How To Fix VLC Media Player Won’t Play Youtube Video

When it comes to such applications that allows users to stream media, then there’s various options, and VLC Media Player is one of the widely used option. It offers so many features that suits every user needs, even when to stream youtube videos directly from the app. All just it needs to open the link from VLC. Even drag and drop feature can also be helpful that works on a browser.

Well, if you love this feature, then you might even have come to notice “VLC Media Player Won’t Play Youtube Video” issue, if yes, you are not alone. Many of the Windows users have reported this issue that they are unable to stream video your youtube now. In most of the cases, this issue may appear certainly due to settings in cookies, and in order to fix it, the users need to follow some workarounds.

Means, if you are one such a user who end up to see “VLC Media Player Won’t Play Youtube Video”, then this article will discuss a number of workarounds that can help you to resolve the issue. Let’s learn the methods here one by one:

Method 1: Replace youtube.lua file with a new one

The very first suggested fix is to download and replace the existing youtube.lua file for which here are the steps to follow:

Launch your browser and download youtube.lua filr from official VLC Player site.

Now, press Win + E keys together to open Windows Explorer.

In the address bar in explorer, copy and paste C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist for 32-bit computers, or C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist for 64-bit computers.

In the opened folder, locate youtube.luac file, and delete it.

Now, open a new Explorer window, and navigate to Downloads folder and copy youtube.lua file and paste in the location from where the previous mentioned file is deleted.

Once done, launch VLC Player and press Ctrl + N to open media window. Also, you can choose Media > Open Network Stream from top menu.

Enter the url of any youtube video you want to play or use drag and drop method.

Once the url is placed, hit the Play button to start the video.

Method 2: Disable cookies forwarding

Launch VLC Media Player and click on Tools > Preferences.

In the new opened window, you can see Show settings section, select All.

Now, click on Input/Codecs from the left hand side menu and click on Access modules.

In the modules, click on HTTPS, and untick the Cookies forwarding on the right hand side.

Next is to click on Save button to save the settings.

Finally, you are done and can play any youtube video url.

Note: This method is suggested to follow on your own risk because this method can lead to a security breach. it’s suggested to follow only if you are on a trusted network.

You May also Read: How to Fix VLC Media Player cannot play YouTube Video in Windows 10

Method 3: Renaming youtube.lua file

Press Win + E to open Windows explorer.

Copy and paste C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist for 32-bit or C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\lua\playlist for 64-bit machine.

Locate youtube.lua file within the opened folder and rename it to youtube.luac.

Once done, re-launch the VLC player and stream any youtube video url.

Method 4: Update VLC player

Open VLC player, and choose Help from the top menu.

From the drop down menu, select Check for Updates.

The system will scan for present VLC updates automatically. Further, follow on screen instructions to complete the update process.

Once done, restart the VLC player and try playing youtube video.

Conclusion

VLC Media Player Won’t Play Youtube Video is a common issue that a user may come to encounter while attempting to stream online videos from Youtube. If you are one of them, we suggest you to check through method discussed above to fix it.