Using proxys to defeat the YouTube "this video is not available" message

Tired of seeing this annoying message on YouTube?

This video is not available.

Sorry about that.

This happened to me all the time with "- Topic" videos on YouTube. I used to be able to see all of those, so I just assumed the videos had been removed until I found out other people could still see them.

So after a bit of experimenting, I discovered this message can show up if a video is only available in certain regions.

I can see those videos if I use a YouTube-friendly proxy through a region in which the video is available, like the US.

There are a number of sites that can achieve this conveniently and even select the region you want to appear to be viewing from.

I normally find one by Googling:

youtube proxy

Or sometimes

unblock youtube

Some ones that have worked well for me:

https://www.proxysite.com/youtube/
https://www.proxfree.com/youtube-proxy.php

I'd suggest not using proxy servers to transmit any sensitive information because it's essentially letting a third party make a request to a site on your behalf (ie. the third party might be able to see your information).

For YouTube videos though, there's probably no sensitive data passing through that connection so it just lets you enjoy YouTube videos you wouldn't otherwise be able to see.