How to Cast YouTube from Your Phone to Your PC

Always viewing YouTube on a tiny phone screen gets old quick. Enjoy your favorite videos and music on a larger PC screen. Just cast YouTube from your phone to your PC.

Setup PC to Accept Casting

Casting to TVs and gaming consoles is usually a simple process of tapping the cast button on your phone and choosing your device. To cast YouTube from a phone to PC isn’t quite as simple.

To cast from your browser, install the Chrome extension Custom UserAgent String to Chrome on your PC. This will let you effectively change your PC’s Chrome version into one designed for smart TVs, streaming sticks, gaming consoles, or other devices. You can set this to only apply for specific websites, so we are applying it to the YouTube site designed for cast requests.

Look for the new extension’s blue icon in your extensions bar. If you don’t see the icon, open Chrome’s menu and click Extensions → Manage Extensions. Toggle it on if it’s not already.

For easier access, click Extensions icon (puzzle piece) to the right of the URL box in Chrome and click the pushpin icon to pin to your extensions bar.

Click the blue Custom UserAgent String icon in the extensions bar and select Open options page.

In the “Enter a desired URL” box, enter https://youtube.com/tv.

Then, in the big box next to that, enter:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Tizen 2.3) AppleWebKit/538.1 (KHTML, like Gecko)Version/2.3 TV Safari/538.1

This pair of boxes will effectively make sure that whenever you go to youtube.com/tv, your Chrome will automatically behave as if you were using the Samsung TV app and become available for casting.

After you’ve filled both boxes, click the “+” icon to the right to confirm the custom useragent string.

Note: we found that the URL you enter into the “desired URL” box doesn’t always make the jump to the new “URL” box when you add it. If “youtube.com/tv” doesn’t appear in the URL box when you create it, just enter it into the URL box manually.

This method works on most Chromium-based browsers and there’s also an extension for Firefox.

Connecting Your Phone and PC

On Chrome, go to youtube.com/tv, click Get Started, and scan the QR code on the screen with your phone to sign in. This mimics the process of signing in on a TV, but on your PC instead. Following the steps on your phone to log in.

On the YouTube app on your phone, click the Cast icon near the top right, and select Link with TV code.

Jump back to YouTube on Chrome on your PC and click Settings → Link with TV Code. Enter this code on your phone.

Now, when you tap the “Cast” icon at the top of your YouTube app on your phone, your PC should appear as a device you can stream to, though it’ll most likely be called something like “YouTube on TV.” Pick your device and enjoy.

Note that you need to have youtube.com/tv open in a browser tab to cast to it. It won’t just automatically open the website if it’s closed. The tab needs to be active at the time or you won’t get the option to cast to your PC.

Cast YouTube from Android to Windows

If you’re using Android and Windows 10 or later, use Windows’ built in Phone Link feature. Follow the steps to link your Android device and Windows PC. It should only take a few minutes.

Once connected, tap Apps in the Phone Link app on Windows. Select YouTube from your app list. Confirm you want to allow mirroring on your Android phone. For me, it was a bit sluggish. Alternately, tap Apps and select Open Phone Screen. Then, open YouTube through your mirrored Android screen. If you expand a video like you normally would on your phone, it opens larger on your PC too.

Cast YouTube from iPhone to Mac

The easiest method is to use Apple AirPlay to cast YouTube from your iPhone to Mac. Just make sure both are on the same Wi-Fi network for best results.

Open YouTube and start playing a video. Tap the Cast icon at the top of the video and select AirPlay and Bluetooth Devices. Then, choose your Mac.

To mirror your entire screen and control YouTube from your iPhone, turn on Screen Mirroring. Open Control Center on your iPhone and tap the Screen Mirroring button. Select your Mac and enjoy.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having any issues trying to cast YouTube from phone to PC, it’s possible you have an older device that may not support casting.

For the Custom UserAgent String method, ensure you don’t have any extra spaces in the URL. This causes redirect issues. Also, make sure you only have one YouTube TV entry added.

For the Android to Windows and iPhone to Mac methods, the biggest issue is ensuring all devices have permission to connect. Verify the settings on both your mobile and desktop devices.

Now that you’ve got casting down, try watching YouTube videos with friends online in real time. You can also get rid of Shorts to find more of what you love.