Delete your video from the YouTube Studio dashboard

To delete a video you uploaded, sign into YouTube and go to YouTube Studio (the creator dashboard). Click Videos in the left menu, find the video you want to remove, and click the three-dot menu next to it. Select Delete forever from the options that appear. YouTube will ask you to confirm — click Delete video again, and the video is permanently removed within minutes.

Once deleted, the video disappears from your channel, search results, and anyone's watch history. Links to the video will show a "Video unavailable" message. If the video was embedded on other websites, those embeds will also stop working. This action cannot be undone, so make sure you want to remove it before confirming.

If you have hundreds of videos, you can filter by upload date or search by title to find the one you need faster. YouTube Studio shows you view count, likes, and comments for each video, which can help you identify the right one if you remember details about its performance.

Key Takeaways

  • Deleted videos are permanently removed from YouTube within minutes and cannot be recovered.
  • The deletion happens through YouTube Studio, not through the YouTube app or website's regular video page.
  • Anyone who tries to watch the deleted video will see "Video unavailable" instead of the content.
  • Videos embedded on other websites will stop playing once you delete them from your channel.
  • YouTube keeps no backup of deleted videos — the only way to restore it is to re-upload the file yourself.

What happens to comments and engagement when you delete

When you delete a video, all comments on that video disappear. Viewers who left comments will see them vanish from their own comment history. If someone replied to another person's comment on your video, those replies are also gone. This is permanent — YouTube does not archive deleted comments separately.

Likes, dislikes (which are now private on YouTube), and view counts all disappear with the video. If the video was part of a playlist, it will be removed from that playlist automatically. Subscribers who were notified when you uploaded the video cannot undo that notification, but they will see the video is no longer available if they try to watch it.

Unlisting vs. deleting — which one to choose

YouTube offers another option besides deletion: unlisting a video. An unlisted video is hidden from your channel page, search results, and recommendations, but anyone with the direct link can still watch it. Unlisting is useful if you want to keep the video but do not want it to be discoverable or to appear in your upload history.

Delete the video if you do not want anyone to watch it at all and you do not need to keep a copy. Unlist it if you want to preserve it for specific people (like a private message to a friend or a video you want to share only with a small group) or if you might want to make it public again later. You can change an unlisted video back to public at any time, but you cannot recover a deleted video.

Unlisting also preserves the video's URL and any embeds on other websites will continue to work, though viewers will need the direct link. Deleted videos break all embeds and make the URL permanently unusable.

Deleting videos on mobile devices

The YouTube mobile app does not have a delete option — you must use a web browser or the YouTube Studio app. Open YouTube Studio on your phone or tablet, tap Videos, find the video, tap the three-dot menu, and select Delete forever. The process is the same as on desktop, and the video will be deleted within minutes.

If you only have the regular YouTube app installed, you will need to open a web browser and go to youtube.com, sign in, and access YouTube Studio from there. The YouTube Studio app (available on both iOS and Android) makes this faster if you delete videos regularly.

Bulk deletion and channel cleanup

If you need to delete multiple videos, YouTube Studio lets you select several at once. Click the checkbox next to each video you want to delete, then click the trash icon that appears at the top. YouTube will ask you to confirm the bulk deletion. This is faster than deleting one video at a time, but be careful — you cannot undo a bulk deletion any more than you can undo a single deletion.

You can filter videos by upload date, view count, or other metrics to make it easier to find groups of videos to delete. For example, if you want to remove all videos from a specific month, use the date filter and then select them all. Always double-check which videos are selected before confirming, since the action is permanent.

What YouTube keeps after you delete

YouTube deletes the video file itself, but some data may persist. Your upload history in YouTube Studio will no longer show the video, but YouTube's internal systems may retain records that the video existed at some point — this is standard practice for large platforms and helps with abuse detection and legal compliance. This archived data is not visible to you or the public.

If the video was monetized and earned revenue, that revenue is not refunded or removed from your earnings history. YouTube keeps financial records separate from content records. If you reported the video to YouTube for containing copyrighted material or other violations, that report remains in YouTube's system even after deletion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I recover a video after I delete it?

No. YouTube does not keep backups of deleted videos. If you want the video back, you must re-upload it from your original file. There is no recovery option or grace period — deletion is permanent within minutes.

Will deleting a video hurt my channel's search ranking?

Deleting videos does not directly penalize your channel in search results. However, if those videos were getting views and engagement, removing them means you lose that traffic. YouTube's algorithm does not punish deletion itself, but you lose whatever benefit those videos were providing.

What if someone downloaded my video before I deleted it?

Deleting your video from YouTube does not affect copies that other people downloaded or saved. Once content is on the internet, you cannot control all copies of it. If you are concerned about a specific copy, you would need to contact the person or platform hosting it separately.

Does deleting a video remove it from Google search results?

Deleted YouTube videos usually disappear from Google search results within a few days, but it can take longer. If you need it removed faster, you can use Google Search Console to request removal. The video will show as "unavailable" in search results until Google's index updates.

Can I delete someone else's video?

No. You can only delete videos from your own channel. If you want a video removed that someone else uploaded, you can report it to YouTube if it violates their policies, or you can contact the uploader and ask them to delete it themselves.