 which cover a multitude of sins video creators might break be it nudity, harmful, hateful, violent content, harassment and bullying, or spam. Creators can quickly find themselves in trouble if they cross the line on any of these topics.

There are many different Community Guidelines and also a number of places where creators can break them such as:

In the past, the punishment from YouTube differed depending on where the crime was committed. It might be that you lose livestream privileges or that you couldn't post videos for a certain length of time. The rules were somewhat chaotic, so YouTube have cleared up the confusion for creators and made it crystal clear what violates a Community Guideline (

 we’re covering Community Guidelines in the post and not copyright strikes which is a whole different topic and one we’ll be covering soon).

YouTube Community Guidelines February 2019

As of February 19th 2019, the new Community Guidelines are in place for all creators on the platform. YouTube are keen not to punish first time offenders who may not be up to speed with the rules, and as a result, all channels will receive a one-time warning the first time they post content that crosses the line with no penalties to their channel except for the removal of that content. The good news is that this one time warning applies to all channels so even if you do have an existing strike you still get this warning before further penalties. It doesn't matter where you break the Community Guideline whether it be on a thumbnail, video content, playlists, or via the comments - the penalty is always going to be the same.

 The second time you break Community Guidelines will be considered your first official strike. That will result in your content being removed as before. On top of this all your YouTube content posting privileges will be frozen for one week. This includes videos, live-streams, YouTube stories, and community posts. However, you’ll still be able to post comments. After a week you will get all of the posting features back but the strike remains on your account for 90 days in total.

 If you commit another Community Guideline violation within a 90 day period this is your second strike with the same penalties applied except that instead of a one week ban you get a two week ban on publishing content.

 If you fall foul of the Community Guidelines for a third time, YouTube isn’t here to play. Your channel will be terminated!

Obviously the termination of your channel is pretty drastic so YouTube have now promised to be more transparent about the guideline you violated so it doesn’t get to that stage. They will be more specific with information about that violation, communicate it to you through notifications and emails and via the Creative Studio. There will also be an appeals process in place as before.

We applaud all of the changes that YouTube are making here. I think that the first time warning is a fantastic idea because many video creators get terrified over making any strike at any point in their YouTube journey. I think a consistent penalty system makes it very clear to the user. It also eliminates the extremely harsh 90 day livestream penalty there used to be.

In effect, creators are getting an extra strike out of the new rules but you shouldn’t take advantage of that. After your first warning you shouldn't be making any further strikes on your YouTube channel.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

YouTube new rules announcement with surprised man pointing to red X icon thumbnail

YouTube have just made some sweeping changes to their Community Guidelines which affect every creator. Find out how you can stay on the right side of the new rules.

New Community Guidelines From YouTube: What Creators Need to Know Right Now

If you’re a YouTube creator, you may have noticed that when you go to check your analytics, they look a little different to what they used to be. YouTube are encouraging video creators to try the new Studio Beta, because it has new analytics and it has a layout that YouTube wants you to use in the future. The problem is for many video creators is that they've been forced onto this new studio without being asked.

If you want to return to the Creator Studio Classic, as it's now called, in the bottom left hand corner, you should be able to click a button which will take you back there. However, this is only a temporary fix, because when you go back to your analytics on your next YouTube session, you'll be taken to the new Beta Studio once again.

How to Make YouTube Classic Studio Your Default (But Should You?)

To make the Classic Studio once again your default studio, click on Settings in the new Beta Studio and you should have an option in the General Settings to set the default creator experience. Set it to Creator Studio Classic and you should now go to your normal analytics, which you're all used to.

So now you know how to switch back to the old Classic Studio analytics. The question is should you? Well the most important thing to know right now is that the Studio Beta is the future, the Classic Studio is going to go away at some point in 2019. YouTube is still very coy on when this is going to happen, but at some point that Creator Studio is not going to be accessible. So you should at least familiarize yourself with the new Studio Beta. Another thing to note is that the Classic Studio is now in what you might call a maintenance-only mode, so that it's not gonna get any new upgraded features.

For example, there is an option to check Impressions and Click Through, but that's only available through the new Studio Beta. And this is another reason to start using the new studio for Impressions, Click Through rates, and so on. These are vital pieces of information which will really help grow your channel.

