Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:17 am
Want to share multiple private YouTube videos but don’t know how to? This post will show you the best way to do it.
YouTube allows you to choose among three visibility modes when publishing a video.
The common being, public. Anyone can view the video.
Then there’s the unlisted mode. Briefly, an unlisted video won’t be displayed for the public to view on YouTube. It will also not appear in the search engine results.
However, anyone with the video link can view it. The link can also be shared with anyone else without the owner’s permission.
Finally, there’s the private video option where the owner gets to choose who will view the video.
Here the owner will share the video through the recipient’s email. The intended viewer must log in to his email address to view the private video.
Also, the viewer can’t share the private video with someone else.
Sharing a private video is easy. Here are the steps to follow.
The steps work for sharing a single private video. What if you want to share more than one video?
Or your channel consists of all private videos and you want to share all of them?
Is there a way you can select all and share them with someone or a group of people?
The bad news is you can’t.
You have to share them one by one. So, if you have a hundred videos, you would have to share them one by one, each time entering the recipient’s email.
That would indeed be tedious.
Is there any better way to share multiple private YouTube videos?
There are ways. Let’s look at whether they work.
Sharing a Private YouTube Playlist
Many have thought of this workaround. Group all the videos in a private playlist.
Then share the private playlist through email. In this way, the recipient should be able to view all the private videos in the playlist.
Sadly, this method doesn’t work. YouTube allows you to create a private playlist. However, it doesn’t allow you to share the list.
See the table below.
In a private YouTube playlist, the whole playlist can’t be shared. Each video must be shared individually. If there are ten videos, you would have to share them 10 times.
So, we are back to square one. YouTube doesn’t allow you to bulk share private YouTube videos.
Sharing Unlisted Playlist
Referring to the table above, we can see that an unlisted playlist URL can be shared.
So, what we can do is switch the privacy settings of the private videos in the playlist to unlisted.
Then send the link to the person and he should be able to watch the videos.
But then there’s a drawback here. If someone publishes the unlisted playlist URL on a website, then the search engine will crawl and index it.
So, if you want to take this shortcut, you have to tell the person not to share the unlisted playlist URL with anybody.
Still, there’s a risk of the videos being exposed to others accidentally.
So, you’ve got to make a decision on whether you want to use the unlisted playlist as the method to share multiple private YouTube videos.
We’ve seen that sharing an unlisted YouTube playlist list promises privacy to only a certain extent.
If you feel that your private YouTube videos will be exposed, then there’s a workaround.
It is by giving access to your account without sharing your password.
You can do this by going to the left panel of your YouTube Studio dashboard.
Once there, select Settings as shown below.
Under the Settings Panel, choose Permissions.
On the Permissions panel, click on Invite.
You’ll be first asked to enter the email of the person, you want to allow access to your channel.
You’ll notice that access given will include private videos and playlists.
What Access Level to Give?
You’ll see various access levels.
Here’s the recommended access level you should offer for your private videos.
Choose Viewer (limited)
With this access level, the person receiving access can only view the videos and do nothing else.
Once the Viewer (limited) option is selected, click Done.
A notification that the person has been invited is shown. Just click on Save to send the invitation.
The person receiving the invitation will receive an email message.
Once the person accepts the invitation, he or she can view any video on your channel.
This would include unlisted and private videos, whether in a playlist or not.
So, the best way to share multiple private YouTube videos is through Viewer(limited) access as explained above.
