Unable to turn off “Restricted Mode is enabled by your network administrator” in YouTube, but I AM the administrator. Help!

Anonymous
2018-04-24T15:11:11+00:00

Unable to turn off “Restricted Mode is enabled by your network administrator” in YouTube, but IAM the administrator. Help!

Hi all,

Here’s the nub of the problem: 

YouTube says: “Restricted Mode is enabled by your network administrator.” but I AM the administrator of my own home pc. I'm totally mystified as to how this got activated in the first place and I can't find a way of undoing it. How do I switch this off?!?

I’m using Windows 7 and Google Chrome on a home computer. Any chance anyone could help me (and the no doubt countless others out there plagued with the same problem) out?

I’ve already trawled YouTube and Chrome forums on this and have drawn a dud at every turn. No help there. The problem is not a Family Safety issue, as I don’t have a family account. So you are quite possibly my last hope of resolving this.

I’ve even tried the regedit route (i.e. switching the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ForceSafeSearch register key value to 0), but that, too, was a dead end because no such Google key or policy exists in the Policies folder on my pc.

I’m not a PC expert, so you may need to spell things out in fairly plain English for me.

Big, big thanks in advance for any assistance with this.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-15T15:13:31+00:00

    Hi, and thanks for replying. I do use a VPN, and have for a long time. Any other advice? It's hard when criminals live next door, and pay off members at AT&T to mess with wires etc.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-15T22:44:12+00:00

    im sorry, i dont have any more advice, if i come across anything ill let you know, sorry once again

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-05-02T19:12:53+00:00

    Im having the same problem, and so far everything ive seen has said the problem might be from an add on to the browser, but Ive seen no instructions how to see the add ons, so im completely lost, and its getting very annoying trying to watch some videos and everythings restricted. If you ever found out how to fix the problem PLEASE respond. Im on safari/macbookair.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-05-02T19:52:49+00:00

    I was having the same problem, and temporarily managed to solve it by using a solution similar to original poster's. However, the solution was only temporary.

    A few days ago I realized I was using OpenDNS as my Domain Name Server provider. OpenDNS supports some content management.

    I disabled it in Networking Settings (Control Panel>Network and Sharing Center>Connections:Local Area Connection>Properties>Internet Protocol version 4> "Obtain DNS server address automatically" in my case, you might be using a different way to connect to the Internet), and it started working again. YouTube loads comments normally, and I even solved another problem I had - YouTube refusing to play some videos.

    Do try to check your DNS servers, because your provider might be limiting some content. Here are some alternatives, in case you are on a laptop and you are often connecting to unknown WiFi:

    https://www.allconnect.com/blog/best-free-dns-servers

    https://public-dns.info/

    https://www.techradar.com/news/best-dns-server

    or just type "free DNS servers" into Google Search yourself.

    Follow the above Networking Settings explanation to find your network adapter, and try one of the other free ones. Cloudflare's, Comodo's or Google's sound like good solutions. Personally, my provider's default DNS servers have solved my problem.

    Hope this helps someone else. Best of luck.

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