For all you vidIQ users out there, we will be concentrating more and more on the Studio Beta throughout 2019. You can already see we've got some features in the edit pages, such as the best time to publish your videos, the legendary SEO Scorecard and Checklist, as well as the Boost feature.

Personally, I love the new features in the Studio Beta, the dashboard in particular, with that little snapshot of your latest video, and Impressions to Click Through Rate is an absolute gold mine of information to really improve your thumbnails.

However, in the Classic Studio, there is still one page I absolutely love. Yep, still can't get enough of this page showing my views in real time for all of my latest videos, and it does help when one of those videos is going viral. Nice!

YouTube Beta to Classic settings transition icon with red gear and play button

YouTube wants you to try Studio Beta to access new analytics data. We show you how to switch back to the old Creator Studio Layout.

How to Switch Back To the Old YouTube Layout [Creator Studio]

When you tell people you have a YouTube channel, one of the most common questions asked is, "Oh, how many subscribers do you have?" And the answer may be, none of your business!

When you are logged in to YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right-hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, 

you have the option to go to YouTube Studio.

 This is currently in beta, but will become the standard as 2019 progresses. This is your homepage, or dashboard, on the new creator studio, and in order to hide subscriber counts from the public, you click on the settings button in the bottom left-hand corner. Click on Channel >> Advanced where you’ll see a check box that says display the number of people subscribed to my channel.

Why Hide Your YouTube Subscriber Details to the Public?

So, that is how you hide your subscriber count. The burning question now is 

 The common opinion is that having a visible subscriber count can either add or take away value from your channel. A lot of video creators with smaller channels, say, less than a hundred subscribers, are worried that viewers will be immediately switched off from their content because they don't have a perceived audience watching their content already.

That may be a valid point. When you watch a video, and you see a channel with lots of subscribers, does that convince you more to subscribe to their channel than content from another video creator which is just as good, but has a tiny number of subscribers? But as subscriber counts are by default public, what kind of message does that send if a creator makes a conscious decision to hide them?

From a personal point of view, I've never been afraid of hiding my subscriber count, after all, every video creator starts at zero and ends up somewhere. And after a few years of making videos, and when you've built up your channel, you'll realize what a immaterial number that was when you were first starting out your channel. It's all part of a YouTube journey.

Red subscribe button with a green arrow pointing and bold text asking "WHY?" in black.

Want to hide your YouTube subscriber count? We show you how to (but also question why you would want to do that?).

How to Hide Your YouTube Subscriber Count [New Method!]

YouTube creators can sometimes have a lot working against them when it comes to 

. While the YouTube user interface is pretty solid, it’s not exactly distraction free. Fortunately, the visibility of engagement metrics—such as likes and dislikes–can be controlled by creators. This is why it’s valuable to know how to hide likes on YouTube videos.

But how do you hide likes on your YouTube videos? And should you even do it in the first place? These are some questions we’re going to tackle in this guide.

Can You Still Hide Likes and Dislikes on YouTube in 2025?

The short answer is “yes and no,” thanks to some important updates over the past few years.

Since late 2021, YouTube automatically hides the public dislike counts on all videos. Viewers can still click "Dislike," but only the creator can see the total number in 

The “likes” counter, however, remains public by default. If you want to hide it, you’ll need to disable the display of like counts through your video settings.

How to Hide Likes on a YouTube Video (Step-by-Step)

Here’s how you can hide likes on an individual YouTube video:

Find the video you want to edit and click the pencil icon (Details).

Under the "User Ratings" section, uncheck the box that says “Show how many viewers like this video.”

Keep in mind that hiding likes applies individually to each video. If you want all future uploads to automatically hide likes, you will need to adjust settings for each one or use upload defaults.


How to Hide Likes on All New Videos Automatically

If you want every video you upload to hide likes by default:


Go to YouTube Studio > Settings (bottom left corner).

Under Comments, uncheck “Show how many viewers like this video.”

automatically hide likes in published videos in YouTube Studio

Once this is set, every new video you upload will have likes automatically hidden.

Should You Hide Likes on Your YouTube Videos?

So, that’s how you do it. Now let’s answer the question of whether you actually 

From a viewer’s perspective, if they cannot see the likes on a video, there’s one burning question that’s going to be in their head: Why?

At the very least, it raises curiosity because most people will find it a little suspicious. This may lead viewers to conclude that the video’s creator has hidden the public stats because they don’t want anyone to see how few likes the video has received.

