YouTube has become one of the quickest ways to share your videos online. With about two billion users spanning across the globe and approximately 720,000 hours of video uploaded every single day, the site is considered a dominant force among online video sharing platforms.
You need to create a YouTube channel to share your content or videos with family, friends, businesses, and others. YouTube channels are public by default, meaning just about anyone can find and view your content.
However, you can set everything on your channel (not just videos) to private. This quick tutorial will show you the steps on how to make YouTube channel private.
Advantages of a Private YouTube Channel
Editing your YouTube channel settings to make it private puts you in control of who can and can’t see your content.
Suppose you have very personal content, such as project videos for your employees or team members, or instructional materials you will like only your students to access. In that case, a private channel will let you post the content on YouTube but limit access to a selected few.
It is like having your own small community of YouTubers. As long as each person on you give access to your content has a YouTube account, they can see your content if you invite them.
Even if someone gets hold of the URL to your private content, they cannot view it without your express invitation. In fact, searches will not list your private videos or other hidden content.
Also, hiding a private YouTube will remove all your activities from public view. Think of it as being online on a messaging app with your status set to “offline.”
Everything you do from your private channel is hidden, including the videos you upload, likes, subscribers, and subscriptions.
Your account data will remain intact, but YouTube will remove all your comments and replies. You can still watch and like videos and subscribe to other channels, but they will all be completely private.
Keep in mind that privatizing your YouTube channel is not an irreversible action. You can re-enable the content any time you wish.
But can you make some of your content visible to the public? Yes, you can.
YouTube lets you create multiple channels, all linked to your email address. This way, you can have one channel dedicated to private content while another is open to the public.
Alternatively, you can choose to make selected YouTube videos private instead of your channel. (Please, insert a link in the yellow highlight text to the second article: How to Make YouTube Video Private.)If you choose to do this, you need to be careful not to accidentally share or upload private videos publicly.
Creating a YouTube Channel
Obviously, you need to have a YouTube channel before you can set it to private. This section contains quick steps to create a channel. You can skip it if you already have a YouTube channel.
To create a YouTube channel:
- Sign in to your YouTube account and click on your profile icon at the top right corner of the page
- Click Create a channel from the list of options
- Choose whether to create the channel with your name or a custom name
- Set up your channel and upload your videos
At this point, anyone with a YouTube account can see anything you upload, unless you make it private or make your entire channel private.
How to Make YouTube Channel Private
1. Sign in to your YouTube account
2. Click your profile icon on the top right corner of the screen
3. Click YouTube Studio
The next screen is your channel’s dashboard. Your dashboard shows your channel analytics, including the total number of current subscribers you have and a summary of the views you’ve had in the past month.
4. Select Settings from the options listed on the left side of the screen
The Settings window pops up with a list of options.
5. Click on the Channel option
6. Click the Advanced Settings tab
7. Scroll down to the Other Settings section and click on the Remove YouTube content option
A new window comes up where you will have to verify your Google identity. This step is a security measure to prevent unauthorized access to your YouTube channel.
8. Enter your Google details and click the Next button
10. Click “I want to hide my content” and check the box (or boxes) to confirm that you understand the content that will be made private
Keep in mind that hiding your content or making your channel private will not hide your page, channel name, and icon.
10. Click the Hide My Content button and confirm your decision in the next pop up
That’s all! Your content is now hidden across YouTube. Only you and those you invite can view your channel. Note that it may take up to a few minutes for the changes to take effect.
Inviting People to View Your Content
Learning how to make YouTube channel private is fine, but you’ll need to allow a few selected people to access your content.
Ultimately, the sole purpose of creating content is to share them with associates, students, employees, friends, family, or others.
Here’s a simple way to invite people to see your private content on YouTube.
- Log in to your YouTube account, click your profile icon and select the YouTube Studio option
- Click Content from the list of options on the right of the screen to display your content
- Locate the content you want others to view and click on Private under the Visibility section
- Click on the Share Privately option to add invitees
- Enter the email addresses of the people you want to share your content with
- Check the Notify via email checkbox and click Done
- Click Save
You can only invite up to 50 people to view your private content.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, this quick tutorial has helped you figure out how to make YouTube channel private. But don’t forget to invite others with your content URL, unless you don’t want anyone to view your videos ever!
If you’re new to making YouTube videos, check out these video editors that can make your work a lot easier.
