Fix YouTube Error 153 in Obsidian

When embedding YouTube videos in Obsidian notes, you might encounter "Error 153" displayed instead of the video thumbnail or player. This error is tied to Google tightening access for anonymous embeds lately.

Solution

Upgrade to Obsidian 1.10.3

News from obsidian team: Obsidian 1.10.3 public release should fix the 153 error for YouTube embeds.

Download Obsidian 1.10.3

Obsidian 1.10.3 release notes

Request header rewrite + MITM

1. Make sure you have network proxy tools with http rewrite and MITM capabilities (e.g. Surge, Loon, Shadowrocket, etc).
2. Properly configure CA certificate per tool's documentation. For example, in Surge, follow the instructions here
3. Enable HTTP rewrite and MITM in your proxy tools.
4. Include domains "www.youtube-nocookie.com" and "www.youtube.com" in the MITM list.
5. Add the request header rewrite rule
   • target: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/* or https://www.youtube.com/embed/*, or in Regular Expression:

   https:\/\/www\.youtube(-nocookie)?\.com\/embed\/

   • action: add request header "Referer" with value "app://obsidian.md". (not "Referrer", the misspelled "r" is intentional)

For example, in Surge, the rule should look like this:

[MITM]
hostname = www.youtube-nocookie.com,www.youtube.com

[Header Rewrite]
http-request https:\/\/www\.youtube(-nocookie)?\.com\/embed\/ header-add Referer app://obsidian.md

I've built modules for the following proxy tools:

• Surge (macOS/iOS): surge.sgmodule
• Stash (macOS/iOS): stash.stoverride
• Loon (iOS): loon.plugin
• Shadowrocket (iOS): shadowrocket.module

You can copy URL to modules and import it to get this fix following corresponding tool's documentation.

Clear YouTube Cookies

1. Open the Command Palette with Ctrl / ⌘ + P
2. Search for and select "Clear YouTube cookies"
3. Wait for the confirmation notice

This command clears cookies from both youtube.com and youtube-nocookie.com domains. It should fix the issue after re-opening the note.

Manual fix

If you prefer to fix it manually, you can do the following:

1. Open Developer Tools
   • On Windows, you can open it with Ctrl + Shift + I
   • On macOS, you can open it with ⌘ + ⌥ + I
   • From the obsidian menu: View > Toggle Developer Tools
2. Open the Application tab
3. expand Cookies
4. right-click any YouTube cookies (https://www.youtube.com or https://www.youtube-nocookie.com)
5. select Clear.

Replace iframe Host with No-Cookie Variant

If you're using iframe HTML embeds in your notes, you can manually change the host from youtube.com to youtube-nocookie.com to avoid Error 153:

Before:

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID"></iframe>

After:

<iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VIDEO_ID"></iframe>

This privacy-enhanced domain doesn't use third-party cookies, reducing the likelihood of Error 153.