Watch YouTube videos that are blocked in your country

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 9, 2013
Updated • Jun 9, 2013
Music and Video, Youtube
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10

Someone posted a link to a great YouTube video on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or any other site but you cannot play it because you get the dreaded "this video is not available" message when you try to watch it on your system? You may or may not be affected by this on a daily basis depending on where you live.

If you are living in Germany for instance, chance is that many popular music videos won't simply play because of Google's ongoing struggle with the GEMA. But videos can also be restricted to countries automatically so that no one but users from that country can watch it on the video hosting website.

I'd like to share with you options that may help you watch that video even if it is not available to you right away. Lets get started.

Search for the video title

This is often one of the best options, especially when it comes to popular videos. Just search for the video title, e.g. a song name, and you'll usually end up with other results that offer the video to you.

Blocked

The dreaded "Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights" message.

youtube video not available
Video blocked

 

Working

A quick search revealed this video. While it is not the original one, it is the official music video after all albeit with subtitles. If you search a little bit more, you will probably find a music video without subtitles.

watch video
different video, same contents

 

This works better for popular videos than it does for videos that are not as popular, or that are exclusive to a channel on the video hosting site.

I suggest you start with a search for the exact title to see if one of the videos that comes up in search is playable on your system. If that is not the case, try variations or only parts of the title to see if it yields the desired results.

As far as music goes, you should not have much trouble finding a suitable alternative.

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Comments

  1. Joe Bigliogo said on November 12, 2013 at 9:49 pm
    Reply

    If a video is offered for public viewing, it’s infuriating not to mention unethical to restrict it’s location for viewing. It is in effect a kind of discrimination no different than saying…
    “this video is not available for viewing by black people (or choose your ethnicity), sorry.”
    The only solution is to relentlessly find workarounds using various software or proxy sites and share this info with as many people as possible. Also to harshly denounce those who advocate this sort of media fascism to make them realize that freedom of access is a greater moral imperative than media segregation.

  2. Maddy said on June 11, 2013 at 3:38 am
    Reply

    Spotflux is good ip changer with fast browsing speed to open any restricted web in your country. I am using it and its nice.

  3. Butty said on June 10, 2013 at 6:10 pm
    Reply

    I don’t know if this Firefox’s Extension works for this situation.

    YouTube Unblocker 0.4.4:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-unblocker

    Thanks for the Daily newsletter.

  4. Bad said on June 9, 2013 at 2:56 pm
    Reply

    Useless articles, the quality of articles has been going down on ghacks for a long time now, if it isn’t something like this one its pimping scam/scareware. I think your about loose a long time fhacks follower if you keep this junk up.

    Sorry if it sounds harsh but serious, Google is your big ghacks tip, what with all the addons out there that can get around this kind of stuff like “Media Hint” you just say Google.

  5. smaragdus said on June 9, 2013 at 1:14 pm
    Reply

    YouTube Unblocker – http://www.unblocker.yt/

    YouTube Unblocker works with Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome

  6. ZhukovD said on June 9, 2013 at 12:50 pm
    Reply

    Proxtube on Firefox

  7. GodHatesFigs said on June 9, 2013 at 11:05 am
    Reply

    Think I’ll give this one a miss.I’d want to keep those featured vids blocked right across the board,PERMANENTLY!

  8. UveGot2BKddng said on June 9, 2013 at 10:11 am
    Reply

    Oh Martin, you usually write such awesome articles but this one was completely pointless. Your entire article equates to this –

    “Can’t see a video? Google it and find it elsewhere.”

    Really Captain Obvious?! No concrete alternatives? No actual solutions? There are loads of browser proxy add-ons like FoxyProxy, or loads of proxy re-direction sites like HideMyAss, or loads of free proxy programs like TOR, or paid proxy services like a VPN.

    My RSS reader is already clogged with sites repeating the same story with the same details over and over again – I don’t need completely useless fluff like this article jamming it up even more. Please go back to your usual standard of excellent content.

    1. needtopn said on June 28, 2013 at 6:48 am
      Reply

      I can t open any website in my computer its showing a McAfee notification
      how can I unblock it. any solution. MacAfee notification is given below

      ::
      McAfee Web Gateway
      Notification

      Request Blocked by URL Filter Database

      Your request to URL “http://www.starsports.com/cricket/video/index.html?v=1270215” has been blocked by the McAfee Web Gateway URL Filter Database. The URL is listed under categories (Business, Entertainment, Online Shopping), which are not allowed by your administrator at this time. The following reputation level was assigned to it: Neutral.
      URL Filter Database serial number: 40599
      ——————————————————————————–
      generated 28/Jun/2013:16:15:30 +0530 by igu-proxy01.whirlpool.com (McAfee Web Gateway 6.9.3 Build 13514)

  9. inselaffe said on June 9, 2013 at 6:21 am
    Reply

    ProxMate on Chrome works great here in Germany – hopefully no more GEMA annoyances! Thanks for the tip… :-)

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