Whether you are browsing Twitter or falling down a rabbit hole on YouTube, you are likely to have experienced the disappointment of seeing an error message pop up letting you know that the video you clicked on to watch is unavailable in your country.
Fortunately, it is possible to override this issue. In this article we are going to look at exactly how you can do this, while also examining the reasons why there are geographical content restrictions are still around. Let’s get into it.
How to watch YouTube videos not available in your country – The easiest way
The easiest and most common way of being able to view videos not available in your country is to use a virtual private network (VPN).
A VPN is a tool that users can use to browse the internet anonymously due to the fact that it allocates you an IP address from a different country.
Most VPN providers will allow you to pick which country you would like to obtain an IP address from.
While some VPN providers offer this service free of charge, the safest, quickest and most bulletproof VPN providers will demand a fee in order to use their services.
The vast majority of these providers will allow users to sign up to a free trial of some sort before any money is exchanged.
This way, you can see just how beneficial a VPN could be to you before committing to a monthly or yearly subscription.
In order to use a VPN safely to view videos not available in your country, please follow these steps:
- Find a reputable VPN provider online such as NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
- Sign up their free trial.
- Select a country that you’d like to connect to from their list of options. Make sure it is a country that grants you access to the video or videos that you would like to watch.
- Wait for the VPN provider to connect you to your selected IP address.
- Enjoy the videos that you were previously unable to watch.
If you don’t want to commit to signing up an extensive VPN then there are some free alternatives out there which may be of help to you – just make sure that you still get a faster upload speed when you’re using them if you want to make video calls.
Please note that these options aren’t as quick, secure or as reliable as more reputable VPN providers. However, they can still allow you to watch youtube videos blocked in your country.
Free VPN extensions on Chrome
Google Chrome is arguably the best web browser out there at the moment, and one of the reasons for this are the app-like extensions why they offer within their service.
These extensions are tools which aim to enhance your browsing experience in one way or another and free/limited VPN extensions are available to users in the United Kingdom.
The best of these extensions is the CyberGhost VPN which allows users free access to four VPN’s from Germany, Netherlands, Romania and the United States.
Using this to change your location will allow you to watch blocked YouTube videos.
CyberGhost is a reputable VPN provider which also offers a more extensive catalogue of VPN’s but if you are simply looking to view the odd video here or there then this free chrome extension may well do the trick for you.
To gain access to this extension, follow these steps:
- Load up Google Chrome on your desktop computer or laptop.
- Select the three dotted settings icons on the top right hand side of the screen.
- Select ‘settings’.
- On this page, select ‘advanced’ and then ‘extensions’.
- Press the three dotted icon on the upper right hand part of this screen and select ‘Open Chrome Web Store’.
- Type in ‘CyberGhost’ into the search bar, click on the top option and select ‘add’.
- Now, select the newly added puzzle icon on the upper right hand side of your chrome browser.
- Select the CyberGhost option.
- Select which of the four country’s you would like to connect to and hit ‘connect’.


Proxys
Another free option is to use web proxy’s. These are very limited versions of VPN’s and are available online without the need to download anything.
To use a web proxy, simply type in ‘web proxy’ into google and select one of the top options that come up on your search results.
You will then need to select which country you want to connect to and then enter in the web URL that you would like to visit from that proxy.
Be warned that this connection won’t be secured so don’t enter in any personal information while on a proxy and also expect the connection to be incredibly slow – something not ideal when trying to stream a video.
Conclusion
To conclude, there are still content restrictions in place for certain types of media such as videos and images depending on where you are trying to access said media from.
Luckily, it is very simple to get around the issue of not being able to watch YouTube videos due to geographical restrictions.
Of course, it’s worth checking that your parental controls aren’t restricting you from watching videos. But, you can use free VPN services to give you access to region restricted videos, or opt for a premium VPN connection if you come across this message regularly.
You can sign up to a free trial on NordVPN and/or ExpressVPN, and look at the CyberGhost Chrome extension for long term use.