How do you watch hidden videos on YouTube?

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Change video privacy settings
Watch how to change video privacy settings
About privacy settings
About This Article
Is this article up to date?
How do I open hidden videos on YouTube?
Why can't I see hidden videos on YouTube?
How do I find a hidden YouTube channel?
What does a hidden video mean on YouTube?

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Update the privacy settings of your video to control where your video can appear and who can watch it.

Change video privacy settings

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select Content.
Point to the video you'd like to update. To see your live uploads, select the Live tab.
Click the down arrow under "Visibility" and choose Public, Private, or Unlisted.
Save.

Note: The default video privacy setting for creators aged 13–17 is private. If you’re 18 or older, your default video privacy setting is set to public. Everyone can change this setting to make their video public, private, or unlisted.

Watch how to change video privacy settings

Check out the following video from the YouTube Creators channel on how to change video privacy settings.

What are video privacy settings on YouTube?

About privacy settings

Public videos

Anyone at YouTube can see public videos. They can also be shared with anyone using YouTube. They're posted on your channel when you upload them and show up in search results and related video lists.

Private videos

Private videos and playlists can only be seen by you and whomever you choose. Your private videos won’t appear in the Videos tab of your channel homepage. They also won't show up in YouTube's search results. YouTube systems and human reviewers may review private videos for ad suitability, copyright, and other abuse prevention mechanisms.

To share a private video:

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select Content.
Click the video you’d like to edit.
Click the Visibility box and select Share privately.
Enter the emails you'd like to share your video with, then select SAVE.

Comments are not available on private videos. If you want to allow comments on a video that's not publicly available, change the privacy setting to unlisted.

Unlisted videos

Unlisted videos and playlists can be seen and shared by anyone with the link. Your unlisted videos won’t appear in the Videos tab of your channel homepage. They won't show up in YouTube's search results unless someone adds your unlisted video to a public playlist.

You can share an unlisted video's URL. Those you share the video with don't need a Google Account to see the video. Anyone with the link can also reshare it.

Feature	Private	Unlisted	Public
Can share URL	No	Yes	Yes
Can be added to a channel section	No	Yes	Yes
Shows up in search, related videos, and recommendations	No	No	Yes
Posted on your channel	No	No	Yes
Shows in Subscriber feed	No	No	Yes
Can be commented on	No	Yes	Yes

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When a YouTube video's privacy is set to "unlisted," you can't find the video by searching or browsing YouTube—only people who have a link to the video can watch it. And as of July 2021, all unlisted YouTube videos uploaded prior to 2017 were set to private, which has drastically decreased the amount of available unlisted YouTube videos. Though you can't find a particular unlisted YouTube video without its link, you can discover other unlisted videos by browsing playlists, or by using an archive site like Unlisted Videos. If you're looking for your own unlisted videos, you're in luck—they're easy to find in the YouTube Studio editor.

Unlisted videos won't appear in search results on YouTube or in Google. The only exception is if someone shared that unlisted video somewhere public, such as on Twitter, in a blog post, or on a forum. But there are still some options for coming across unlisted videos:
- Visit https://unlistedvideos.com. Unlisted Videos is a massive archive of unlisted YouTube videos, including many from 2016 and earlier. You can search or browse through more than 600,000 unlisted YouTube videos on this site.
- Browse people's YouTube playlists. People often add their unlisted videos to their own playlists, which makes them easier to find even though they aren't searchable in YouTube or through Google. You can see a person's public playlists by clicking their name in YouTube and selecting the Playlists tab.

YouTube switched all unlisted videos uploaded before January 2017 to private. If you had any older unlisted videos bookmarked, or had them embedded on websites or in presentations, they probably stopped working back in July 2021.[1]
- The owner of the video can switch it back to unlisted (or make it public) to restore others' access to the video. But if the owner hasn't done that, the video will remain private forever (or until they do change it).

Your unlisted videos are easy to find in YouTube Studio. Here's how to find them:
- Log in to YouTube Studio.
- Click the Content tab.
- Click the funnel icon at the top of the video list and select Visibility.
- Choose Unlisted as the visibility type.
- Since any unlisted videos you uploaded before 2017 were marked as private in July 2021, you can find those by selecting Private from the visibility folder instead.

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About This Article

Article SummaryX

There's no way to find an unlisted YouTube video if you don't have the link. These videos are not searchable. But you can try an unlisted video archive like UnlistedVideos.com to see if someone submitted it there, or browse the playlist of the person who created it to see if they added it to the list. Also, if a video was shared as Unlisted prior to 2017, it was automatically marked as Private by YouTube in July 2021.

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Is this article up to date?

How do I open hidden videos on YouTube?

YouTube “Unavailable videos are hidden” error fix.

Go to the playlist where the message is popping up..

Click the three dots to open up the extended menu. This should work on all devices..

Select “Show unavailable videos..

The videos will now appear..

Why can't I see hidden videos on YouTube?

Private videos can only be seen by people who have been invited to view the video. Here are some possible reasons why you or somebody you've shared the video with aren't able to see a private video: Viewers need to be signed in to YouTube when trying to view the video.

How do I find a hidden YouTube channel?

Tap your profile picture. Tap Settings. Add or manage your channel(s). Select the hidden channel.

What does a hidden video mean on YouTube?

Unlisted means your video will not come up in search results or on your channel either. Only those who know the link can view it, and you can share the link with anyone, even those who do not have a YouTube account/username. This means that this video could still be seen by anyone, but only if they guess the link!