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Nowadays, you might have seen many YouTube videos that are unavailable for specific locations. This happens for a variety of reasons such as local firewalls, copyright issues, or censorship and it’s always frustrating. This makes a lot of people wonder how to unblock YouTube videos and watch blocked videos. Is it legal and what’s the safest way to do it?
I’m going to explain why YouTube videos are getting blocked and how to unblock YouTube in a way that’s both easy and safe. So here are four ways to unblock YouTube videos. With the first method, you will learn how to unblock any YouTube videos. It’s safe and simple, and this is the simplest way to unblock YouTube.
How To Get YouTube Unblocked?
Use A VPN
When you connect with a VPN, you route your internet traffic through a VPN server in a location that you choose. This makes it look like your traffic comes from that location. So it’s an effective way to get around Geoblocks, Local Firewalls, and Censorship.
Some of the popular VPNs for YouTube are NordVPN, ExpressVPN, PrivateVPN, and Surfshark. They are fast, secure and excel at bypassing geoblocks. If you want to unblock YouTube for free, there are some top VPNs with free plans. These won’t give you the same performance or protection as paid VPNs but they can bypass geoblocks most of the time.
Here’s How To Unblock YouTube videos with a VPN
I’m using NordVPN this time, but the process is pretty much the same with any good VPN. First, select a plan and create an account with NordVPN. You will be asked for details like your email id, and payment info. All these deeds are kept private, you can also pay with Google Pay or any other cryptocurrencies.
You will get an email asking you to confirm your email address and create a password. So go ahead and follow the instructions to do that. Your NordVPN app may have already started downloading but if it hasn’t, head over to NordVPN’s app page and begin the download.
When it’s done, run the executable and complete the installation process. Follow the instructions and grant permissions, it’s quite straightforward, then open NordVPN and log in using the account details you just created.
Now you need to connect to a server in a country where the video you want to view isn’t blocked. Usually, this is the country where the video was created.
You can also use an online restriction checker tool to find the closest country where the video is available. If you are getting around a work or school firewall, you can usually pick a server within your own country. You can use an IP checker if you want to double-check that your traffic is being routed through your VPN. If it shows a location that’s not your current one, your VPN is working. Now reload your blocked YouTube video all done.
Modified URL
Keep in mind that this method can unblock YouTube at school or work but it won’t unblock YouTube region-restricted or censored content. The URL is the address to a particular site or page. It shows up in the address bar of your browser to block YouTube with a local firewall. Admins usually blacklist YouTube’s URL. You might be able to access YouTube by tweaking the URL a little. For example, you could use this one, however, please note that it doesn’t always work as the whole hostname can be blocked so if the link contains this hostname, it will still be blocked. Anyway, it’s worth a try.
Download the content
All you need to do is copy the video links into a free video download site such as ytwants.com, or savefrom.net and hit the button to start the download. This even works for geo-restricted content. You can take the downloaded videos with you to work or school or anywhere you want. It does require some planning though you will need enough device space to store the videos and you will need to know what videos you will want to watch beforehand. With geo-restricted content, you will need the link to the video too. Without a VPN, those videos just won’t show up in your search results. So knowing just the name won’t do you any good.
YouTube Proxy Add-on
These browser extensions create a link between your browser and a proxy server which can help you get around geo-restrictions. It’s not hard to find a website with a proxy to unblock YouTube. For proxy sites, I personally recommend Ultrasurf and Proxtube. Use a demo by visiting their store page in your browser, hitting the button to add, and granting permission in the browser windows that pops up. However, proxy add-ons servers are blacklisted by YouTube way more often than VPN servers. Unfortunately, there’s no workaround for that so you can’t expect a stable performance from a proxy.
Conclusion
Now, I know you are probably wondering if it is safe to unblock YouTube videos. Your online safety in this situation depends on the tools that you are using. Many free tech tools are shady and unreliable, so you should be careful about using free unblocking add-ons.
Also Read: How To Download YouTube Videos For Free: Android, iPhone, PC & Mac
