YouTube “Video Is No Longer Available” Error

Janie of Colloquium emailed me yesterday regarding my post about my personally-selected YouTube Videos. She said she was not able to view them because there was an error in each video: it says it is no longer available.

I’ve seen that one before. The first time in my own video. I got worried, thinking if I violated YouTube’s Terms of Service (TOS). Was the video taken down due to copyright infringement or copyright claim by other parties? I didn’t think so. Fortunately, the (only) video in my account was not deleted. So how did I fix the error?

I didn’t. It was on YouTube side. My instinct told me to press F5 to reload the page before I make a drastic move in my blog. Luckily, the trick worked.

So I emailed Janie back saying that it is normal when the page with embedded YouTube video is open for a long time. The clip is not gone, removed or deleted. All she has to do is refresh the page and the video will re-appear.

She thanked me for letting her know because she didn’t “realize that You Tube timed out like that.” to quote her.

I want to thank Janie for pointing this out. She inspired me to write a post because it seems to me that this issue looks like a big deal to a concerned viewer. I hope that this post somehow reaches YouTube so they can fix the annoying “Video is no longer available” error that makes their members and users worry.

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  • 86 Responses to “YouTube “Video Is No Longer Available” Error”


    1. 1 JHS

      I’m having to have learned something new! I did open the page, then got distracted . . . and when I came back, no video! Glad it was an easy fix. :-)

    2. 2 JHS

      oops . . .that should read “happy” to have learned something new.

    3. 3 Marcus LANGFORD

      You would think all of that money that Google has put into YouTube, they wouldn’t have these minor yet irritating issues. I am gonna need Sergey and Larry to get it together.

    4. 4 Diana13

      I’ve observed this issue too. But I didn’t thought to write a post about it. Smart girl :)

    5. 5 Heather

      nice…and don’t stop blogging. It’s part of what keeps you feeling Lucky!

    6. 6 same deal

      My videos are giving me the same error…i tryed to refresh the page as well but no luck…guess i should just embed the video on my server that way never any errors…realy anoying

    7. 7 Cashflow420

      I hate those annoying YouTube errors! Thanks for the help!

      Bay Area Rap CDs

    8. 8 Dwyer & Michaels

      I post YouTube videos on our website all the time and they recently started showing the “This video is no longer available” error upon pushing the little play button. Refreshing does not help. This happens when I take a live YouTube video, copy and paste the code directly into my page and upload. Right away it shows the “no longer available error” yet if you click other part of the video that opens the original page on YouTube with the video still there. No amount of refreshing helps.

      I did some studying on the code and my old videos that still play correctly and there is just a small difference (I guess it actually was changed back in January!). I found that if you remove the code ” ” that appears twice in the embed code that the videos will play just as they should.

      Love to hear if this works for anyone else ’cause it’s definitely helping with my videos!

    9. 9 Dwyer & Michaels

      Hmm… the code didn’t paste right, sorry! It is /param with the greater than/less than symbols on either side. Just remove the two that appear in the code and the embedded videos should play.

    10. 10 Soy Candles

      I love watching YouTube, however I have also had a few problems with their videos recently..especially on people’s websites.

    11. 11 Get Rich Stress Free

      Watching Youtube is really fun but I don’t see any problems while using it.

    12. 12 Esaul Daris

      Any suggest please: how to create a videos in easy and or fast way? Apprecited to shareing here.

    13. 13 Unblock myspace

      Yeah, the worst thing is when you get that error on the only copy of that video. Nice to know I’m not the only one.

    14. 14 omg

      I have litterally tried everything. i have:
      unisntalled and reinstalled Flashplayer 3 times,
      unistalled all other players from my computer,
      reinstalled jave 5 times,
      downloaded all windows updates,
      removed all firewalls,
      enabled javascripting,
      reinstalled display driver,

      i keep getting an error on pege in the bottom left hand corner of the page and i still ge tthe same “sorry this video is no longer available”

    15. 15 Jewelry Patterns

      Try adding &fmt=18 to the end of your YouTube url. That fixed it for me. I’ve also heard that Google Web Accelerator is causing issues with YouTube videos.

    16. 16 na

      None of the above suggestions work, it seems it’s a youtube problem, not a coding problem. They need to fix it.

    17. 17 Avocado

      &fmt=18 totally worked for me. Just got a new pc with vista. hmm

    18. 18 Donn Edwards

      I have been having this problem on EVERY video on YouTube.

      I tried Hotspot Shield (www.hotspotshield.com) and it worked because my local ISP screwed up their transparent proxy.

    19. 19 Calabria Real Estate

      I have been having same problem too and I don’t know what to do with it.

    20. 20 ]]Dark_moment[[

      I have the same problem as you all for couple months and I just come up with solution today.

      No matter how many times you reinstall your flash player, it won’t help at all. What you need to do to watch youtube is proxy.

