How To Share a Private YouTube Video with Specific Users
YouTube is nowadays the go-to website for sharing creative video content online for millions of users around the world. According to the blog Global Media Insight, there were 2.6 Billion active users on YouTube in 2021. YouTube gives its users fine control over the content they upload. One such feature is the ability to set the visibility of the uploaded video(s). A user might upload a video and mark it private to restrict its visibility on YouTube to only himself. It is still possible to allow certain trusted people to access the private video.
In this article, first I will show step by step how a private YouTube video can be shared with a particular group of people such as family members or coworkers, without affecting the general visibility settings of the private video. In the second portion of the article, I will also show in a few easy steps how you can access a private video that has been with you by others.
Sharing a Private YouTube Video
Step 1: Visit the YouTube website and sign in with your Gmail credentials.
Step 2: Click on the “Your Videos” option in the menu to the left of the screen. This will open all your uploaded videos in a new browser tab.
Step 3: Next, click on the “Content” option in the menu to the left of the screen to display all the videos you uploaded to YouTube.
Step 4: Locate the video you want to share and click on the “Private” option under the “Visibility” section in front of it. A drop-down menu will appear.
Step 5: In the drop-down menu, click on the “SHARE PRIVATELY” option under the “Private” option. A new window will appear.
Step 6: In the new “Share video privately” window, type the Gmail addresses of one or more people with whom you want to share your private video.
Step 7: Check the “Notify via email” checkbox so that the intended users get notified that a video has been shared with them by you via the Gmail emails you entered.
Step 8: Finally, click on the blue “DONE” button and your private video sharing on YouTube is now complete.
Accessing a Privately Shared YouTube Video
If you want to access a private video that has been shared with you, then you must follow the following steps.
Step 1: Sign in to your Gmail. In your Gmail inbox, you will notice an email notification from YouTube regarding the sharing of a video with you.
Step 2: Open the email. It will contain the information of the user who shared the video with you and a link to the video.
Step 3: Now all you have to do is to click on the given link to access the video. You will be directed to the related YouTube webpage of the video, where you can watch it without any restrictions. Your Gmail ID will be used as an authorization to access the private video.
Ending words
YouTube allows the sharing of a private video with a group of users through their Gmail addresses. The overall process is simple and can be accomplished in a few steps. One important thing I noticed is that once you share a private video with a group of users, the video remains accessible even if you remove their email addresses from the video-sharing settings and make it completely private. I am not sure if this is the intended behavior of YouTube or a limitation. Nevertheless, users are strongly advised to be careful when sharing a private video. If needed to restore its private status, one workaround could be to download the video, delete the online copy from YouTube, and upload it again with private settings.