This often falls into the same question as why 

YouTube creators hide their subscriber count

. By default, both subscriber counts and likes are shown publicly.

With that in mind, hiding likes can still be a smart strategic move, but it depends on your channel goals.

Launching a new channel: Avoid discouraging early viewers if engagement is low at the start.

Publishing polarizing content: Sensitive topics may attract unfair negativity.

Reducing pressure: Smaller creators often feel anxiety when public numbers are low.

Testing different video formats: Hiding likes temporarily during experiments may be helpful.

Some situations where you might want to keep likes visible may include:

Building social proof: High like counts can build credibility with new audiences.

Boosting discoverability: Engagement signals (such as likes) may encourage viewers to watch.

Transparency expectations: Some audiences expect to see engagement metrics to gauge content quality.

Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. YouTube creators have more flexibility than ever to control how their content is received. Whether you choose to show or hide likes, the most important thing is to stay focused on creating amazing, authentic content that connects with your audience.

Gray thumbs up with YouTube logo and green arrow above black box next to word "WHY?"

Did you know that you can hide the likes and dislikes count on any of your YouTube videos? We show you how in this easy guide.

How to Hide Likes & Dislikes on YouTube Videos

Did you know that by adding a hashtag word in your YouTube description, you will trigger their appearance just above your YouTube video title? These hashtags are now an official source of categorizing your content on the platform, and they are clickable, and therefore searchable on YouTube. They allow the viewer to perform one click searches for particular search hashtag terms.

If you want to know how to use these hashtags for your videos, just 

click on this full tutorial to find out more

Use hashtags as a way of keeping viewers watching your content. Whether you use your Channel name as your hashtag, or a popular slogan you have, or you have a series of videos, whether it be Fortnite tips, beauty makeup challenge or the best Trump memes, use hashtags for consistency.

You have a limit of three hashtags per video. You can include them in the title or the video description. We've found that if you include them in the video description, then it adds them above your title. If you add the hashtags to your title it doesn't add them to above your title. So, add the hashtags to your description so it sits there just nicely above your title and save the title for really delivering that strong message that gets people to click on your videos.

These hashtags have a range of policies that must meet the community guidelines on YouTube much like all metadata on the platform. So, don’t use spaces, no over usage of hashtags, no harassment, no sexual content. Keep on the right side of YouTube and you shouldn’t have any issues.

Consider adding hashtags to your legacy content, particularly if you’ve uploaded videos with different topics.

Think about your future videos. If you consistently upload content around a certain theme then add 2-3 hashtags to your default description so you never forget.

Be patient. Hashtags can take a few minutes to appear so just keep refreshing the screen until you see them.

Some users are reporting that their hashtags are jumbled up with random spaces where they don't expect them to. That seems to happen when there are emojis in the vicinity of your hashtags. If you are having problems trying to represent hashtags properly in your videos, maybe just clean up the text and characters around your hashtags, especially emojis, and that should fix the issue.

Did you know you can test the performance of your YouTube hashtags? Just go to YouTube Analytics, then Traffic Sources and YouTube Search, and your hashtag results will appear like all of it YouTube searches in those analytics.

Man pointing at YouTube hashtags #vidIQ, #moreviews, #moresubs with surprised expression.

YouTube Hashtags - are they a legitimate way to grow your Channel? Here’s 8 things you need to know about them.

YouTube Hashtags: What Are They and How to Use Them!

If you’re thinking about deleting your YouTube channel it’s a fairly easy process. On any YouTube page, click on your profile icon in your top right-hand corner of your screen, and select ‘Settings’, then ‘Advanced Settings’. Now, this is where things start to get a little scary. At the bottom of this screen is a "delete channel" button. Don't worry, if you click this button, nothing happens just yet, as you will first need to provide your password. Once you do that, then you will be on the big decision-making screens.

How to Permanently Delete Your YouTube Channel

Let's start with permanently deleting your channel first. This will delete your videos, the users subscribed to your channel, all forms of engagements, your subscriptions to other channels, and your search and watch history. It also removes not only the videos you have created, but your preferences as a video viewer.

