[iframe] Youtube iframe wmode issue

Using javascript with jQuery, I am adding an iframe with a youtube url to display a video on a website however the embed code that gets loaded in the iframe from youtube doesnt have wmode="Opaque", therefore the modal boxes on the page are shown beneath the youtube video.

Any ideas how to solve the issue?

This question is related to iframe youtube wmode

The answer is


recently I saw that sometimes the flash player doesn't recognize &wmode=opaque, istead you should pass &WMode=opaque too (notice the uppercase).


Adding ?wmode=opaque to the URL seems to solve this problem for me, although I have not tested it in IE yet.

For those of you having troubles with the previously proposed solution, note that an inital ampersand will only work if you are already supplying other arguments to the URL. The first argument must have an initial question mark: http://www.example.com?first=foo&second=bar


&wmode=opaque didn't work for me (chrome 10) but &wmode=transparent cleared the issue right up.


Just a tip!--make sure you up the z-index on the element you want to be over the embedded video. I added the wmode querystring, and it still didn't work...until I upped the z-index of the other element. :)


If you are using the new asynchronous API, you will need to add the parameter like so:

<!-- YOUTUBE -->
// 2. This code loads the IFrame Player API code asynchronously.
var tag = document.createElement('script');
tag.src = "http://www.youtube.com/player_api";
var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag);

// 3. This function creates an <iframe> (and YouTube player)
//    after the API code downloads.
var player;
var initialVideo = 'ApkM4t9L5jE'; // YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEO ID
function onYouTubePlayerAPIReady() {
    console.log("onYouTubePlayerAPIReady" + initialVideo);
    player = new YT.Player('player', {
      height: '381',
      width: '681',
      wmode: 'transparent', // SECRET SAUCE HERE
      videoId: initialVideo,      
       playerVars: { 'autoplay': 1, 'rel': 0, 'wmode':'transparent' },
      events: {
        'onReady': onPlayerReady,
        'onStateChange': onPlayerStateChange
      }
    });
}

This is based on the google documentation and example here: http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/iframe_api_reference.html


Try adding ?wmode=transparent to the end of the URL. Worked for me.


Add &amp;wmode=transparent to the url and you're done, tested.

I use that technique in my own wordpress plugin YouTube shortcode

Check its source code if you encounter any issue.


I know this is an old question, but it still comes up in the top searches for this issue so I'm adding a new answer to help those looking for one for IE:

Adding &wmode=opaque to the end of the URL does NOT work in IE 10...

However, adding ?wmode=opaque does the trick!


Found this solution here: http://alamoxie.com/blog/web-design/stop-iframes-covering-site-elements