# How do I stop a Youtube video from embedding?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 22, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559 "2015-09-22T07:30:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jeffrey\_L\_Frusha](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jeffrey_L_Frusha)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/1 "2015-09-22T07:30:18Z")
Checked in test messages here, as well as at [seasteading.org](http://seasteading.org), in both Firefox and Chrome. I don’t know if this is a Discourse bug, or a Chrome bug (since that’s where I get the option).
In Chrome, I get the option, when I right-click to paste a link, to “Paste as plain text” but it won’t do it. I have to manually remove the ‘https//’ to post a video url, without it going to the video player.
In Firefox, I don’t even get the option in the pull up menu. As a ‘user’, I am only reporting something I’ve found. It may not even be a Discourse issue.
Posting this message is via Chrome.
Example: (right-click, selected “Paste as plain text”
“Paste as plain text”…
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UXnyP-8lA)
[//youtu.be/p\_UXnyP-8lA](https://youtu.be/p_UXnyP-8lA) (manually retracted)
Simply pasted link
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UXnyP-8lA)
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Newsom](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tom_Newsom)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 8:52am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/2 "2015-09-22T08:52:47Z")
“Paste as plain text” only strips the formatting as text goes from Clipboard → Destination. Given that the discourse editor window is a plaintext-only box, the command is no different from an ordinary Paste.
From Discourse’s point of view, you typed the URL of a youtube video, so that’s how it treats it.
If you want to force “raw” display of text, enclose it with ` characters (that’s the top left key on your keyboard)
Like so: `http://youtu.be/p_UXnyP-8lA`
---
### Author:  [@Jeffrey\_L\_Frusha](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jeffrey_L_Frusha)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 9:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/3 "2015-09-22T09:12:52Z")
That’s what the edited “Paste as plain text” looks like, except fewer back-slashes, which is why I showed my manually retracted, removing the ‘https://’ if it’s a “plain text” it should be stripped of the hot-link(?) and just show the web-address as a sequence of symbols (letters, punctuation, and numbers). It should show what I see in the address bar, rather than the video-player. That’s my understanding of the difference between a link as plain text and a link that displays the video player. If I’m wrong, that’s fine, and I’m learning. I just wanted to be sure, because I have a friend that almost always asks for the web-address, instead of the hot-linked video player, which is why I’ve even tried the ‘Paste as plain text’ option. In case it was a bug in Discourse, I wanted to report it.
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Newsom](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tom_Newsom)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 9:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/4 "2015-09-22T09:41:17Z")
There is no bug. The default behaviour in Discourse is for a youtube URL to be automatically converted to an embedded video. To create a hyperlink, type some text, highlight it and then click the link button 
[This is a link](http://youtu.be/p_UXnyP-8lA)
“Paste as plain text” is irrelevant, because the Discourse editor is not WYSIWYG - it’s all plaintext by default. Formatting is added by special sequences of characters, or automatically when certain types of link are detected.
---
### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 10:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/5 "2015-09-22T10:33:48Z")
You can put a space in front of the URL to make it not embed it though.
```plaintext
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UXnyP-8lA
```
which shows as
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p\_UXnyP-8lA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UXnyP-8lA)
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Newsom](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tom_Newsom)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/6 "2015-09-22T11:02:27Z")
That’s a neat trick 🙂 Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@Jeffrey\_L\_Frusha](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jeffrey_L_Frusha)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 11:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/7 "2015-09-22T11:23:41Z")
Thank you! I’m learning. Just thought it appeared to be a problem.
> [@cpradio](#):
>
> You can put a space in front of the URL to make it not embed it though.
Thank you for that! One thing I say, “When you quit learning, you start dying.”
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2018, 8:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/8 "2018-11-09T08:57:18Z")
---
### Author:  [@danekhollas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/danekhollas)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/9 "2018-11-09T11:46:15Z")
A proper solution to this is to enclose the URL in \< \> like this ``
In this way, it will still be a proper link, but it won’t be embedded (oneboxed) video.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-stop-a-youtube-video-from-embedding/33559/10 "2018-12-09T11:46:17Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.