How to unblock YouTube and watch videos blocked in your country?

Some YouTube videos are only available in select regions due to licensing rights or censorship. Likewise, many schools and offices have blocked YouTube to prevent students and employees from slacking off. Not fair!

Luckily, there is help at hand. In this guide, we’ve pulled together a lot of tips and tricks to help you unblock YouTube and watch the video content you want. Whether you choose to watch YouTube using a VPN, proxy, or something else – we've got you covered! So read on for everything you need to know about unblocking YouTube.

Quick guide: How to watch blocked YouTube videos?

1. Pick a VPN that suits you. We recommend NordVPN (now 60% OFF).
2. Install the VPN.
3. Connect to a server located in a country where the video is unblocked.
4. Go on YouTube and grab some popcorn.

How to unblock YouTube videos in your country - the easy way

The most effective and reliable way to watch banned YouTube videos is with the help of a VPN. A virtual private network will trick YouTube by changing your local IP address. This will make them assume that you are watching the video from a foreign country. Therefore, you will not only have a secured network but also access to your desired content.

1.Get a reliable VPN. We recommend NordVPN, a global leader in VPN services.

2.Download, and install the app.

3.Connect to a server in the correct region. A VPN works by hiding your computer’s IP address. It does this by routing your internet traffic via a different region, which allows you to view blocked or region-restricted content on your computer. However, if your VPN is routing your traffic through a region that can’t access the YouTube video you’re trying to view, you won’t be able to access it. Luckily most VPNs let you choose what region you’d like your traffic to be routed through. To find out how to do this, take a look at our handy guide on how to change your VPN’s location.

4.Make sure your traffic is being routed through your VPN. Open up your VPN app and toggle it on to make sure your VPN is activated for your current internet connection.

5.Go to YouTube and find the video you want to unblock. Open your YouTube app or go to www.youtube.com and search for the restricted video you want to watch. So long as the video you want isn’t blocked in your VPN's regional location, you should be able to find the video or channel you’re after without any difficulties. If, for whatever reason, you can't find the content you’re looking for, try changing your country information and refreshing the page again.

6.Click on the video you want to watch. If the video is allowed in your VPN’s region, the video should start playing. If it doesn’t you might need to check your VPN’s regional settings.

VPN for YouTube: most important features

If you want to use a VPN to unblock YouTube videos, there are some really important features to look out for, including:

• The speed of a VPN: YouTube videos require fast speeds for smooth streaming, so it’s important to choose a fast VPN.
• Security credentials: Particularly if you’re in a country that has banned YouTube, you’ll want to make sure you have a VPN that protects your online identity.
• The hardware it supports: If you want to watch unblocked YouTube videos on your mobile phone, smart TV, streaming stick or games console, make sure that you choose a VPN that works on the devices you’re planning to use.
• The VPN’s reputation: It’s always important to choose a VPN that has a good reputation and a solid customer support offering in case you have any problems.

Visit NordVPN

How do you unblock YouTube at school or work?

If your school or work place has blocked YouTube videos, the best way to do it is to use a VPN to unblock the restricted content. Simply follow the step by step instructions above that’ll talk you through how to do this. However, if your school or office administration team has blocked YouTube videos, sometimes, you may find it difficult to get a VPN too.

1. Use Google Translate

Even if your VPN won’t work, there is still a way to unblock YouTube videos at school or at your office. Your network administrators will likely have compiled a list of blocked websites by manually selecting which sites they don’t want students or employees accessing. And YouTube almost always makes it onto the list of blocked sites. However, Google Translate is almost never blocked because it’s so useful in classrooms and offices. And you can actually use Google Translate to bypass website blocks.

All you need to do is search for the video you want in a different language. If you don’t speak any other languages, use Google Translate to translate your search into a different language, like French, German or Portuguese.

When you search for something on Google in a different language, the search engine will surface foreign language results. You can then choose to view the site in your own language by hitting Translate this page.

By selecting this option, your computer will then load the link through Google Translate, thereby bypassing the YouTube block imposed by your school or employer.

This clever workaround should work on YouTube videos and pretty much any other website you might want to visit.

2. Unblock YouTube with a proxy

A proxy server works in a similar way to a VPN, as it routes your traffic through a server to make it appear as though you’re in a different location. This will let you bypass firewalls and geographic content restrictions.

However, unlike VPNs, most proxy servers don’t encrypt your data, so they’re not as secure. This means that someone could snoop on your online activities. And you’ll be more vulnerable to data hacks and other online threats.

But, if all you want to do is watch some region restricted YouTube videos, a proxy server is certainly an easy way to do this.

There are three main types of proxy servers:

• Web proxies
• Browser add-ons
• SOCKS proxies you can manually setup on your browser

There are loads of proxy websites that are easy to use. In fact, using a proxy server to unblock YouTube is one of the most straightforward methods, although, as we’ve said, it’s not the most secure.

3. Unblock YouTube using browser extensions

Using a browser extension such as Unblocker for YouTube is another really simple, easy way of unblocking YouTube videos. Simply download a browser extension and use it to watch banned YouTube videos.

4. Unblock YouTube by modifying the URL

This is a really simple trick that can help you bypass the firewall imposed by your network (but it usually won't work). Occasionally, network administrators will only block the http version of YouTube’s main URL. And if that’s the case, you can bypass it quite easily.

All you need to do is add an S. So http://www.youtube.com becomes https://www.youtube.com.

Of course, it's quite far-fetched that this method will work in this day and age, but it can be worth a shot.

5. Download YouTube videos directly

There are lots of sites out there designed to help you download YouTube videos so you can watch a particular video offline. Of course, this requires some planning as you’ll need to decide what you want to watch ahead of time.

Why are YouTube videos blocked?

There are a number of reasons why YouTube videos might be blocked, including:

• Restrictions on broadcasting rights that may mean that the video isn’t available in your region. This is usually due to an organisation not having permission to broadcast the video content in your country.
• Your network has blocked YouTube because your school or work administrators have added YouTube to its blacklist.
• Technical issues with the video can prevent it from playing on your computer.
• Video owners have placed restrictions on the content, thereby preventing it from playing in your region.
• National censorship that’s been set up by the government to prevent anyone in the country from accessing certain videos or the YouTube website and app.

How safe are free YouTube unblockers?

Free YouTube unblockers are a simple and easy way of accessing blocked YouTube content. But they’re not necessarily a secure way of doing it. Some are very shady and none will give you any degree of anonymity. So using a free YouTube unblocker might not be all that sensible if you’re concerned about security, particularly if you’re trying to access content in a country where the government has strict blocks on YouTube.

For a more secure way of unblocking YouTube videos, we’d recommend using a VPN. But if you just want to watch an occasional video that’s not available in your region, a free YouTube unblocker might be a good solution for you.

You may also like to read:

• How to unblock Facebook
• How to unblock WhatsApp
• How to unblock websites and access restricted content

Is unblocking YouTube legal?

It depends where you are. It’s not illegal to bypass a network firewall set up by your school or workplace, although you might get in trouble for doing it. But depending on the country you’re in, accessing region restricted videos that are blocked because of national censorship could be viewed as illegal.

Whatever your reason for wanting to unblock YouTube, it’s a sensible idea to use a VPN to keep your online identity and activity private. More on how to do that a bit further down.

Youtube unblocking FAQs