Going live on YouTube these days isn't as complicated as you would think. In this post, we'll discuss a few different things you need to know to make your live stream as professional as possible including:

The software/encoders you need to live stream

How to set up your live stream broadcast on YouTube

I’m a gamer so I like to give things a gaming focus, so I am going to be using video game live streaming as an example. But all of the following advice will apply to any type of YouTube channel looking to learn how to broadcast live.

How to Live Stream on YouTube: The Hardware You’ll Need

Streaming these days is a lot easier when it comes to the hardware you're going to need. I'll show you what I use to stream from my own computer when I play games, and hopefully, that will give you a good baseline for a guide.

First off, let’s talk about the Internet. This is going to be the biggest bottleneck you're going to face while live streaming. The Internet is such an important element in the mix because, in some areas of the world, you just can't control what kind of speed you're going to get when you sign up for your Internet plan.

The best speed I can recommend is no less than five megabits per second upload when you're trying to stream on YouTube. Personally, I have 10 megabits per second for my upload speed, and it allows me to push a better quality live stream. 5 is just my personal recommendation because I think any less, and you're going to struggle when it comes to quality.

Now for the type of computer you need to play a game, and live stream it at the same time, I have a GTX 1060, three gigabytes, with 16 gigabytes of RAM. I’m also using an older AMD Ryzen 7 processor. These items allow me to stream with 10 megabits per second upload. I can play Minecraft at 1080p with 30 frames a second, or I can play it at 720p with 60 frames a second.

If I try to push it any higher than that, the game performance and stream quality drops. The bottom line is that top-quality hardware is great, but with software advancing so much, not using the very latest state-of-the-art computer doesn't have to limit you.

Software: Encoding a Live Stream Broadcast on YouTube

When we talk about software for live streaming, we're actually talking about encoders. Anything you've used to live stream is an encoder, but I’m going to focus on 

YouTube actually has a list of recommendations

, some free, some not. Thanks to how powerful these encoders have become, using something like Streamlabs OBS allows you to stream a game on your computer at a much higher quality than ever before.

Before we dive in head first, I will warn you this set-up can get very technical, and I'm going to cover it very briefly, in the most basic way possible, just to get you started. All the things I'm showing you are going to depend on you at the end of the day. You need to run test streams on your own channel, and maybe even get feedback from viewers on different testing streams you try.

Let’s go through the Streamlabs OBS set up.

 First, you’ll need to connect to your YouTube channel by logging in - just follow all the prompts!

Next, go to ‘Sources’ and click ‘Add’

Let’s say you want to add a game capture, just click ‘game capture’, then ‘Add Source’

The software will now search for a game on your system to capture

If it has trouble doing this, click on the drop-down menu to capture a specific window

Adjust the screen size so it fits the window

Now let's tackle some of the more technical aspects of live streaming on Streamlabs OBS. If we visit the output section, we can choose our encoder. In the example I use in the video (above), it's set to software x264. This is going to use my CPU to do all of my encoding for me, but if you want, you can change it to NVENC or the new version of that.

This uses your graphics card to encode. Depending on what you're doing, the game you're playing, or the type of broadcast you're doing.

Personally, I prefer using NVENC when I'm streaming, so I'm going to go ahead and select that. And I'm going to do a bit rate of about 5,000 because I already know my system, and I know it can handle that. Like I said before, this is going to take testing on your part, so maybe 2,500 is a good place for you to start, and you can go from there.

Now on to the video tab. You'll notice the base canvas resolution is 1920 x 1080. I would leave it at that. In theory, I should probably raise the base canvas resolution, but that's okay. I just got my 4K monitor, and I don't feel like resizing all of the different elements that I have on my normal live stream, so I'm going to leave it at 1080.

But the output scale is what's going to directly impact your broadcast, and I'm broadcasting at 720. These days, when people watch live streams, they watch them on a variety of devices, including phones and laptops. So with this screen being a little more compact, and squashed down to 720, it is probably going to give you a higher quality live stream at little to no impact on the viewer.

If you lower that resolution, it's going to get you closer to being able to stream at 60 frames a second, which will impact everybody who's watching, regardless if it's a nice, big TV or a phone. So because I like high frame rates when I'm playing games, I'm going to leave it at 720, but if you have a super awesome computer, maybe you can try 1080 at 60 frames. That's all up to you.

