Youtube Redirects to the Mobile Version on Desktop and How to Fix It

Mobile Version of YouTube on PC Screen

Two weeks ago I wanted to watch a favorite YouTube video . When I opened YouTube using Chrome browser on my Windows 8.1 Desktop personal computer, I saw a screen similar to the one above. It's recognizable as YouTube, but when clicked nothing happens. A quick workaround was to use another browser, but my favorite videos were bookmarked in Chrome.

A discussion with a family member about youtube.com redirecting to m.youtube.com revealed I was dealing with the mobile version of YouTube. It would not respond to mouse clicks.

A Google search suggested clearing out cookies.
Listed below is the click sequence:
Customize and Control Google Chrome>
Settings>
Show Advanced Settings>
Clear browsing data (Under Privacy section)>
Cookies and other site and plugin data>
Clear browsing data.
Afterwards the problem persisted.

YouTube.com Was Redirected to m.YouTube.com

I found a 2014 YouTube forum thread with the solution. Type chrome://settings/cookies in your Chrome browser window. A list of cookies will appear. Click Remove all. This got rid of the mobile version of YouTube on my desktop. Here's the 2014 thread.

All credit for this solution and the screenshot at the top of this page go to the thread contributors at that link.

How do you safely clean a laptop screen?

Looking back, I'm not sure what prompted the mobile YouTube to hijack my browser. I have a new laptop with the same Chrome identity. With that laptop being a touch screen perhaps there was some cyber-confusion. I try to limit my use of the touch feature on the new laptop because it makes a smeary mess of the screen. Can anyone relate? Any tips for safely cleaning a laptop screen? I would love to hear them. Also if you have experienced the YouTube mobile redirect or know why this happened, I would be interested to hear from you.

Thanks for reading my post. I've been busy with classes, but it's great to be writing about web technology again. Advertising on this blog supports my writing. By clicking an ad, you are under no obligation to buy. If you see an advertisement of interest, please click.