How to Watch Private Videos on YouTube

Do you want to watch a private video on YouTube? YouTube has three privacy settings that creators can choose when they upload videos: Public, Private, and Unlisted.

Public videos are available for everyone to watch and appear in the search bar on YouTube and other search engines.
Unlisted videos can be viewed by anyone who has a link to the video, but they do not appear in searches on YouTube nor other search engines.^{[1]
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Private videos do not appear in search engines and can only be viewed by certain logged-in users who the creator invites to watch the video.

Can you watch private YouTube videos if you don't have an invitation? This wikiHow article answers your questions.

Things You Should Know

Watching a private video is only possible if the uploader sends you a special invitation to your email and grants you access.
You must be signed in to the YouTube account the creator sent an invitation to in order to watch their private videos.
If the video used to be public, you may be able to watch it on the Wayback Machine or through Google's cache.

Section 1 of 6:

Is It possible to watch private YouTube videos?

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Yes, if the creator grants you access. The most straightforward way to view a private video on YouTube is to ask the creator for permission to watch it. Creators can invite select users to watch private videos on their YouTube channel. Contact the creator and let them know you want to watch their private video and why you want to view it. Be sure to provide them with the email address that is associated with your YouTube/Google account.
- You can find the creator's email address by going to their YouTube channel and clicking the About tab. If the creator has chosen not to make their email address or contact information public, you can leave them a comment on one of their public videos or on a post in their Community tab if it is available.
- Many websites claim that you can watch private videos by replacing "watch?" in the URL with a "/" and then putting another "/" after the "v." This does not work. We have tested it. You will be rerouted back to the normal URL and it will still be private.

Section 2 of 6:

How do I know if I can watch private YouTube videos?

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If a creator has granted you access to a private video, you will usually be sent an email invite. Open your email inbox and check to see if you have received an email from that creator's channel. If you have been invited to watch a private video, the email will also contain a link to the video.

Section 3 of 6:

Why can't I watch a private video I have access to?

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Make sure you are signed in to YouTube. If a YouTube creator has invited you to watch a private video, you need to be signed in to the YouTube account the creator sent an invitation to. If you have multiple YouTube accounts, make sure you are signed in to the correct account.^{[2]
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- Private videos cannot be viewed in Google Workspaces for Education services.

Section 4 of 6:

Can I watch a private video that used to be public?

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1
You may be able to view them on Archive.org. If a creator has updated the privacy settings of a video from public to private, you may be able to view the video using the Wayback Machine. You will need to know the exact URL of the video. If you have previously seen the video, you may be able to find it in your browser history. Not all videos will be available. Use the following steps to try to access the video on Archive.com:
- Go to https://archive.org/ in a web browser.
- Click the Wayback Machine button at the top.
- Enter the video URL in the search bar at the top.
- Select a year when the video was available.
- Select a day when the video was available.
- Click the video to watch it.
2
Check Google's cache. Google sometimes keeps outdated snapshots of YouTube videos that have been deleted or made private in Google's cache. The older the video is, the less likely it is to be in Google's cache. You will need to know the exact URL of the video. If you have previously seen the video, you may be able to find it in your browser history. Use the following steps to check Google's cache:
- Go to https://cachedview.com/ in a web browser.
- Enter the video URL in the search bar.
- Click Google web cache.
- Watch a cached version of the video if it's available.
3
Using YouTube Video Finder. YouTube Video Finder is a tool that specializes in finding copies of videos that have been deleted or made private. It will scan the internet for copies and display possible matches. You will need to know the exact URL of the video. If you have previously seen the video, you may be able to find it in your browser history:
- Go to https://youtubevideofinder.site/ in a web browser.
- Enter the video URL in the search bar.
- Click Search.
- Click the options in the search results.

Section 5 of 6:

Are unlisted videos private?

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No, unlisted videos are not completely private. Unlisted videos do not appear in search results when you search for them on YouTube or in Google's search engine.^{[3]
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Research source} They also do not appear on a creator's YouTube page. However, they can be seen by anybody who has the link, including in public playlists. Unlisted videos can also be embedded and shared to other websites for anyone to watch.

Section 6 of 6:

Sharing Private Videos

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Go to https://www.youtube.com/ and log in. Make sure you log in to the YouTube channel where you have uploaded the private video you want to share.
It's in the upper-right corner. If you have not uploaded a profile image, this will be a colored circle with your initial in the middle.
It's in the menu that appears when you click your profile image. This takes you to YouTube Studio.^{[4]
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It's in the menu bar to the left. This displays a list of all your videos.^{[5]
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This displays your privacy settings options and ways to share the video.
This opens a window that allows you to enter the email of the invitees you want to share the video with.^{[6]
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You can enter as many email addresses as you would like.^{[7]
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This ensures that the person you invite to view the video is notified via email.
This updates your privacy settings and allows the person you invited to view the video as long as they are signed in to their YouTube account.

Community Q&A

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Question

Why would a short video of a virtual character dancing be changed to private? It had no sensitive or personal info in it and neither did the channel, which privated all their other videos, too.

Community Answer

The videos might have felt embarrassing to them, even though they contained nothing sensitive or personally identifying. Other reasons could be: they can't decide what the title and/or description of the videos should be; they can't decide if they should keep the videos or not; the videos contained copyrighted music; they might have even been shamed or bullied over them; they might have decided the videos don't suit their channel's theme anymore and are giving their channel a makeover, but they don't want to outright delete them in case they want to watch them again.

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Question

How do you tell who uploaded a private video?

Community Answer

You can't unless the uploader gave you special access to it via email, or if you remember the channel name when that video was public before being changed to private. When a private video is embedded or shared to another website, or in a public playlist, people who don't have special access to it will just see a blank photo with the title saying "Private Video" with no channel name revealed, and clicking on the link will just show a message saying "Video unavailable, this video is private" with no details about the video at all. If you commented on the video before it was changed to private, you can go to your History tab and click "comments," and your comment could give you a hint.

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Question

Why would a YouTube video be private?

Community Answer

Many private videos can reveal personal information that the uploader doesn't want everyone to see, such as the street they live on, what school they go to, and people they know such as their family, friends, classmates, and teachers. Private videos can also harbor sensitive content like sexually embarrassing videos of the uploader or other people, or secret recordings of people arguing or having private conversations. A video might also be temporarily private until the uploader is finished working on it, at which point they might change it to public.

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