      Set your browser to use proxy for internet connection. You will find a lot of free proxy in Google.

      In FireFox, you can set proxy by menu Tools/Options../Advance at Network tab. click setting. New window will appear. Choose “Manual Proxy Configuration:” then put proxy IP and port. You can leave the rest as it is and click OK. Try to watch YouTube again. It should work now.

      In IE, you can set proxy by menu Tools/Internet Options…/Connections. Click the “Lan Setting” button in “Local Area Network(LAN) setting:” box then check the “Use a proxy server…..” check box. Put proxy IP and port then click OK. ^^

      You can watch Youtube now. Everything should be fine in this step but keep in mind that free proxy server will be available for short time. If the “We’re sorry, bla bla bla ” happen again, you could find new free proxy IP. Don’t worry, there are free proxy everyday.

      By the way, if you want to keep your favorite Youtube video, try this site www.keepvid.com

      I hope this solution could solve your problem as well as it solved mine.

    21. 21 Love Sac

      Thank you so much for sharing some solution to solve these problems. I like what you said.

    22. 22 Submit Link

      I hope can get run the video with no error again. Thanks for all.

    23. 23 JoJo
    24. 24 Dog Symptoms

      I love YouTube. but I hate their problems. Never mind!

    25. 25 MOin

      yeh it also sometimes happens with me actually the videos is not gone or deleted the problem i detected was that my server was limiting my downloads like i could’t download anything .exe .mp3 .zip anything we say so i was’t also able to see videos. the problem is gone since i replace my ISP.

    26. 26 Meteor Freak

      Typical of YouTube to be full of bugs. They pull videos all the time for some inane violation of their TOS. You used to be able to drive decent traffic to your site with YouTube but they are quickly becoming unusable…

    27. 27 Esthetic Equipment

      Thanks a lot for the solution. I encountered same problem before and it makes me feel sick.

    28. 28 Fred Dibnah

      I thought that error had been fixed (not seen it for a long time)….but just had it a couple of days ago…(sigh)

    29. 29 Ceramicman

      Easy fix, for all windows vers. In internet explorer go into Tools/Internet Options/Connections Tab/Lan Setting. Once in Lan Settings, uncheck all boxes. ALL youtube videos will load now.

      Pass it on.

    30. 30 dramaqueen

      i’ve learnt something.. thanks

    31. 31 Logo Designer

      YouTube works well to me sometimes when I use Microsoft Internet Explorer. But in case of firefox I always want to install some sort of plugin. Never used it on firefox

    32. 32 Cassio

      The Fastest Easiest way to do it…

      Use Chrome!!

    33. 33 EPL Highlights

      Firefox is the best…they have lot of addons available and a large community as well

    34. 34 Unblock Websites

      but i didnt find anything wrong.anyway i will be prepared.

    35. 35 Teenage Businessman

      Sometimes my readers get this error when I try embedding a video into Wordpress, but hopefully it’s just isolated incidents. I will pass this fixes on to them.

    36. 36 cwxwwwxwwxwx

      well, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch ;)

    37. 37 Free video tutorials

      yes chrome is best.for me youtube shows no problem

    38. 38 Bay Area Lawyer

      You know i have seen this error a lot lately. i just assumed that the video had been removed for whatever reason. I always thought it was weird that the video was still indexed, especially if it had been removed. I never thought about reloading the page. i just always took the error message at face value. Thanks for the trick, i’ll have to try it out.

    39. 39 Custom Web Development

      I see this type of error occur sometime. But i don’t know about it.

    40. 40 sonalia

      Thanks for the help! I had the same problems with my video :s

    41. 41 ceramicman

      It is an easy fix, for all windows vers. In internet explorer go into Tools/Internet Options/Connections Tab/Lan Setting. Once in Lan Settings, uncheck all boxes. ALL youtube videos will load now.

      Pass it on.

    42. 42 mac @ health leads exclusive

      I still have a problem with IE but my Flock browser doesn’t seem to get the error messages. It has some kind of youtube thing built in.

    43. 43 Anorexia Symptoms

      I kept having problems with YouTube, so this is a useful fix for me. Thanks for your help!

    44. 44 Cancer Treatment Florida

      So many times this type error comes in my pc but now i found solution and i will show youtube video.

    45. 45 FL Real Estate Agent

      I don’t found any error in youtube video but if error comes i have solve to above method.

    46. 46 probate attorney in sacramento

      I’ve had this error in the past as well. I never knew it was as simple as just refreshing. Another day, another internet “trick” learned!

    47. 47 Civilizedweb

      I think the error comes when the video owner disables embedding.

    48. 48 David

      “I love watching YouTube, however I have also had a few problems with their videos recently..especially on people’s websites.”

      Me 2 especially in orkut!

    49. 49 CaperDon

      Have had this problem for a few weeks and this is what fixed it for me if you are running Firefox. If you have the Adblock Plus addon installed on your Firefox brower, go to “preferences” and see if Youtube is CHECKED in the “My Add Blocking Rules” section….if it is, UNCHECK it. This worked fine for me…..hope it helps.