If you feel that this is a step too far, then consider the "Hide Channel" option instead. This will make private your channel, likes, users subscribed to your channel, and your subscriptions to other channels. What it will also do is permanently delete comments you posted, but it will not delete your search and watch history. You will be asked to tick all of the checkboxes to confirm you understand what will happen to your channel. This option however, does allow you to re-enable your channel at any time. When your channel is hidden from public view, you may see the message, "Your YouTube channel has content but is disabled," on your YouTube video manager page.

If you do want to quit YouTube, here's my personal advice. Think really, really hard before you click that button. If you're finding the whole process too frustrating, if you think YouTube is against you, or you're simply burnt out, there is nothing wrong with taking a break. Many video creators do this. I have struggled with the pressures of YouTube in the past. I took an entire year off when I moved to a different country. But when I came back, I had a new fire lit within me. So, even if you think YouTube is not the right fit for you right now, things can and will change. And if you do decide to carry on with your YouTube venture, then don't forget that vidIQ is here to help.

Red YouTube play button labeled "Your Channel" with green arrow pointing to trash bin icon.

Do you want to delete your YouTube Channel, or simply hide it while you take a break and consider your options? We show you how.

How to Delete (or Hide) a YouTube Channel

I'm sure you all have your own horror stories of when you've accidentally deleted your YouTube videos - it’s more common than you think. But there’s a quick and easy solution videos, just pop onto Youtube and download it from there.

When you are logged into YouTube you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to 

. This is currently in beta, but will become a standard as 2019 progresses.

This is your new dashboard or analytics homepage and from here you want to click on the Videos tab. This will list all of your videos, with most recent first.

When you roll your mouse over these it will show three dots. Click on this and you should find yourself with a download option. And this part's a bit of a no brainer. Click download to save it to your computer.

You can't officially download other peoples YouTube videos

 although you can download them to watch offline if you are part of the YouTube Premium Service on a mobile application of Youtube.

And there's also this extra little tidbit that you might want to know if you're downloading your own videos from YouTube. The file that you download from Youtube is a radically different beast of the one you originally uploaded. First of all you'll notice just how small it is. In this case, ten percent of the size of the original. You'll also notice that by default the resolution is set to 1280 by 720 which may differ from the original. If nothing else this is a testament to the compression technology over at YouTube because other than resolution, I can't tell a difference.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

2019 edition YouTube video icon with arrow pointing to yellow download folder symbol.

Forgot to back up your YouTube uploads? There's a new method of downloading your content from your YouTube Channel and we show you what you need to do.

How to Download a YouTube Video: New Method

How do you create a Playlist on YouTube? When you are logged in to YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to YouTube Studio (this is currently in beta, but will become the standard as 2019 progresses). Within the new Studio, click on the videos section that lists all of your most recent videos. Next to each video is a checkbox and if you click it more options will become available at the top. One of the new options is ‘Add to Playlist.’ If you click on this, you can add the currently selected videos to an existing Playlist or at the very bottom, you can create a brand new Playlist. Simply create a title and set the Playlist visibility. For example, you may want to set the Playlist to private until you have several videos in that Playlist.

Playlists are very much underused and undervalued by video creators on YouTube. A proven way to grow your channel is to get viewers to not only watch one of your videos, but a series of videos that are all related together, and that is where Playlists come into play (forgive the pun.) You want to create a binge watch mentality, so not only do you get Watch Time from one video, but session Watch Time from several of your videos.

At the time of writing, how to manage Playlists is a little confusing because the functionality is not yet available in the new creators studio. So if you point your browser to 

https://www.youtube.com/view_all_playlists

, you will reach a page where you can start to edit your Playlists in terms of order of videos, add description, and so on.

One more thing, if you have the VidIQ Chrome extension installed, we have a cool 

. It shows you loads of things about your channel, but at the very bottom of this report card, it tells you which videos on your channel are not currently in Playlists. All you need to do is click through the screens and that will take you directly to the video edit page for that video, where you can add it to a Playlist. Problem solved in no more than thirty seconds.

YouTube icon with green arrow pointing to a playlist of four numbered video thumbnails.

A proven way to grow your YouTube Channel is to get viewers to watch more than one of your videos - that's why setting up Playlists is a must.

How to Create a Playlist On YouTube

Do you know which video category your Channel falls under? To check, log into Creator Studio on YouTube, go to ‘Settings’ which you’ll find in the left hand navigation menu. From the pop-up, go to ‘Upload Defaults’ followed by the ‘Advanced’ tab. On this page in the top right hand corner you will find the category drop down which allows you to select from one of 15 categories. This is the video upload category default, but if you want to change the category of an existing video you can go to the ‘Video’ section in the Creator Studio, click on the video you want to adjust, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and change the video category.