The last recommended setting is under ‘Advanced’. You can scroll down and find “dynamically change bitrate when dropping frames while streaming”.

A dropped frame is basically when the stream can't keep up and starts skipping frames. You may have a nice 60 frame stream going, but now, those frames are being dropped little by little. If the software detects that, it will change your bitrate to keep up.

So this might take some of the sharpness away from the image, but the frame rate will stay high, which is what you want. To save your changes, go ahead and click ‘Done.'

Now you’re almost ready to click ‘Go Live’, but there's one more thing we need to do, and that's set it up on the YouTube end.

Setting up a live broadcast is a lot like setting up a regular video. You still need an engaging title, a great description, some keyword tags, and a powerful 

Head over to the YouTube Studio, click on ‘Create’, then in the drop-down menu hit ‘Go Live.’ If you've streamed before, you're going to get a prompt that tells you that you can copy all the settings, the thumbnail, the description, etc. from a previous stream, or you can go ahead and set up a new stream.

In my example, I’ve clicked on the ‘New Stream’ option so now I'm going to set up everything I need for the live stream, like the title and description.

You can also set your live stream to private, public, or unlisted, just like a normal video. If you want to make it private for a little while so you can tweak the description and other metadata, go ahead and do that. But if you want people to know that you're going to stream at some point, go ahead and make it public.

Now add a description, then add a title for your game, that's really important to help YouTube categorize you for that game.

Further down the Streamlabs OBS dashboard, there is an option to schedule for later. I would highly recommend doing this, as a live stream is an event, and you want people to know when it's going to happen. Scheduling for later will allow you to set the date and the time that you're going to go live, and everyone will know exactly when to come to your stream!

Next is the ability to upload your very own YouTube custom thumbnail. Having a great thumbnail is always crazy important, no matter whether it’s a video you’ve uploaded, or whether it’s a live stream. You want that thumbnail to be clickable because it’s an invitation to watch your content. If a viewer is intrigued, they will click through to your video.

Next on the dashboard is where you tell YouTube whether this live stream is ‘

’ or not. You also have the option to impose restrictions on viewers because of their age. If you choose to restrict it to viewers that are 18 or over, YouTube users will get a notice that this live stream may not be appropriate for younger viewers.

If you’re happy with your title, description and custom thumbnail, and have completed all the details YouTube needs you to then you are ready to hit ‘Create Stream.’

Once you've created the stream, a new dashboard pops up while you're broadcasting live. It shows you all kinds of data, but what you really need to pay attention to is the information in the bottom left of the Streamlabs dashboard which is all about stream latency.

Basically, normal latency takes the broadcast and renders it for the audience. They're going to get a higher quality broadcast, but they're also going to see a higher delay based on when their chat message goes out and the time you read it. Viewers may pick up on that.

Choosing low-latency or ultra low-latency will cut down on that buffering time, but you risk your stream being lower quality.

Because you've already logged into YouTube on Streamlabs, you shouldn't need to worry about this, but if you're using a different encoder, and not Streamlabs OBS, you will need to grab the stream key and paste it into your encoder on Streamlabs. (Of course, sharing your stream key will allow people to take over your channel and stream whatever they want on it, and you don't want that!)

After you’ve finished streaming, you can come back to the Streamlabs dashboard and check out the analytics, your viewer activity, and your stream health. You can basically check all the data insights that would you after uploading any video.

Stay tuned for more expert tips on live streaming on YouTube!

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

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

YouTube live streaming icon with "Go Live" text on blue background

It's never been easier to live stream on YouTube - whatever type of content you create. In this beginner's guide, we take you through the how-to using Streamlabs OBS.

How to Live Stream on YouTube with Streamlabs OBS - Beginner's Setup Guide

We at vidIQ have been creating YouTube Stories alongside the regular content we upload 

, and you have been loving them. And you’ve been loving Stories from other creators too.

Now, YouTube has added a brand new call-to-action button to its YouTube Stories feature which allows viewers to subscribe directly to the channel that published that content. That’s fantastic news for creators who want to boost their subscriber count.

YouTube Stories: Boosting Subscribers & Your Community

 in that they work best on mobile devices, and are an amazing way of keeping in touch with your audience when you're not creating longer content. Most of us take a couple of days, even weeks, to push out new videos, but with these bite-size pieces of content, you can stay in touch with your audience every single day.