    50. 50 PSD to HTML

      I like youtube video and i also found this error sometimes. Thanks for information about it.

    51. 51 Minnesota Attorney

      I’ve wondered about this. Thanks for shedding some light on this error.

    52. 52 Energy Conservation

      I don’t get errors in youtube video.

    53. 53 Salon St. Petersburg

      Yes, this error comes some times in my pc. Thanks for sharing tips.

    54. 54 ryan

      I’m getting stacks of these errors suddenly on a proxy network. If I switch to another network the same videos work fine. Refreshing doesn’t work - and if I load a page that has the same video embedded that still doesn’t work unless I switch networks.

    55. 55 Water Filter St Petersburg

      Nice solution for youtube video error. Thanks for sharing information.

    56. 56 Broadband

      My videos are giving me the same error…i tryed to refresh the page as well but no luck…guess i should just embed the video on my server that way never any errors…realy anoying

    57. 57 Ceramicman

      It is an easy fix, for all windows vers. In internet explorer go into Tools/Internet Options/Connections Tab/Lan Setting. Once in Lan Settings, uncheck all boxes. ALL youtube videos will load now.

      Pass it on to others.

    58. 58 alex tam

      hi,great post,just keep it up

    59. 59 Real estate Phoenixville PA

      You got perfect solution of youtube video error!!

    60. 60 Healthcare Consultant Florida

      Good helpful information sharing. Thanks.

    61. 61 Computer Repair St Petersburg

      I will try to fix error with this information. Thanks

    62. 62 Network Cabling Florida

      Thank you for youtube video error solution, youtube favorite video site, always tankful for youtube error solution

    63. 63 connor

      what about when it does it over and over even after refreshing several times?

    64. 64 Roofing St Petersburg

      Thanks for solution for Youtube video error.

    65. 65 Carpet Tampa

      You teach us something new and specially about YouTube, it been great solution for YouTube Lover.

    66. 66 Auto Web Design

      I hate when that happens! Youtube needs to fix that error big time! It confuses people and possibly persuades them to delete videos

    67. 67 Insurance New Port Richey

      Good tips for youtube video error. Now i will solve this.

    68. 68 Theater Seats Chairs

      Since many time we guys looking for YouTube solution, also found great stuff at your blog….

    69. 69 Nicole Thompsen

      I have been using Tubemogul.com for submitting my videos to Youtube but despite accepting the TOS on Youtube manually I still cannot seem to get my videos through to Youtube. Can there be a reason?

    70. 70 Dentist St Petersburg

      Good solutions for youtube video error. It’s really helpful information for me.

    71. 71 Great deals on Appliances

      Though United Kingdom is in recession but retail shopping business over internet has shown positive signs recently. The Office of National Statistics released interesting data on 20th February 2009. The report reveals that in general people are disinterested in buying new stuff and are rather looking towards repairing old belongings. People in the UK are shopping online when best deals are offered. Fresh statistics show that online retail shopping now represents 3.7% of overall retail sales. In terms of percentage retail shopping business over internet has witnessed a steady growth, from 3.1% in January of 2008 to 3.5% in December that same year and now 3.7% in February 2009. If the same statistics are seen on a per weekly basis then during January this year people in the UK spent £178 million per week

    72. 72 Water Skiing Equipment

      I get that a lot. It’s YouTubes fault in this condition i just try again later but thanks for this post it is good solutions thanks again for this post.

    73. 73 Ceramicman

      Easy fix, for all windows vers. In internet explorer go into Tools/Internet Options/Connections Tab/Lan Setting. Once in Lan Settings, uncheck all boxes. ALL youtube videos will load now. Don’t think reloading is the answer.

      Pass it on.

    74. 74 Home Healthcare Sarasota

      Easy to fix youtube video error. Thanks.

    75. 75 Human Resource Management

      YouTube become heart of video lovers, so you provided eager solution of hungry people for YouTube.

    76. 76 Water Skiing Equipment

      i think there is some problem with the server of the youtube. its giving a hard time for most of the videos to buffer.

    77. 77 Restaurant POS

      I m fan of youtube video but sometimes i missed some video for this error. Now i will try to solve this error and see videos.

    78. 78 Tampa Telecom

      Thanks for information about youtube video errors.

    79. 79 clubpenguin

      it also sometimes happens with me actually the videos is not gone or deleted the problem i detected was that my server was limiting my downloads like i could’t download anything .exe .mp3 .zip anything we say so i was’t also able to see videos. the problem is gone since i replace my ISP.

    80. 80 stop dreaming start action

      I had experienced similar things, I think, youtube is error. but apparently not. so if this error occurs because the connection? or what?

    81. 81 Mark Clark

      hello, i am always encountering this youtube problem, some also videos have dont sound into it.

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