YouTube keyboard shortcuts

Updated: 12/31/2020 by Computer Hope
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Your computer and programs running on your computer are not the only places keyboard shortcuts can be used. Many online services like YouTube also offer keyboard shortcuts. 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 spacebar or K 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 0 (zero) key on your keyboard jumps to the beginning of a video. The Home keyboard 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 End on your keyboard goes to the end of the video. If you are watching a playlist, it goes to the next video in the playlist.

Skip or jump in the video

Fast forward or rewind

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, press J to rewind ten seconds or press L to fast forward 10 seconds.

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.

Change video playback speed

To decrease the playback speed of a video, hold down Shift and press , (comma) key.

To increase the playback speed of a video, hold down Shift and press . (period) key.

Switch the video to full-screen or theater mode

Pressing F switches between full-screen and normal mode.

Tip

Pressing Esc also exits full-screen mode.

Pressing T switches between theater mode and normal mode.

Turn on or off closed captions and subtitles

If a video has closed captions or subtitles, you can turn them on by pressing C on the keyboard. Pressing C a second time turns them off again.

Turn up and down the volume

When in full-screen mode, 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.

YouTube Lean Back

Finally, from our YouTube top 10 tricks, YouTube also has a feature called YouTube Lean Back that lets you navigate YouTube without using a mouse.