Why are YouTube Categories Important for Creators?

What's the point in confirming the right YouTube category for your video? That’s an interesting question because when you search on YouTube and filter, there is no option to sort by video category. Also, if you click on the trending page your category options are limited too. Also, to the best of our knowledge, there is no algorithmic boost or penalty if you do indeed put the video in the right or wrong category.

However, when it comes to advertisers finding the right videos to place their adverts on setting a video category is important. So to make sure you get football related adverts from your football content make sure to put it in the sports category so you get more clicks from those adverts and earn more money.

Now sometimes these categories will not be a perfect fit for your channel. For example vidIQ could be in the how to and style section, the education section, or even science and technology. Personally I think it should be in the comedy section, but as long as you put the video in generally the right category you should be fine.

YouTube categories icon with gaming, cars, sports, science, finance, and education symbols.

YouTube creators who monetize their content should ensure they select the right category before publishing. We show you how to change your YouTube categories by default or from video to video.

How to Change Your YouTube Video Category: Easy Tutorial

Even the most dedicated YouTuber can feel like they are creating content in a vacuum without access to the data that lets them know how their videos are performing. Even if you create the most niche and specialist videos, you'll want to know how they are doing against similar content, so you can improve with every upload.

Luckily, along with a host of other incredible tools, vidIQ has just launched a '

' feature to its suite which will enable a creator to compare views against:

Yes - at last you can get real-time stats for view comparisons on YouTube for all of the above. Just think what a competitive edge that will give you as a video creator!

Compare Views of YouTube Videos After Uploading

The hours after you publish your video to YouTube are the most important time for any creator. The more velocity your video has in those first minutes and hours, the more chance it has of turning into evergreen content for you. Hey, it might even pick up the pace enough for it turn viral for you!

With our brand new ‘Compare Views’ tool you can track the velocity of ANY video on YouTube and then compare it to ANY video or ANY channel on YouTube. That's going to give you some invaluable insights - whether you're following fellow creators, or keeping a very close eye on a trending topic or news story. Understanding how many views a video is picking up in the first few hours after upload will tell you what the audience appetite is for that content, and how much the YouTube algorithm favors it over similar content.

How to Compare Views for Any YouTube Video

, you'll find out about the different options in the 'Compare Views' tool. But let's try it out on a real video to show you what it can actually do.

Let's take a look at one of the best performing videos that vidIQ has uploaded in the past few months - '

PewDiePie Vs T Series: Who Just Fooled Who?

'. This particular video has generated over 815K views to date, but I'm curious to see how it performed against similar content. You can select a timeframe from 0, 1, 2, 3, 7 or 28 days - for this example, as the video was uploaded to YouTube on the 1st April 2019, I'm going to select the 28 day view option.

First, let's see how this one video compares against our YouTube Channel average. As you can see, with 815K views within the first 28 days, it's one of our best performing videos by a mile.

We know our vidIQ YouTube viewers have loved our 

 uploads to YouTube over the past view months because most of these videos have soared past the 500K view mark. I'm interested to see how the video above compares to our most viewed in the series - '

'. This particular video has garnered over 1.1M organic views for us did it really perform better than the video we're checking?

Our video actually performed nearly as well as our most viewed video on the PewDiePie shenanigans. Whilst our video generated 555K views in 3 days, the 'Mr Beast' upload was a little more of a slow burner, only overtaking our video in comparable views around the day 25 mark.

OK - so what does that tell us? Well, by the time we published the 'Who Just Fooled Who?' video, we'd already established the vidIQ YouTube channel as an authority on the subject. By putting in the heavy lifting, YouTube rewarded us with visibility for every PDP vs TS video we subsequently published, meaning we gained substantial video velocity in just a matter of hours. Analysing your content this way will provide insights into what's working and you can easily feed that data into your video strategy around a trending topic - just like we did.

While we're on the subject of PewDiePie, let's see how our video channel compares against his in terms of views over the past 28 days:

With 96M subscribers compared to just over 353K for the 

, of course Pewds is going to generate much more views than we are, but it's fun to compare a video view against an entire channel once in a while.

 and dive right in to the 'Compare Views' tool and start finding out insights for your own video content. We guarantee that the insights will be informative and fascinating!