, the maximum video length is 15 seconds. __15 seconds for a subscriber? I think that sounds worth it, don't you? __

Built into this new feature is one massive plus and one huge negative. We'll start with the negative first. Unfortunately for many of you, this feature is not going to be available right unless you have 10,000 subscribers. But as with all YouTube features, Stories will be rolling out to more and more creators in the future, so do make sure to check on your mobile device to see if you have access.

On the flip side, here's a really interesting thing about that Stories subscribe button I don't think YouTube has considered.

When you're not subscribed to a channel and you watch one of their Stories, you’ll see a subscribe button which allows you to, well, subscribe. Right up until that Story finishes you still have the ability to unsubscribe using the same button.

However, once you're subscribed to a channel and you watch more Stories, there is no unsubscribe button. I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but ultimately you've got nothing to lose in pushing people to subscribe to your channel, right?

Tracking the Success of YouTube Stories in Analytics

And in more good news, you can actually track the success of your YouTube Stories in analytics. Just click on the ‘See More’ button on ‘Channel Analytics’ in YouTube Studio, then click on ‘Subscription Sources.’ YouTube Stories will be one of those sources and you can click the checkbox filter to see subscribers by YouTube stories only over the last 28 days.

Now, I am not for a second advocating that you should adopt a ‘subscribe to me’ mentality when it comes to YouTube Stories. What I am suggesting you do, as with all of your content, is provide value.

We've been experimenting with a YouTube story Q and A where people can ask us any question they like and I will respond with a YouTube story. We get tons of engagement, and whenever we run one of these mini YouTube clinics, we see a mini-surge in subscribers from YouTube stories.

Now, these are not channel-changing numbers, but I see this as another tool in your YouTube arsenal for growing your audience. Every subscriber helps.

Stopwatch showing 15 seconds next to YouTube icon with +1 subscriber notification.

How do you get more YouTube subscribers in just 15 seconds? We show you how.

How to Get More Subscribers On YouTube in 15 Seconds!

Ah, "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening", a blast from the past, one of the best games I've played all year, and a million times better than the rubbish that is "Breath of the Wild". Anyway, you're probably not interested in that. You want to know how I got this game into the video description. Let's find out.

5 Easy Steps to Add a Video Game in the YouTube Description Box

To do this for any video you have already uploaded to YouTube, on any YouTube page, click on your profile image in the top right-hand corner of the screen and go to the YouTube Studio.

From here, you want to go to the Video section from the navigation panel down the left-hand side.

Next, click on the video you want to edit, and then click on the Advanced tab at the top of the screen.

Halfway down this screen, you will see a ‘Categories’ option, click on this to list all of the available categories and select gaming.

When you do this, a new field will appear to the right and this is where you can type in your game title. The field will auto-complete if the game is in the database, so type it out, click on the correct title, and don't forget to save.

Anyway, if all things have gone right with your video description, it should look something like this.

The title and box artwork of the game will be displayed at the bottom of the viewable description. If you click it, you will be taken to the auto-generated YouTube channel where you can view more videos from channels who are making content on the game.

When viewing a video through the mobile YouTube app, it does work a little differently in that you have to expand the description before you can see the game title and artwork.

Setting Up a Video Game Title When Uploading to YouTube

If you want to set the game title when you are uploading a video, in the new YouTube upload workflow, you will find YouTube categories on page two in the Advanced settings and it works in exactly the same way. Choose Gaming as your category and search for your video game.

With all that said and done, is this guaranteed to get you more views? Let's be clear about one thing, this is not a cheat or a hack or a game unlock, forgive the pun. It's not going to immediately give your video more exposure, more views, more subscribers, and that type of thing.

But it certainly is not going to harm your video. If you give YouTube as much SEO as possible, it will help identify your content and potentially serve it up to the right audience. The fact that it goes into the auto-generated YouTube channel is enough of a reason to do it, as it only takes a couple of seconds.

Oh, and if YouTube's biggest gaming channel does it, that would be PewDiePie, you should probably follow suit. And if you want a lot more help pointing you in the right YouTube direction when it comes to keyword research, video analytics and channel improvement tools, make sure to grab vidIQ. It is free to download (see link below).

PewDiePie YouTube channel with 101M subscribers featuring Minecraft game link

Want to add a video game title to your YouTube description? We show you how in 5 easy steps.

How to Add a Video Game Title to Your YouTube Description [2020 Method]

 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.

 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.

YouTube Tips & Tricks