YouTube Video Embed Failed with Error 153

Honghao Wang

— 2 min read

Fixing YouTube Embed Error 153

Reference: GitHub Issue

If you’ve run into the dreaded “Error 153: Video player configuration error” with YouTube embeds—like this example—this guide explains the problem and the fix.

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Understanding the Problem

After some investigation, the root cause turned out to be an HTTP header added by Django’s `SecurityMiddleware` (documentation):

Referrer-Policy: same-origin

YouTube’s Embedded Player Terms clarify why this breaks embeds:

> API Clients that use the YouTube embedded player must send an identifying HTTP Referer header. If your `Referrer-Policy` suppresses this, embeds can fail.

> YouTube recommends using `strict-origin-when-cross-origin`, which is the default in many browsers.

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The Fix

I asked GitHub Copilot Agent to implement this change from my phone. The solution is simple:

  • Open your Django project’s `settings.py` file.
  • Add the following setting:
SECURE_REFERRER_POLICY = "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"

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Why This Works

As explained in Chrome’s official blog post, `strict-origin-when-cross-origin` sends only the origin for cross-origin requests:

> This prevents leaking sensitive data from the full URL (path, query string) while still providing identification.

Example

Clicking a link from my site sends:

Referer: https://simonwillison.net/

No matter which page you clicked from, the destination sees only the origin, not the full URL.

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Old Policy: `same-origin`

The MDN explanation is:

> Send origin + path + query string for same-origin requests, but no Referer for cross-origin requests.

With `same-origin`, YouTube received no HTTP referer information, causing certain embeds to break.

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Best Practices for Developers & Creators

  • Use `strict-origin-when-cross-origin` for compatibility with embeds, analytics, and referral tracking.
  • Understand privacy implications—policies that limit referer detail help protect user data.
  • Test embeds across different browsers and devices.

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For creators managing content across multiple platforms, maintaining correct HTTP policies can help avoid embed and API issues.

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Summary

Switching Django’s `SECURE_REFERRER_POLICY` from `same-origin` to `strict-origin-when-cross-origin` resolves YouTube Error 153 and balances privacy with compatibility.

If you want, I can also provide a one-page quick reference on all common `Referrer-Policy` options and their effects. Do you want me to make that?

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