How to watch YouTube when it’s blocked

These days, YouTube has by far become the main source of watching various video content, be it a cartoon, movie, or videos from your favorite blogger/channel. Unfortunately, some videos or even the entire platform can be restricted in certain areas of the world due to various reasons, such as specific regulations set by country authorities, copyright issues, or intentional blockage by the video creator himself. In rarer cases, access to YouTube may be hampered by schools or other organizations to ensure a stable internet connection and prevent the distraction of students or employees. Luckily, there are a number of ways that one can capitalize on to trick the system and watch a blocked or non-available video regardless of your location.

1. Using a VPN

Sure thing, many of you have heard about VPN and what this thing does. In short, VPN is a Virtual Private Network allowing users to circumvent various Internet bans by connecting to an IP-address of some other location. In other words, this technology can make it seem like you are in the USA instead of China RP to be able to watch your favorite video or access a certain website. Apart from helping with access to restricted resources, VPN is also a good tool for protecting your privacy around the web by encrypting your traffic and disguising your online identity. Nowadays, there are many VPN products by various companies competing in this online market. It may therefore be quite hard to choose the best and most suitable option out of so many available. Our personal recommendation is Nord VPN – a simple, yet overwhelmingly useful VPN service having a diverse collection of servers and various features to boost your security and allow watching anything you want regardless of where you actually are. Nord VPN can be used on multiple devices, both in the form of an application or browser extension. There are also many plans, ranging from Monthly to 2-year subscriptions with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Access their website and choose whichever fits you the most!

2. Using Proxy sites

Proxy websites use a similar, however, less secure connection pattern than VPN. Simply be entering a URL of a desired video or website on a proxy site, users’ connection and traffic will get redirected through the selected proxy’s server making it possible to open a restricted resource. Unfortunately, the only downside of this is that your traffic will still be visible to ISP, network admins, and other parties that may view your activity. This is opposite to VPN, which allows circumvention of geo-bans and at the same time protection of data by encrypting it from external eyes. If you still decide to use a proxy connection, simply search for it in your browser to find a web proxy (or online proxy) website. After this, do the following steps:

1. Once you have found and opened a web-proxy website, you should immediately see an empty field to put your URL address.
2. Copy-paste it and choose the server you want to connect to if such an option is present.
3. After this, click on the appropriate button to open the page from the selected proxy server.

This should be enough to get over restrictions and view the content you need.

3. Using Tor Browser

Many have heard about this useful, yet quite controversial browser for its abuse by various fraudulent figures. Due to its highly-secure methods of establishing connections through numerous servers at the same time, many cybercriminals started using it for running criminal activities – apparently to avoid getting tracked and caught by special authorities. Despite this, it still remains a reliable and easy-to-use alternative for bypassing restrictions on various websites. Unfortunately, all of this functionality comes not without a cost – and that is significantly worse Internet performance. Due to the number of servers used for simultaneous connection, the connection speed might drop significantly, making it difficult to watch a YouTube video without freezes and fluctuations of quality. Even so, you can still give it a try and see how it goes. Tor Browser is totally free and here are the steps to set it up quickly.

1. Open the official download website and choose what system you need to download it for. Tor would be better to a better option to use on computers, however, it is also available for smartphones.
2. Execute the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to complete its installation.
3. Once installed, open Tor Browser. After your first opening, you will see a page offering connection options. Either connect directly to the Tor network or configure Tor Browser for your connection.
4. In most cases, simply clicking Connect will be the most popular option.
5. Following this, you will see that your connection is in progress. Once finished, you can easily start accessing the websites you want.

If you stumble upon any problems while connecting, you can find relevant supportive instructions on their website – for instance, when you are unable to connect to Tor’s network.

4. Downloading the video

Here is another interesting method that, in turn, does not look similar to any of the provided solutions so far. And that is downloading the restricted YouTube video directly to your system and watching it basically offline. The steps are very simple – you just need to find a web service that allows downloading any video. All you need to know is the video’s URL address to paste into the space field. One example of websites offering video-download features is savefrom.net. The only disadvantage of these websites is that oftentimes clicking on “Download” buttons drops users over to a chain of advertisements, which can sometimes be unwanted. However, there is a small trick we can share with you to prevent such ads from popping – for example, on savefrom.net:

1. After opening the website and copy-paste your video’s URL address into the field, wait a bit (usually a couple of seconds) until the page proceeds with the video quality selection step.
2. Instead of clicking on the Download button next to selected quality, right-click on it and click Save link as…. Choose the location where you want your video to be saved and enjoy watching it without having to go through various ads.



3. If clicking on Save link as… does not lead to the video download, simply redo this steps again until it does.

Downloading videos through such online services is usually better done on a computer. Below, you will find the concluding method of our tutorial, which can help you get over banned resources as well.

5. Using Google Public DNS or Open DNS

The following and last method of our guide will be helpful if it is your Internet Service Provider (ISP) blocking access to YouTube. In this case, we can alter the selected DNS server manually by typing either Google Public DNS or Open DNS. We recommend first trying Google Public DNS and, if it does not work, Open DNS. There are instructions for both Windows and macOS right below.

Change DNS in Windows:

1. Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections.
2. Double-click on your connection name.
3. Click on Properties.
4. Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
5. Mark Use the following DNS server addresses.

To use Google Public DNS, type in the following values:

Preferred DNS Server: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.4.4

To use Open DNS, type in these values instead:

Preferred DNS Server: 208.67.222.222
Alternate DNS Server: 208.67.220.220

6. After this, click OK to save changes.

Change DNS in Mac:

1. Click on the Apple icon on top of your desktop and choose System Preferences.
2. Then navigate to Network and click on Advanced button.
3. Move to the DNS tab and click on + at the left bottom. Note that you will have to click + each time you enter a new DNS server address.

For Google Public DNS, type:

Preferred DNS Server: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.4.4

For Open DNS, type:

Preferred DNS Server: 208.67.222.222
Alternate DNS Server: 208.67.220.220

4. Once done, click OK and confirm the action.

Now you can reboot your browser and try to access the problematic video again. We hope it works.

Summary

We hope you are finally able to watch your video with relief and joy. VPN is usually the most optimal solution for those of you willing to easily bypass geo restrictions and keep your traffic protected against third-party eyes. Our website contains a variety of different articles dedicated to both error and virus removals. If ever face some issues with your computer or smartphone in the future, search for related articles on our page – maybe you will find a relevant article with solutions immediately.