How to Keep YouTube Videos Private

Some people only want to share their YouTube videos with friends or they might even want to keep them completely private. No matter the reasoning, YouTube makes it easy to change the privacy setting on an uploaded video or prevent a video from going public even before it's uploaded.

Change YouTube Video Privacy Settings During Upload

If you haven't uploaded your video yet, but you're in the process or about to start the process, follow these steps to make sure it isn't shown to the public.

1. Sign in to your YouTube account and navigate to YouTube Studio.

2. Select Upload Video and choose the file you want to upload to your YouTube account.

3. Enter details such as the title and description and select Next.

4. On the Visibility screen, select one of the following options to make the video private:

   • Unlisted: Keep your video public but don't allow people to search for it. This lets you easily share the URL with anyone you want but prevents people from finding it through search results.
   • Private: Doesn't let the public see the video. Only you can see it, and only when you're logged in under the same account that uploaded the video. This option makes YouTube work more like a video backup service rather than a sharing service.

5. Select Save.

Change YouTube Video Privacy on Existing Videos

Your other option is to make your existing videos private. That is, to pull your video out of the public eye and make it obey one of the options mentioned above.

1. Sign in to your YouTube account and navigate to YouTube Studio.

2. Select Videos in the left pane under Your Channel.

   To see your live uploads, select the Live tab.

3. Hover over the video you want to update and select the arrow under Visibility.

   To apply the same privacy setting to all of your videos, choose the Select All checkbox in the upper-left corner of the video list. Alternatively, select the checkboxes next to the videos to which you want to apply the same privacy setting.

4. From the drop-down menu, choose one of the following options to make the video private:

   • Unlisted: Keep your video public but don't allow people to search for it. This lets you easily share the URL with anyone you want but prevents people from finding it through search results.
   • Private: Doesn't let the public see the video. Only you can see it, and only when you're logged in under the same account that uploaded the video. This option makes YouTube work more like a video backup service rather than a sharing service.

5. Select Save.

Differences Between Private, Unlisted, and Public Videos

Private, Unlisted, and Public videos all have different features. Compare these characteristics to determine which setting is best for your needs.

Unlisted YouTube Videos Posted Before 2017

Google updated some older unlisted YouTube content in July 2021 to take advantage of new security enhancements. Unlisted videos posted before January 1, 2017 automatically became private videos instead. People could opt out of this change if they wanted to keep their videos unlisted, but those clips don't benefit from the security improvements.

If you didn't opt out and your older unlisted videos became private, you can make the videos public or re-upload them as new unlisted videos using the steps outlined in this article.