Every at present and so yous'll endeavor to sentinel a music video, trailer, or gameplay clip on YouTube only to see a very abrasive bulletin: 'The uploader has not fabricated this video available in your country'.

It's a common mistake to presume that all YouTube videos are available everywhere in the globe, just information technology doesn't quite work similar that. YouTube isn't only populated with user-created content - it also hosts licensed content including movies and Idiot box shows, and some of these are only licensed for specific countries. Even some music videos and trailers end up region-locked.

That means that sometimes you won't be able to watch a video at all in your country. Other times, but just every bit irritatingly, yous might take to pay to buy or rent a video that's free to watch elsewhere in the world.

Luckily, there are ways to featherbed YouTube's regional filter and lookout man videos that are blocked in your land. Here'south how to do it.

Sentry region-blocked YouTube videos with a VPN

The nearly reliable way to get effectually the region filter is merely to use a VPN.  This is a service which lets you lot scan the web as if you were in a different state. You can try this with a free VPN, though we recommend a paid service such as NordVPN which currently sits at the top of our best VPN ranking.

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

Merely install the app from your VPN provider of choice on the device where you're watching YouTube. At that place are typically apps for PC, Mac, Android, and iPhone/iPad also as smart TVs and streaming sticks.

Sign up 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 await through the location/country listing to pick a server that'south in the right region to access the video in question. That's normally the location of the video's creator or uploader. Yous might accept to try a couple if you lot're not sure.

Then all yous accept to do is head back to the YouTube app - or the website in a spider web browser - and go dorsum to the video yous want to picket. YouTube should at present think that you're located in the correct region and play the video.

This is ordinarily the quickest and easiest style to get past the region cake on YouTube videos, especially if it'south a problem y'all encounter repeatedly. Just, at that place are other options...

Use a proxy to unblock YouTube

If yous don't want to use a VPN, the next best thing is a proxy server. This has a similar event to a VPN - allowing you to scan equally if in a dissimilar country - but is less secure and doesn't encrypt your traffic, which is why nosotros unremarkably recommend a VPN over a proxy.

If y'all just want to scout 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 government that bans certain videos, a VPN is definitely the better choice.

As with VPNs, in that location are free proxy servers around, just they're oft and then limited that a paid service is worth information technology, especially if y'all can find 1 with a free trial. Y'all'll typically have to access the server through a web browser extension, and once more make sure to select a server located in a country you think will have access to the video in question. And so load up YouTube and starting time watching.

Download the YouTube video

If all else fails, you might be able to download the YouTube video and thus go around the region-blocking entirely. Nosotros have an entire article defended to how to download YouTube videos to your phone, PC, tablet, or annihilation else, so we won't run through the specifics here.

Do carry in mind that while it isn't illegal to download videos from YouTube, information technology is technically against Google's terms of service, and is arguably immoral since you're circumventing the adverts that assist fund the site and - more than importantly - the content creators.

Related articles for further reading

  • What is a VPN and why you need one
  • How to use a VPN
  • Best VPN for streaming
  • Best VPN for YouTube
  • Best VPN deals