Delete a video directly from your channel

To remove a video you uploaded, sign into YouTube on a computer or phone, go to your channel, and find the video in your uploads. Click the three dots next to the video title, then select Delete forever. YouTube will ask you to confirm — once you do, the video is gone permanently and cannot be recovered.

The video disappears from your channel when ready, but it may take a few hours for YouTube's servers to remove it completely from search results and recommendations. Anyone who had a direct link to the video will see an error page saying the video is no longer available.

If you have hundreds of videos, use the filter options in your uploads section to narrow the list by upload date or view count. This saves time scrolling through your entire channel history.

Key Takeaways

  • Sign into YouTube, navigate to your channel, find the video, click the three dots menu, and select Delete forever to remove it permanently.
  • Deleted videos cannot be recovered, so make sure you want to remove it before confirming the deletion.
  • The video disappears from your channel right away, but may take several hours to vanish from search results and recommendations across YouTube.
  • You can only delete videos you uploaded yourself — you cannot remove videos from other people's channels.
  • If you want to keep the video but hide it, you can make it private or unlisted instead of deleting it.

Delete a video on mobile

On a phone or tablet, open the YouTube app and tap your profile icon in the top right corner. Select Your channel, then tap Videos to see your uploads. Find the video you want to remove, tap the three dots next to it, and choose Delete forever. Confirm the deletion when prompted.

The mobile process works the same way as the computer version — the video is permanently removed and cannot be undone. The app may take a moment to refresh after deletion, but the video will be gone from your channel once the screen updates.

The difference between delete, private, and unlisted

Delete forever removes the video completely. No one can watch it, and you cannot get it back. Use this when you want the video gone entirely.

Private keeps the video on your channel but hides it from everyone except you. Other people cannot find it through search or your channel page, and they cannot watch it even with a direct link. This is useful if you want to keep the video for your own records but do not want it public.

Unlisted hides the video from your channel page and search results, but anyone with the direct link can still watch it. This works well if you want to share a video with specific people without making it fully public. To change a video's privacy setting instead of deleting it, click the three dots, select Details, and change the privacy option at the top of the page.

What happens after you delete a video

Once deleted, the video is gone from your channel when ready. Comments, likes, and shares associated with that video disappear as well. If other channels embedded your video on their websites, those embeds will show a broken video player.

YouTube's search index updates over time, so the video may still appear in search results for a few hours or even a day. Clicking those results will show an error page. If you need the video removed from search results faster, you can request removal through Google Search Console, though this is rarely necessary since most people do not search for deleted videos.

Subscribers who watched your video will not receive a notification that it was deleted. They may notice it missing from your channel if they go back to look for it.

Recovering a deleted video

YouTube does not offer a way to recover a deleted video through your account. Once you confirm the deletion, the video is permanently removed from YouTube's servers.

If you have a copy of the video file on your computer or phone, you can re-upload it to your channel. This will give it a new upload date and a new URL, so old links to the original video will not work. The view count and comments from the original upload will not transfer to the new version.

For this reason, it is worth thinking carefully before deleting a video that has many views or comments. If you straightforward want to hide it from public view, making it private or unlisted is a safer choice.

Deleting videos in bulk

If you need to remove multiple videos at once, YouTube does not have a bulk delete feature. You must delete each video individually by clicking the three dots and selecting delete. For channels with many videos, this can take time.

The fastest approach is to sort your uploads by the filter options — you can view videos by upload date, view count, or other criteria. This lets you find and delete similar videos without scrolling through your entire channel. Work through them one at a time, confirming each deletion as you go.

If you want to delete your entire channel rather than individual videos, you can do that through your account settings, but that removes the channel itself along with all its videos.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I delete someone else's video from YouTube?

No. You can only delete videos from your own channel. If you see a video that violates YouTube's policies, you can report it using the flag icon below the video player, and YouTube's team will review it.

Will deleting a video affect my channel's overall view count?

No. Your channel's total view count stays the same even after you delete a video. The views that video received remain part of your channel's lifetime statistics, but the individual video is no longer accessible.

What if I delete a video by accident?

YouTube does not have an undo button or recovery option. If you deleted a video by mistake and you have the original file, you can re-upload it. It will have a new URL and upload date, but the content will be the same. If you do not have a backup copy, the video cannot be recovered.

Does YouTube notify my subscribers when I delete a video?

No. Subscribers do not receive a notification that a video was deleted. They may notice it missing if they visit your channel or look for it in their watch history, but YouTube does not send an alert.

Can I delete a video if it has copyright claims on it?

Yes. You can delete a video even if it has copyright claims or disputes. Deleting it removes the video from YouTube, which also removes any associated copyright claims. If the copyright claim was monetized, you will stop earning revenue from that video once it is deleted.