YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts || Top 10 YouTube tips and tricks || You Should Know Useful YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts

YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts || Top 10 YouTube tips and tricks || You Should Know Useful YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts

Your computer and programs running on your computer are not the only places keyboard shortcuts can be used. Many online services like YouTube also have keyboard shortcuts that can be used. Below is a listing of keys you can use on your keyboard to control YouTube videos.

Note: The YouTube video and window must be active. If these keys are not working, click the video to make sure it is selected. Switching between windows, changing tabs in your browser, or performing other actions like making a comment unselects the video.

Play and pause a video

Press the space bar or the 'k' key on your keyboard to play and pause a video.

Tip: Holding down either of these keys also plays the video in slow motion.

Jump to start of a video

Pressing the 0 (zero) key on your keyboard will jump to the beginning of a video. The home key also works for jumping to the start of a video.

Jump to the end of a video or go to the next video

Pressing the end key on your keyboard will go to the end of the video. If you are playing a playlist, it goes to the next video in the playlist.

Skip or jump in the video

Fast forward or rewind

If you want to fast forward or rewind in increments of five seconds, press the left or right arrow keys. If you need to jump more than five seconds hold down the Ctrl key and press the arrow key for the direction you want to jump in ten second increments.

Skip to video sections

Pressing the number keys from 1 to 9 seeks (jumps) to that percentage of the video. In other words, 1 jumps to 10%, 2 jumps to 20%, 3 jumps to 30%, etc.

Make the video full-screen

Pressing 'f' on the keyboard switches between full-screen and normal mode.

Tip: Pressing Esc also exits full-screen mode.

Turn up and down the volume

Pressing the up or down arrow keys turns up and down the volume of the video. If you are turning down the volume and continue to hold the down arrow key, it will eventually mute the volume.

Tip: Pressing 'm' on the keyboard also mutes and unmutes the volume.

  

Top 10 YouTube tips and tricks

According to Alexa, YouTube is the third most visited page on the Internet which means you have probably visited the page in the past. These tips and tricks help make your experience more enjoyable and if possible, productive.

YouTube keyboard shortcuts

YouTube has several keyboard shortcuts that can be used while watching YouTube. Keyboard shortcuts like pressing the spacebar to play and pause or using the arrow keys to fast forward and rewind can make a big difference while on YouTube.

 

Share a video at any point

Not everyone wants to watch a full video, link to the exact location you found most entertaining instead of making your friends or family watch the full video. To do this get to the location you want and pause the video. Once paused right-click the video and select Get video URL at current time and then copy the link created.

Alternatively you can manually add the time by adding "#t=XXmXXs" at the end of the URL, where XXm is the minutes, and XXs is the seconds into the video you want to start. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxTYjptEzZs

Would become

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxTYjptEzZs

to link to the video 33 seconds into the video. If you wanted to link 4 minutes and 20 seconds into a video add #t4m20s to the end of the URL. Alternatively you can use only seconds, so 4 * 60 (seconds in a minute) = 240 + 20 = 260 seconds for 4 minutes and 20 seconds into the video.

Find out what is popular on YouTube

YouTube can be a great place to find the most popular videos because of its popularity. Visit the Popular on YouTube to find the most recent popular videos, recently released music videos, top cute videos, latest trailers, events, and much more.

Add videos to Watch Later

Sometimes you just do not have the time to watch a video or maybe you just do not feel like watching an hour long video at this time. In the bottom right corner of every video is a Watch Later button that will add the video to your watch later list. Once you are ready to watch the video or if you saved a video to share with someone else you can find the video in your Watch Later Playlist.

Bonus Tip: Each of the thumbnails of videos on YouTube also shows the Watch Later icon when hovering over the thumbnail of the video.

Take advantage of search filters

YouTube usually does a great job giving you search results but is not always perfect. Take full advantage of their search filters by clicking the Filters button to get a list like that shown below. In the filters list you can refine the searches to when the video was uploaded, length of the video, view count, and features like HD (High definition) and 3D.

 

Watch live videos on YouTube

YouTube is not just pre-recorded uploaded videos they now also feature YouTube Live, which has live events, sports, news, gaming, music, education, and much more.

Take full advantage of YouTube tools

Not many people know that YouTube also has several helpful YouTube Tools that can help extremely helpful when creating new content. For example, the YouTube editor allows you to edit uploaded videos, create videos, and adjust settings like the brightness and contrast, pan and zoom, stabilize, slow motion, and rotation. Other tools include a Slideshow creator, YouTube capture, Captions, Audio Library, and YouTube Analytics.

