YouTube is easily one of the largest sites on the internet, with over 2 billion viewers each month. The site has more than a billion hours of videos, and is available in over 100 countries. While a majority of users on YouTube probably have a public profile, there are advantages to having a private YouTube channel. In this guide, we will go through the steps to make a YouTube channel private with photos.
Why Should I Make a Private YouTube Channel?
If you have been using YouTube as a website to watch videos and consume content, the advantages of having a private YouTube channel might not be super apparent to you. But if you want to share videos with your family and friends, YouTube is the easiest way to do it for several reasons.
First, YouTube is easy to use and approachable to tech geeks. Uploading videos to YouTube is straightforward; you will not need to follow a guide after you do it once. After you have uploaded a video, people can view it with a simple link. No special software is required to watch a video, and any computer or smart device has access to YouTube.
Secondly, YouTube is an excellent site for personal archiving and cloud storage. It doesn’t charge fees usually associated with Dropbox or iCloud. YouTube only allows you to store videos on your channel, but video files tend to take up the most amount of space on your computer.
Lastly, if you own a business or train people at your job, having a YouTube channel for your training videos is a fantastic option. You get all the advantages of YouTube with the privacy and security that you might be used to on other file-sharing websites. And did we mention it is free?
1. Sign in to your YouTube account
Sign in to your account if you are not already.
2. Create a YouTube channel
You might already have a channel associated with it, but if not, click on the profile icon in the top right corner of the website. Follow the on-screen directions to create your YouTube channel. You can also create a custom name for your channel or use your name associated with the email.
3. Select YouTube Studio
4. Click on Settings
After clicking on YouTube Studio, you will be taken to the dashboard page.
5. Select The Channel Tab
6. Advanced Settings
Along the top of this page, you will see Basic Info, Advanced Settings, and Feature Eligibility.
7. Remove YouTube Content
Scroll down to the bottom of this page until you see an option called Remove YouTube Content. Don’t worry. This won’t remove your content right away. There is another page we have to go through first.
8. I Want To Hide My Channel
Here you will have two options, either I want to hide my channel, or I want to permanently delete my content. For this guide, we recommend selecting I want to hide my channel, but if you want to eliminate your YouTube channel altogether, the second option might be better.
9. Confirm What You Want To Hide
On the page now, you will see three checkboxes. The first option allows you to hide your channel’s most publicly visible elements. The second option will permanently delete your comments made on YouTube and your replies on YouTube comments. The third option will remove your data from other Google properties. While these look like optional boxes, they are instead a way of YouTube confirming that you want to do all these things.
10. Click Hide My Channel
Now that you have selected what you want to hide or permanently delete, click on Hide My Channel and confirm your selection.
To see the steps we’ve outlined above in action check out the video below.
How to Share Private YouTube Content
Now that you have a private YouTube channel, one of the main advantages is being able to share your videos with people who you want to see them. To do that, you have to invite people to see your content. The process is very similar if you have shared a Google Drive file. To share your private content, follow the steps below.
1. Log in to your YouTube account
If you are not already, log in to your YouTube account and click the profile icon in the top-right, then YouTube Studio from the drop-down menu.
2. Click Content
From the list of options on the right, click on Content to show all the videos on your YouTube account.
3. Locate the content you want others to view
Find the content you want to share and click on the downward-facing arrow next to the word Private.
4. Click on the Share Privately
In a small box, you will see an option that reads Share Privately. Click here and type in the email address of the people you want to share it with.
5. Click Done
With the email address typed in, we recommend checking the box that says Notify via email so that the person you share it with gets a notification. Then click Done, and that video is shared with the emails you typed in.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Chubo - my masterpiece/Shutterstock.com.
