YouTube is a popular online streaming platform powered by Google and it is the second most visited site by the audience in the world. Most people spend a significant amount of time watching YouTube videos. With a variety of content available across the globe, it has become a mode of relaxation after a hectic day of work. But, many YouTube users face issues while streaming videos. One of the common issues is that many users face while online streaming is “this video is unavailable”. Sometimes it can get very frustrating when we want to watch our favorite video and this error message pops up on the screen. In case you are searching for ways to watch unavailable YouTube videos then you are at the right place. In this article, we will walk you through a few fixes that can help you watch blocked YouTube videos on your device.
Reasons Why “This video Is Unavailable” Issue Appears
Before heading towards the “How to Watch Unavailable YouTube Videos – Fixes” section, you might want to know why you experience such issues while streaming videos on YouTube. You might have seen one of these notifications popping up on your screen while experiencing a video streaming issue:
- An error has occurred.
- Playback error. Tap to retry.
- Connection to server lost.
- This video is unavailable.
- Something went wrong. Tap to retry.
When you face trouble during video streaming on YouTube there can be many reasons linked to it. Most of the time why you are not able to watch unavailable YouTube videos or unable to watch blocked YouTube videos is because they come under restricted content in some countries. Two major reasons behind this issue are listed below:
- User Permission: the person who owns the video or uploads the video has access to restrict who all can view their videos. If they have set the viewer permission to private then only people with direct access to those videos can watch the video. So, in case you know the owner you might have to ask the owner for access to view their videos.
- Violating Guidelines: There are certain criteria that a video must have and a YouTuber must follow those guidelines before putting their videos on YouTube. YouTube can block certain videos for some countries due to local laws.
How To Watch Unavailable YouTube Videos? – Fixes
It is illegal to watch blocked YouTube videos and it is neither advisable. However, if you wish to still view the content then you can follow the following fixes to watch unavailable YouTube videos.
- Refreshing the web page and restarting the browser
The first fix for “how to watch unavailable YouTube videos” is to try refreshing the web page. Sometimes due to network issues, you might not be able to view certain videos on YouTube. So check your network connection and refresh your web browser. Even after refreshing your web browser, you are still facing the problem then you can try restarting your web browser. Check whether this solved the issue or not.
- Using a VPN
By using a Virtual Private Network or VPN you will be able to watch blocked YouTube videos on your device. A VPN allows you to hide your device’s IP address behind a different IP address. This will let you see videos that are blocked or restricted in your region. However, if YouTube has blocked the VPN address that you are using then you won’t be able to see the content that is blocked in your region. In such scenarios, you can customize the region settings in your VPN to the one in which the YouTube video is viewable. If you don’t have a VPN subscription, then you try NordVPN and ExpressVPN, as they are a few of the best VPN available.
- Try disabling the hardware acceleration
Computers have a hardware acceleration feature installed within them that has access to the GPU for rendering videos to your device. Hence reducing the excessive usage of CPU for your browser. Although useful, sometimes they might be the reason behind why you are not able to watch unavailable YouTube videos. To avoid and fix this you can follow the steps given below:
- On the top right corner of your web browser click on the kabab menu or the three-dot menu and select the “Settings”.
- Once the “Settings” tab opens, scroll down and click on the “Advanced” option.
- Navigate the “System” section and disable the “Use Hardware Acceleration When Available” option.
- Use a proxy server
A proxy server in short is a computer on the internet that has its IP address. When you send a web request, your request goes to the proxy server, and then it collects the data from the web server. After which it forwards the data to your system. A proxy server changes your IP address so that the webserver doesn’t know your proper location, hence hiding your identity. By using the proxy server YouTube doesn’t get to know your location when you change your IP address with a different country’s IP address. Hence letting you view the videos that are restricted in your region. One of the best proxy servers available is ProxFree. However, some proxy servers don’t use any encryption and there might be always the risk of your data getting leaked.
- Try cleaning the cache from your web browser or device or both
Cleaning the cache files from your web browser first. Few Cache files contain corrupted files in them that might be interrupting your video streaming. After cleaning your web browser, check whether it solved the problem or not. If not, then try cleaning the cache files from your device as well. The corrupted files on your device or web browser might contain temporary data that can even damage your device. So, remove them that must solve the issue.
- Try to change the video quality
Sometimes, you might be able to watch unavailable YouTube videos by changing the quality of the stream to a lower quality. If you don’t have a good internet connection then watching the video in high quality might lead to displaying the message “This Video is Unavailable”.
Hopefully, one of these fixes should help you watch unavailable YouTube videos on your device and let you enjoy your streaming without any interruption.
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