Want To Get More YouTube Views & Subscribers?

YouTube video view velocity comparison graph showing views 7 days after publish.

Have you ever wanted to compare a video to any other video, channel, or Playlist on YouTube? Now you can - and it's going to give any video creator a true competitive edge!

How to Compare YouTube Views with Any Other Video, Channel, or Playlist!

When you are logged-in to YouTube you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that you have the option to go to YouTube Studio (this is currently in beta but will become the standard as 2019 progresses).

From the new Creator Studio dashboard click on the ‘Analytics’ section in the left hand navigation bar. From this screen you need to click on the ‘Build an Audience’ tab which will then show you another screen which details ‘Subscriber Bell Notification’ information from a panel. You have two metrics to review here.

New YouTube Subscriber Notification Metrics

The first metric gives you a percentage of those who have clicked on the all notifications option when subscribing to your channel. But what exactly does that mean? Well first of all, they need to subscribe to a channel and tap on the notification bell. But what a user also needs to do is tap on the bell and set their notification preference to all, meaning that the user will receive all notifications from that channel.

In this instance 13% of the vidIQ audience, around 46.3K subscribers, have done just that. But that only accounts for YouTube's internal mechanisms for controlling notification settings. So while you may have set your notifications within YouTube a certain way that doesn't necessarily mean you've set your notifications from the app level in the same way. For example you could have your YouTube channel notifications set to all but if you have disabled YouTube notifications from a device settings level, well you are not going to get those notifications.

So from one video creator to another make sure to show YouTube notifications on your app! This metric will help you track that. All notifications ticked for your channel and general notifications switched on.

I think this is a fantastic new feature from YouTube but as always I do have one suggestion that could improve it. It looks as if this tool gives you the data as of now but of course as you try new things with your videos and maybe include some calls to action to get people to click on the notification bell you would hope to see those percentages go up. So progress over time would be really useful.

Yellow notification bell icon with subscribed text and 14% growth indicator graphic.

YouTube has launched a new metric that confirms how many of your subscribers have signed up to receive notifications from you. Find out how to access it today!

How To: Find Out How Many Subscribers Clicked the YouTube Notification Bell

The e-mail scam is nothing new, but it's just as easy to click the wrong link or disclose the wrong information, and just like that, all of your data falls into somebody else's hands. The most recent is this spoof email, masquerading as coming from YouTube telling you that viewers were complaining about your spammy videos. But never fear, because YouTube will review your channel if you pass over all of this information in an email.

Yeah, rule 101 of scams: if an email makes you go, "Hmm," chances are it's a scam. In terms of scam emails, this is one of the better attempts at deception. The contact name suggests it's from YouTube Support, the images are on point, and much to my surprise, there are no glaring spelling or grammar mistakes. However, YouTube would never threaten to close your channel without referencing its comprehensive guidelines and policies, and like every single well-respected, trustworthy company in the world, they would not ask for details about your channel, or, indeed, your password.

Scam emails always encourage you to compromise the security of your data. And in another one of these dodgy emails that was supposedly from YouTube, they even tried to convince the recipient that they would need to disable two-step phone verification on their YouTube account. Seems legit…...

With all this in mind, we have two simple pieces of advice: Never send sensitive information over email, and if you receive an unexpected email, don't do anything directly from the email. For example, if you reset your password on any account on the internet, you may receive an email asking you to click on a link. And that should be okay, because it's an action you started, and you're aware of our email.

But if, for example, you receive an email out of the blue telling you that one of your videos has received a copyright claim, don't click on the link within the email, go directly to your YouTube channel and investigate the issue yourself. Because, as convincing as this email looks, who knows what this button actually does. If in doubt, dismiss the email, and always go to the source, which will tell you exactly what's going on.

We asked YouTube what information we should expect from an email, and they said that while they may provide analytics about your channel in emails, they would never ask for personal information, pin codes, or passwords. You should also check the authenticity of the email sender. Obviously, genuine emails from YouTube will be authenticated, and you can find more information via the help page on screen now, which you can read from the link in the video description.

Email envelope with YouTube logo and green arrow pointing to bold SCAM text warning.

Creators, you've all worked really hard to build up your YouTube channels. Don't lose it to a scam!!

YouTube Tips & Tricks