Unlock Full Images on YouTube: The Simple Drag-and-Drop Solution!

Today I want to share a small trick that is as useful as it is simple. If you have ever opened a YouTube community post and found an interesting image cropped in the preview, this bookmarklet can help reveal the full image URL.

The idea was inspired by the video “How To See The Entire Uncropped Community Tabs Image”. The result is a tiny browser bookmarklet: click it while viewing a YouTube image URL, and it rewrites the cropped image address into the uncropped version.

How It Works

YouTube image URLs often include size and crop parameters near the end of the address. For some community post images, the cropped version contains a -c- segment. The bookmarklet checks whether the current page URL matches that pattern, removes the cropped suffix, and reloads the browser at the cleaner image URL.

In other words, it turns a cropped image URL into the base image URL, so the browser can request the full version directly.

Setting It Up

You can install the bookmarklet manually in any modern desktop browser:

  1. Show your browser’s bookmarks bar.
  2. Create a new bookmark.
  3. Name it YouTube Image Uncropper.
  4. Paste the bookmarklet code below into the bookmark’s URL or location field.
  5. Save it.

When you are viewing a cropped YouTube image URL, click the bookmark. If the URL matches the expected YouTube image pattern, the page will reload with the uncropped image.

The Bookmarklet Code

Paste this entire line into the bookmark URL field:

javascript:(()=>{const url=window.location.href;const ytImageRegex=/^(https:\/\/yt3\.ggpht\.com\/.*?)-c-.+$/;if(ytImageRegex.test(url)){const uncroppedUrl=url.replace(ytImageRegex,'$1');window.location.href=uncroppedUrl;}else{alert('This bookmarklet works only on YouTube image URLs.');}})();

For readability, here is the same code formatted across several lines:

javascript: (() => {
  const url = window.location.href;
  const ytImageRegex = /^(https:\/\/yt3\.ggpht\.com\/.*?)-c-.+$/;

  if (ytImageRegex.test(url)) {
    const uncroppedUrl = url.replace(ytImageRegex, '$1');
    window.location.href = uncroppedUrl;
  } else {
    alert('This bookmarklet works only on YouTube image URLs.');
  }
})();

A Quick Check

This bookmarklet is intentionally narrow. It only acts on URLs that match https://yt3.ggpht.com/...-c-.... If YouTube changes its image URL format, inspect the image address first and verify whether the crop marker is still present before editing the bookmarklet.

A Shoutout to Inspiration

Thanks to the creator of “How To See The Entire Uncropped Community Tabs Image” for the inspiration. It is a neat reminder that sometimes the useful fix is just a careful look at the URL.

Ready, Set, Uncrop

That is all there is to it: save the bookmarklet, open a cropped YouTube community image, and click once to try the uncropped version. Simple, quick, and handy when the preview hides the part of the image you actually wanted to see.

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