In this article, I am going to explain to you how to change visibility on your YouTube videos. In addition to that, I will also be answering some of the frequently asked questions about visibility control and sharing videos privately.
Before we get started let’s understand the level of visibility control that you currently your YouTube videos.
There are three ways to control the visibility of your YouTube videos.
- Public – Anyone can view the video
- Private – Only you can view the video
- Unlisted – Only people with the video’s URL can view the video
By default, the visibility of your YouTube video is set to “Public” when you are uploading the video. However, you can change it before you publish your video.
Also based on your need you can change the visibility settings of the video anytime even after publishing by following the steps mentioned below.
Steps to change the visibility of your YouTube videos.
Sign in to YouTube
First, you need to be the owner or have access to the YouTube creator studio to modify the video’s visibility settings.
Start by signing into the YouTube account by providing the Google email address and the corresponding password.
Go to Youtube creator studio
Once you have signed in, click on the channel logo and choose YouTube studio from the dropdown list.
Navigate to the contents section
Now, navigate to the contents section on your creator studio dashboard. Here is where you will find all your published videos.
Click video details
Click on the pencil button next to the video that you would like to change the visibility.
Change the video visibility
In the YouTube video detail section, scroll down until you find the visibility settings on the right-hand side of the window. After locating the visibility bar, click on it to open the dropdown.
Change the visibility to “Public” or “Unlisted” or “Private” depending upon your requirement and click done.
Save changes
Finally click save to apply changes to the visibility settings of the video.
You have successfully changed the visibility of the YouTube video and the changes will reflect in a few seconds.
How to unlist or make multiple videos private on YouTube?
You can unlist or make multiple videos private at a time by following the steps mentioned below.
Select the videos
Go to the content section and select the videos that you want to change the visibility level. If you want to select all the videos then you can use the select all button at the top of the section.
Change the visibility
Click the drop down next to edit to choose visibility and change the privacy of the selected videos.
Update videos
Click update videos to save the changes.
You have successfully changed the privacy setting/visibility of multiple YouTube videos at a time.
How to share an unlisted YouTube video?
To share an unlisted YouTube video, go to the content section and click the options button next to the video. After that, click “get sharable link” to copy the link of the unlisted video to your clipboard. Finally, share the link with anyone that needs to access the video.
As an alternative you can also go to the details section of the video and copy the video link for sharing.
Why your unlisted videos are still showing up on your channel?
The most common reason is that you have a playlist that is visible to the public and since the unlisted videos are linked to the playlist they may still show up in your YouTube playlist section.
So, if you want to avoid them from showing up, then you should also change the privacy setting of your playlist.
As an alternative you can also remove the unlisted videos from the playlist.
Can you share YouTube videos privately?
You can share YouTube videos privately to specific users by using the Share Privately feature under the “Private” visibility option.
Here you will need to provide the email addresses of the users that can view the video and the users must be logged into their Google account to view the videos.
Even if someone has the YouTube link but has not been authorized via email address will not be able to view the videos.
This is the most robust access control setting available on the YouTube videos.
