How Can We Help?
Youtube videos are blocked or restricted
Problems playing Youtube videos on FluentKey are usually caused by a few common issues. Here’s what you can do:
Issue 1: Your school blocks Youtube
If you get a white screen or a message that says “The connection was reset”, Youtube may be blocked on your school’s network. If so, you need to contact your tech department and ask them to whitelist Youtube.
If this is not an option, you can still assign FluentKey videos for homework, and ask students to watch videos off the school network.
Issue 2: Restricted Mode
If you get a message that says, “Video unavailable. This video is restricted. Try signing in with a Google Apps account,” you’ll need to approve the video before students can watch it.
Teachers can approve videos from their Youtube teacher account. Please watch the video below for a quick walkthrough.
- Step 1: Go to the video on FluentKey
- Step 2: Click on the Youtube link (in the bottom right corner of the video player) to see the video in Youtube
- Step 3: On the banner message below the video player, click the “Approve” button
If you don’t have the option to approve videos, you may need to talk to your tech administrator about allowing those videos to be shown.
You (or your students) may also have Restricted Mode enabled on your personal account. In that case, log into YouTube with your teacher account. Click on your profile icon, go to the bottom of the drop-down menu, and then turn off Restricted Mode.
On a restricted school network, students will need to log into Youtube with their school email address. Make sure they log out of their personal Google account (at accounts.google.com), then ask them to log in again to Youtube with their school account.
If none of the above steps work, there is a final workaround for students who are watching videos at home on their own personal devices. Because the problem is with their Youtube account, if they log out of Youtube and Google, they will be able to watch videos on FluentKey. (Please note: this will not work if the student is on a school network or is using a school-issued device.)
Issue 3: Ad Blockers
If you see a message that says, “Please try again later. (Playback ID:xxxxxxx)”, the problem is probably due to Adblock browser extensions such as AdBlock, uBlock, etc.
You’ll need to pause or disable the ad blocker when watching FluentKey videos. This can be done by whitelisting the FluentKey domain.
Issue 4: Content Unavailable
If you get a message that says “Video unavailable” or “This video contains content from […]. It is restricted from playback on certain sites…”, unfortunately, you won’t be able to watch the video on FluentKey.
The Youtube video has either been deleted, limited to certain geographical regions, or banned from playing on third-party sites.