Watch a Short as a Normal Video

0:55 To play a YouTube Short in the normal player, change its address: replace shorts/ with watch?v= and press Enter. So https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0HAETg7L15o becomes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HAETg7L15o. The Short opens on the ordinary watch page, with a seek bar you can drag, the elapsed and total time, the gear menu for Playback Speed and quality, full screen, and the Keyboard Shortcuts, none of which the Shorts player offers in the same way. The video is the same one; only the page around it changes.

Quick facts

How do I watch a YouTube Short as a regular video?

1. Open the Short in a browser. The address bar reads youtube.com/shorts/ followed by the video's id.
2. Click the address bar and select the word shorts/.
3. Type watch?v= in its place, so the address reads youtube.com/watch?v= followed by the same id.
4. Press Enter. The Short plays in the normal player.

On Nov 6, 2026 Vi.ki checked this on a Short from YouTube's own channel: youtube.com/watch?v=0HAETg7L15o opened the 28-second Short on the watch page, with the seek bar, the time ("0:00 / 0:28"), the settings gear and the full screen button. YouTube still treats the page as a Short underneath: the page names youtube.com/shorts/0HAETg7L15o as its main (canonical) address.

The other direction works too. An ordinary video's id typed after youtube.com/shorts/ sends you back to youtube.com/watch?v= (tested Nov 6, 2026), so the trick cannot turn a long video into a Short.

Why George Vanous calls it a one-step trick

George Vanous, who runs the Freedom! YouTube network, made a video about it, because the Shorts player hides what people expect from a video page. In his words, simply "replace 'shorts' with 'watch' in the URL" to get the regular watch page. His point: in the normal player you can scrub to any second, slow a fast Short down, or step through it frame by frame (Frame by Frame with Comma and Period), which helps with dance moves, recipes and quick tutorials.

Other addresses that open the same video

Every YouTube video, Short or not, answers at several addresses. These all reached the same video on Nov 6, 2026:

Source: George Vanous's tips document listed the first four forms; Vi.ki requested each address on Nov 6, 2026 and recorded the answer. YouTube does not document the watch/, w/ and v/ forms, so they may stop working without notice.

On phones

The YouTube app does not show addresses, so the trick is for a browser. Vi.ki tested it on a computer only; YouTube Help does not say how its mobile site or apps treat a watch?v= address for a Short.

0:56 In the app, a playlist does the same job. Practical Tech Fix showed it in a video posted on Aug 28, 2023: on the Short, tap the three dots, Save to playlist, and pick a playlist of your own; then open that playlist from your Library and tap the Short. It plays in the normal player, where you can drag to any part of it, choose the quality in the gear menu and turn the phone for full screen. The app has changed since, so the menu names may differ.

What creators say

0:28 No Rest For The Wicked, in an Oct 29, 2023 video, said the older way had stopped working: right-clicking a Short, choosing Copy video URL and pasting it no longer opened the normal player "in recent changes with YouTube", and the video edits the address instead, replacing "shorts" with "watch".

2:06 Practical Tech Fix offered a quicker way on a phone than making a playlist: like the Short, then open your Liked videos playlist and tap it there, and it plays as a normal video. That was the channel's finding in the app of the time.

Frequently asked questions

How do I turn a YouTube Short into a normal video? Replace "shorts/" with "watch?v=" in the Short's address and press Enter. YouTube then plays it in the ordinary watch page player, with a seek bar.

How do I get a seek bar on YouTube Shorts? Open the Short at youtube.com/watch?v= followed by its id instead of youtube.com/shorts/. The normal YouTube player shows the seek bar and time.

Can I change the speed of a YouTube Short? Yes: open it on the watch page with the watch?v= address, then use the gear menu's Playback speed or the Shift + . and Shift + , keys.

Does watching a Short on the watch page change anything for the creator? It is the same video with the same id, played in a different YouTube player. YouTube Help does not say how such views are counted in the creator's analytics.

Why does my YouTube link with /shorts/ open a normal video? That video is not a Short. YouTube sends a /shorts/ address for an ordinary video to its watch page.

Sources

• Quickly convert any YouTube Short to a video in 1-step: Replace "shorts" with "watch" in the URL!, Freedom!, Sep 14, 2023 (video)
• How To Play A YouTube Shorts Video In The Normal Player, No Rest For The Wicked, Oct 29, 2023 (video)
• How to watch YouTube shorts as normal videos mobile, Practical Tech Fix, Aug 28, 2023 (video)
• Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts, YouTube Help, read Nov 6, 2026
• George Vanous's YouTube tips document, address forms, read Nov 6, 2026
• Vi.ki's requests to each address form on youtube.com and youtu.be, Nov 6, 2026