Bypass regional restrictions and other blocks

Some videos may have restrictions that prevent them from playing on a certain device, playing in a certain region, or other restrictions that prevent you from playing the video. You can bypass some of these restrictions by changing how the URL is entered into your address bar.

For example, copy the id of the video (shown in red) in the URL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxTYjptEzZs

Once the id of the video has been copied erase everything after the .com/ and add "v/" where id is what was copied earlier. Once this is done your URL should resemble the example shown below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxTYjptEzZs

Loading this URL opens the video in a full screen, but because of how it is loaded many of the restrictions YouTube may have on the video are ignored.

Set the default video quality

Watch all videos at the highest quality by adjusting your settings to use the best quality. To adjust your settings click on your profile icon in the top-right corner of the window and click the YouTube Gear settings icon as shown below. In the YouTube Account Settings, select Playback and then select "Always choose the best quality for my connection and player size." If you have a slow Internet connection or YouTube videos frequently need to buffer, select the "I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video" option.

Alternative ways to watch YouTube

There are dozens of ways to watch YouTube today. Most Smart TVs already have an app that allows you to watch YouTube videos on your TV using your remote. For those who do not have Smart TV or have a Smart TV but do not like the interface (it is not easy typing on a remote), there are also other solutions.

Our current favorite method of watching YouTube on the TV is using the Google Chromecast. The Chromecast allows you or anyone else with a smartphone or computer to stream YouTube videos to your TV with a click of a button. The Chromecast is the easiest solution to stream videos to your TV, and you can type on your phone or computer or use your voice to search for videos instead of using your TV remote.

 Other popular alternatives of watching YouTube

• Apple TV - The Apple TV is another great solution for watching YouTube and other content.
• Consoles - Consoles like Xbox, PlayStation 3, and Wii all have a YouTube player.
• Lean Back - YouTube Lean Back is a completely different way of watching YouTube videos and allows you to browse and watch videos on alternative devices.
• Roku - The Roku is another great device that connects to your TV to watch YouTube and other content.
• TiVo - The TiVo DVR is another fantastic method of watching YouTube, your shows, and other content.

Useful YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know

Many people today spend most of their time on YouTube, whether for learning purpose or watching some cat videos. If you are one of those users who spends hours jumping from one YouTube recommendation to another, then you should definitely hone its keyboard shortcuts.

Check out this list of 30+ keyboard shortcuts to make your YouTube use more productive.

Note: Most of these shortcuts will only work when the YouTube player is in focus. If you are navigating other parts of the video page, then these shortcuts will not work. You can click on the YouTube player to gain back focus.

Shortcuts	Descriptions
Spacebar	Pause/Play video (player focus required)
K key	Pause/Play video (doesn’t require focus)
↑ (Arrow key up)	Turn up volume 5%
↓ (Arrow key down)	Turn down volume 5%
M key	Mute/unmute volume
← (Arrow key left)	Move backward 5 sec
→ (Arrow key right)	Move forward 5 sec
L key	Move forward 10 sec
J key	Move backward 10 sec
0 / Home key	Restart the video
End key	Skip to the end
Num keys 1,2,3..9	Move playhead to the respective percentage, 10%-90%
F key	Enter or exit full screen
Esc key	Exit full screen
Ctrl + →	Move to next video (only in playlist)
Ctrl + ←	Move to previous video (only in playlist)
Tab key	Move forward in player control buttons
Shift + Tab	Move backward in player control buttons
Enter	Execute select player control button
C key	Turn on/off CC (closed captions)
+ key	Increase CC font size when it’s turned on
– key	Decrease CC font size when it’s turned on
B key	Change CC background color
> key	Increase play speed
< key	Decrease play speed
Shift + P	Play previously played video
Shift + N	Play next video in recommendation/playlist
/ key	Place text cursor in search field to start typing
Esc key	Focus away from search field if text cursor is there
, (comma)	Move backward per frame when video is paused
. (period)	Move forward per frame when video is paused

 

Using the Tab key

Most of the YouTube player functions can be controlled with the above-mentioned keyboard shortcuts. However, they still can’t control everything, such as toggle theater mode or control options in the player “Settings”.

You will need the help of “Tab key” to navigate to these options and then use “Enter” and “Arrow keys” to control the options. For example, you can move to the “Settings” button by pressing the ‘Tab key” multiple times and then hit “Enter” to open the settings. Afterward, use “Arrow keys” to move up and down in the settings and use “Enter” to change any options inside.

If you don’t want to use the mouse at all or don’t have access to it, then the “Tab key” is your best friend.