Get a YouTube TV code on your PC.
In the YouTube app, Link with TV code asks for a code that only a smart TV shows, and YouTube on a computer has nowhere to get one. Open venfy.app/tv on the computer and press Start: the twelve digits on the screen are a TV code. Type them into the YouTube app and your computer joins its Cast list.
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Where the code is, and where it goes
The code is on the computer. It is typed on the phone.
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Get the code: open venfy.app/tv
On the computer, in any modern browser. Press Start. The TV code is the twelve digits on the screen.
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Find Link with TV code in the YouTube app
On your phone, tap the Cast icon in the YouTube app. Link with TV code is in the menu that opens. Some versions of the app call it Add a device.
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Type the code and link
Enter the twelve digits and confirm. The Venfy page says Linked as soon as the app has found it.
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Cast
Open a video, tap Cast and choose Venfy.app. You will not need the code again on this phone.
What a TV code is
A TV code is how the YouTube app is introduced to a screen it cannot find by itself, for instance because the two are on different networks. The screen shows twelve digits, the phone types them, and from then on that screen is in the phone's Cast list.
On a smart TV the code is in the settings of the YouTube app for TVs. A computer has no such app, and youtube.com has no such setting. That is the gap Venfy fills: it registers the page as a screen with YouTube, and YouTube hands it a code to show.
If the code does not work
Four things account for nearly every case.
- The code has changed
- A TV code is only good for a few minutes, and the screen replaces it with a new one by itself. Type the one that is there now.
- There is no code on the screen
- Venfy gets its code from YouTube. When YouTube cannot be reached there is none to show. The QR code still works, and opens a remote in your phone's browser.
- Venfy.app is not in the Cast list later
- It is listed only while venfy.app/tv is open on the computer and Start has been pressed. Open the page and tap Cast again.
- You have to link again
- The link is remembered by the YouTube app and by the browser on the computer. Another browser, a private window or cleared site data is a new screen, and its code is typed once.
Questions
Can I get a TV code from youtube.com on a computer?
No. YouTube shows TV codes in its app for smart TVs and streaming devices, and its website has no such setting. The address old guides give for it, youtube.com/tv, no longer opens in a computer's browser.
How many digits does a YouTube TV code have?
Twelve, and nothing but digits. If what you have has letters in it, it is not a TV code.
Is it the same as the code for youtube.com/activate?
No. That code signs a TV in to your YouTube account. A TV code links a phone to a screen so the phone can cast to it, and signs nobody in. Neither has anything to do with YouTube TV, the paid television service.
Does the phone have to be on the same Wi-Fi as the computer?
No. That is what TV codes are for: YouTube's own help describes them as the way to cast when the phone and the screen are not on the same network.
Do I type the code every time?
No. Once for each phone. After that the computer is in that phone's Cast list whenever Venfy is open on it.