to be in.

Simply install the app from your VPN provider of choice on the device where you're watching YouTube. In that location are typically apps for PC, Mac, Android, and iPhone/iPad besides every bit smart TVs and streaming sticks.

Sign upwardly to your chosen VPN service (it's easier to do this on a laptop than your TV) then launch the VPN app, log in with the details you entered during the signup process, and wait through the location/state list to selection a server that's in the right region to access the video in question. That'southward normally the location of the video's creator or uploader. You might have to endeavor a couple if you're not certain.

Then all you take to do is head back to the YouTube app - or the website in a spider web browser - and go back to the video yous desire to spotter. YouTube should now think that y'all're located in the correct region and play the video.

This is usually the quickest and easiest way to get past the region cake on YouTube videos, especially if it'southward a problem you come across repeatedly. Only, in that location are other options...

Use a proxy to unblock YouTube

If you don't want to use a VPN, the next best matter is a proxy server. This has a similar effect to a VPN - assuasive you to scan as if in a different state - but is less secure and doesn't encrypt your traffic, which is why we normally recommend a VPN over a proxy.

If you just desire to watch music videos on YouTube, encryption and security might non be your biggest concerns, but if you're trying to access YouTube from a country with a repressive regime that bans sure videos, a VPN is definitely the better option.

Equally with VPNs, there are gratis proxy servers around, but they're frequently then express that a paid service is worth it, especially if y'all tin can find 1 with a costless trial. Y'all'll typically have to admission the server through a spider web browser extension, and once once again make sure to select a server located in a state you retrieve will have admission to the video in question. Then load up YouTube and start watching.

Download the YouTube video

If all else fails, yous might exist able to download the YouTube video and thus get around the region-blocking entirely. We take an entire article dedicated to how to download YouTube videos to your telephone, PC, tablet, or anything else, then we won't run through the specifics hither.

Do bear in mind that while it isn't illegal to download videos from YouTube, it is technically confronting Google's terms of service, and is arguably immoral since you're circumventing the adverts that help fund the site and - more chiefly - the content creators.

Related articles for farther reading

  • What is a VPN and why you need 1
  • How to apply a VPN
  • Best VPN for streaming
  • All-time VPN for YouTube
  • Best VPN deals