How to unblock YouTube in 2024 (2024)

The situation: Your friend sent you a hilarious cat video, and you’ve finally taken a few minutes of time to sit down and watch. You pull up the video on YouTube, and there it is — the notification no one wants to see: “This video is restricted in your area.”

What? It’s just a cat video. Why would it be blocked or restricted? Well, it turns out that cat video could be blocked for all sorts of reasons, including network filters, geo-restrictions or even national censorship.

That said, you can still access blocked YouTube videos. In this article, we’ll talk about several methods to watch blocked videos, how to implement them, whether or not that’s a good idea and we’ll also answer some additional questions related to unblocking YouTube.

Why is YouTube blocked for you?

You might be getting YouTube videos blocked for a variety of reasons. This could be for reasons that can range from network restrictions to copyright infringement to censorship in some countries.

1. Network restrictions

Depending on where you are trying to access YouTube from, that particular location’s network might restrict you from accessing certain videos or the website entirely. This is particularly true in places like schools, colleges and office settings where a site like YouTube may be considered a distraction and obstacle to productivity.

2. Copyright infringement

Any videos on YouTube that violate copyright are typically sniffed out quickly by the company and removed or blocked. Obviously, YouTube doesn’t want to run afoul of the law and distribute copyrighted material, and it also wants to protect its content creators’ video rights.

3. Censorship

If you live in China, Iran or North Korea, you’re out of luck watching YouTube, as the site is completely blocked in those countries. Other countries might limit some of the videos you can watch. This is typical of countries that want to control how information is delivered and received by the population, especially when it comes to religious or political messaging.

4. Regional restrictions

If you’ve ever tried to watch an NBA, MLB or NFL game in a “blacked out” region, you’re all too familiar with the frustration of regionally restricted broadcasts and videos. Licensing rights mean certain YouTube videos can only be watched in certain regions — a term called “geo-blocking.”

5. Age restrictions

Sensibly, YouTube wants to protect certain users from videos deemed inappropriate for minors. The company can place restrictions on any video content it believes is too mature for younger viewers. This can include content that ranges from nudity to violence to foul language.

6. Inappropriate content

Anything considered as hate speech, too violent or sexually explicit, can be flagged by YouTube as inappropriate and blocked or removed from the platform. This also can be expanded to cover deceptive, sensitive or dangerous content, spam and other types of misinformation.

How to unblock YouTube

If you find yourself blocked and restricted from watching certain YouTube videos, you do have options. Let’s take a look at six different ways you can access blocked videos.

1. Bypass YouTube blocks with a VPN

One of the most common ways to watch blocked videos is by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN encrypts your private information and uses an offsite server to allow you to access the internet. So, in other words, your IP address will show the server location, not your own.

If you need help finding a good VPN, take a look at the best VPN services in 2024. Here are three of the top ones to consider:

NordVPN

NordVPN offers three plan tiers for its VPN services, making it easy to find one that will suit your budget. NordVPN covers up to six devices simultaneously and is excellent for businesses because of its sophisticated cybersecurity options.

The Basic plan costs $12.99 per month and comes with the VPN and a tracker and ad blocker. The Plus plan costs $13.99 per month and offers a data breach scanner and advanced browsing protection.

Finally, the Ultimate plan costs $15.99 per month and comes with all the features of the Plus plan, plus 1 TB encrypted cloud storage and $1 million of identity theft coverage and $100,000 of cyber extortion protection.

All plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee. The company also offers annual one-year and two-year plans that offer significant savings.

Learn more in our full NordVPN review.

TunnelBear

TunnelBear is our best overall VPN service and offers unlimited simultaneous connections with all of its plans — a rarity for most VPN services. The company has more than 5,000 servers in 46 countries.

TunnelBear offers three plans, including one for free. The Free plan allows you to test out the service and offers a limited 2 GB data limit, which is basically enough to cover email and simple web browsing. The Unlimited plan costs $9.99 per month and includes unlimited secure browsing, unlimited devices, premium VPN servers, city-level server selection and priority customer support.

