Finding the address a page keeps to itself

The address bar does not always follow the video

Your address bar names the document your browser loaded. A video appearing on that document does not have to change it, and on many sites it never does.

So the question is never where the address bar went wrong. It is which of three arrangements the page is using, because each one keeps the video address in a different place.

A player in a frame belongs to another site

An embedded player is a second page loaded inside the first one, served by a video host that has nothing to do with the site you are reading. The article supplies the words around it and the host supplies the video.

Start by pasting the article address anyway, because the framed player is often readable from it. When that comes back empty, go after the host. Right-click on the picture itself: an embedded player commonly replaces the browser menu with its own, names its service, and offers to open the video on that service. Take that option, let the video start there, and copy the address you land on.

When the right-click menu is the plain browser one

Some players suppress their own menu, and you are left with copy, save, and inspect. Two visible things on the page normally still lead to the host.

The credit line under the video is usually a link, and so is the small logo in a corner of the player. Open either one in a new tab. Where neither exists, use the page title plus the video title in a search engine, because a video embedded in an article has very often been published on the host's own site as well.

Video that only loads once it reaches the screen

A page far taller than a window does not load everything at once. The slot where the video will go holds a still image until you scroll down to it, and the player is fetched at that moment.

Before that fetch, there is no player to right-click and no video address anywhere on the page. Scroll until the video is fully on screen and playing, then look again. The right-click menu, the credit line, and the logo all appear along with the player, and a page address that returned nothing a minute ago sometimes returns rows once the player has loaded.

A video that opens in an overlay on top of the page

Galleries, news sites, and course pages often darken the page and float the video above it. Nothing navigated, so the address bar still shows the listing you came from, and pasting that listing gives you the wrong video or none.

Watch the address bar as the overlay opens. Many sites add a fragment or a parameter at that moment, and that changed address is the one that names the clip you are watching. Copy the address after the overlay is open, not before.

Where the permalink hides inside an overlay

When the address bar does not move at all, the overlay carries the address somewhere in its own furniture. Look along the top or bottom edge of the floating panel.

A share control there produces a link to that single item, which is the address to paste. The date, the caption, or the title inside the overlay is frequently a link to the item's own page as well, so open it in a new tab and use the address that arrives. If the overlay has neither, close it and open the thumbnail in a new tab instead of clicking it normally, which loads the item's real page rather than the floating version.

The order worth trying

Work down this list and stop at the first address that returns rows.

Each attempt costs a few seconds, and the results tell you plainly whether you have the right address: a list of files with resolutions and sizes means yes, an empty list means try the next one.

• The address in the bar, copied while the video is playing on screen.
• The address in the bar again after an overlay opened or the page jumped to the video.
• The address behind the player's own open-on-its-site option.
• The address behind the credit line, the logo, or a share control in the overlay.
• The item's own page, opened from the thumbnail in a new tab.

Related pages

• Video on an ordinary site rather than a video platform
• The page address against the media address
• Trying a host you have never used before
• What the parameters in an address mean