How to go Frame by Frame on YouTube

A couple of the most useful keyboard shortcuts for watching Youtube videos are the comma (,) and full stop (.) keys. Here’s how to use them:

1. STEP 1

   Open your desired video on Youtube and pause the video by clicking the pause button or pressing “Space” or “K” on your keyboard.

2. step 2

   To nudge the video one frame forward, press “.” on your keyboard.

3. step 3

   To nudge the video one frame backward, press “,” on your keyboard.

4. step 4

   Keep pressing either key to watch the video frame by frame.

5. step 5

   Press the play button or “K”/”Space” to resume playing the video at normal speed.

Note: These shortcuts only work on a paused video!

How to Go Frame by Frame on YouTube Without Pausing

While you cannot go back at only one single frame on a Youtube video unless it is paused, you can still rewind and skip forward on two different rates using keyboard shortcuts. Use this to quickly shuffle through a video when looking for a specific frame.

Using the left and right arrow keys, you can see every 5-sec frame on a video:

• Press the “←” arrow key to rewind 5 seconds of the video.
• Press the “→” arrow key to advance a video 5 seconds at a time.

To watch a Youtube video at a 10-sec interval:

• Press “J” on your keyboard to rewind 10 seconds of a video.
• Press “K” on your keyboard to fast forward a video 10 seconds at a time.

Related article: How to Play a Youtube Video on Repeat

How to Go Frame by Frame on YouTube using Your Phone

Since you can’t use your keyboard freely on your phone or mobile devices, watching videos frame by frame can get a bit tricky. However, there are still ways to work around that!

1. step 1

   Open a YouTube video on your phone.

2. step 2

   Tap the gear icon on the bottom right to open video settings.

3. step 3

   Under “Playback speed”, tap “0.25x” — the video will start playing in slow mode, allowing you to watch it frame by frame.

4. step 4

   Pause to observe a specific frame.

5. step 5

   Tap “normal” to resume the video to regular speed on the same menu.

Note: You can also change videos playback speed using keyboard shortcuts on your computer. To do so, type “SHIFT + ,” to decrease and “SHIFT + .” to increase playback rate.

How to go Frame by Frame using VLC media player

If you’re already using VLC as your standard media player, you probably know there are a lot of hidden features in this video editor and player. While this might not be the first method of choice to watch youtube videos frame by frame, VLC is free software that offers you the option to watch videos continuously one frame at a time, without the need to press buttons every time you want to advance to the next frame. Additionally, the media player has the option to customize control options, adjusting them to your specific needs.

1. step 1

   Search for the desired Youtube video and copy the link from the URL bar.

2. step 2

   Open the VLC application on your computer.

3. step 3

   Press CTRL + N to open the network stream. Alternatively, you can select “Media” in the top left corner of the screen and then “Open Network Stream”.

4. step 4

   Paste the link of the YouTube video in the URL field and click “Play”.

5. step 5

   As soon as the video starts streaming, tap “E” on your keyboard to enter frame-by-frame mode.

6. step 6

   To resume normal speed, tap “E” again.

1. Playback Shortcuts

2. Video shortcuts

3. Subtitles and closed caption shortcuts

4. VR shortcuts