The Teams plan is ideal for businesses with two or more employees and costs $5.75 monthly per user. This plan includes all the features of the Unlimited plan, plus centralized team billing and administrative and accounting tools. If you have a team with more than 200 users, you’ll need to contact TunnelBear for customized pricing. The company also offers discounted plans if you’re willing to pay annually over one or three years.

Learn more in our full TunnelBear review.

Surfshark

Surfshark’s VPN service is the best VPN service for global business travelers. Surfshark offers three monthly pricing plans.

The Starter plan costs $15.45 per month and includes the VPN, an ad blocker, a cookie pop-up blocker and identity protection tools. The Surfshark One plan goes for $17.95 per month and includes all the benefits of the Starter plan with added features like real-time credit card breach alerts, personal data security reports and 24/7 antivirus protection.

The Surfshark One+ plan costs $20.65 per month and includes everything in the One plan plus data removal from company websites and people search sites. The company also offers one and two-year annual plans with significant discounts.

Surfshark is ideal for business travelers because it has servers in 100 countries across the world, including 22 cities in the United States and four locations in the United Kingdom. Server speeds can vary greatly depending on location.

Learn more in our full Surfshark review.

2. Use a proxy server to unblock YouTube

A proxy server is similar to a VPN in that it uses a server in a secondary location to access the internet, thus hiding your location, changing your IP address and ultimately allowing you to access previously-restricted content.

The difference between a proxy server and a VPN, though, is that proxy servers are typically encrypted, so your personal data could be exposed. To avoid this, look for servers that are HTTPS-enabled.

If you want to access a proxy server to unblock a YouTube video, you’ll need to find a server in a location that allows YouTube. Then you’ll need to input that server’s port number and IP address in your browser settings.

3. Connect to a different network or hotspot

Sometimes, accessing YouTube is as simple as moving to a different Wi-Fi network or connecting through a personal hotspot. This is particularly true if you’re attempting to access YouTube through a private network at a workplace or school.

If you don’t have access to another network, you can set up a personal hotspot through your phone, then select the enabled hotspot on your laptop to access restricted content.

4. Use the Tor browser

The Tor browser, which stands for “The Onion Router,” is a free-to-download browser created by The Tor Project, Inc. — a nonprofit created in 2006. Its goal with onion routing is to be able to use the internet with as much privacy as possible, routing traffic through multiple servers and encrypting it throughout.

The browser allows you to protect yourself against tracking, surveillance and censorship and is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. To download it, simply visit the Tor website and follow their instructions.

You should likely expect slower browsing speeds when using Tor. Also, you may find that Tor has a less-than-admirable reputation because some people use it to access the dark web. But it’s also popular with journalists and whistleblowers because the browser hides online identities.

5. Try a YouTube unblocking browser extension

Browser extensions allow you to add extra features to your web browser. Make sure you do your research, however, and download a reputable extension, as some browser extensions aren’t secure and may contain malware.

You can find browser extensions for many of the popular browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Some examples include Unblocker for YouTube, VPN Unblocker for YouTube and NordVPN Chrome extension.

6. Enter the video URL into Google Translate

This method may seem a little odd, but it actually works quite well. Though it might not work with all videos, you can enter some blocked YouTube videos into Google Translate as a way of watching them.

To give this method a try, follow these steps:

• Visit the Google Translate website.
• Change language to English.
• Paste the blocked YouTube video in the search bar.
• Click on the video link that appears on the right side of the screen.
• The video should start if it’s unblocked.

Should you unblock YouTube?

Whether or not you should unblock YouTube depends on your location and your reason for doing so. Bypassing network restrictions at a school, college or workplace environment could get you in trouble — causing you to face disciplinary actions.

If you’re in a country that doesn’t allow access to YouTube because of censorship, it’s considered illegal to use a VPN or attempt to work around nationwide restrictions. Before attempting to bypass YouTube restrictions, you should check out the website’s copyright laws and terms of service.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)