Mike just finished a video course and uploaded all the videos to a YouTube playlist, but he wanted to keep the YouTube playlist private because he only wanted to share it with his friends and family.
How can he share a private playlist without making the playlist public?
In the video below, you’ll learn how to share a private playlist via email and how to share a playlist with anyone that gets a playlist link.
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Here’s how to share private playlist via email
According to YouTube if the visibility setting is set to public, you can share the public url. It can also be added to a channel section, show up in search, related videos and suggested videos. It can be posted on your channel and also show up in the subscriber feed. None of those features apply if the visibility setting is set to private.
So what’s the workaround?
- To find your playlist
- Click on your content tab in YouTube studio.
- Click on playlist.
- Select a playlist.
- This one is public, so you’re going to click on the pencil icon.
- Click the dropdown next to public. Public means anyone can search for and view.
- Unlisted means anyone with the link can view the playlist
- Private means only you can view the playlist
- Click on “Only You can view”
- Grab the playlist link
- Let’s see if we can see it in incognito mode.
- Paste the link in the browser
- t says “the playlist does not exist” That means anybody I share the link with won’t be able to see the videos in my playlist.
Now, I’m going to send the private playlist via email.
- I’m going to send it to my Yahoo account.
- New video, paste the link in there, make that live.
- Click send. Here’s my new video.
- Click on the playlist link
- Now I can view the playlist, which means anyone that I send the link to via email will be able view the playlist
Keep in mind that if any of the individual videos in the private playlist are set to public, anybody with that link will be able to view that video in the playlist. If I set all the individual videos in the private playlist to private, then none of the videos will be available to the public.
Here’s how to share an unlisted playlist with anyone that has the link
This means anyone with a link can view the playlist or any videos in the playlist, so it’s not entirely private, but it’s an easier way to share your playlist. According to YouTube, you can share the URL of an unlisted playlist. It can be added to a channel section. It won’t show up in search, related videos or suggested videos. It can’t be posted on your channel and it won’t show up in the subscriber feed.
Here’s how to set your playlist visibility to unlisted
- Click on the dropdown.
- Click unlisted.
- To share your playlist link, click on the arrow,
- Click copy.
- Now if you go to incognito mode and paste your URL in the browser we can see the playlist and all the videos in the playlist
Just keep in mind that the playlist is not entirely private because anyone you share the link with can view the videos in the playlist
Here’s how to share a playlist that contains other people’s videos
Here’s a playlist containing GoPro videos, which is currently set to private. If I click on the playlist, all the videos have been saved from other people’s channels.
If I view the playlist in incognito mode, it says the playlist does not exist, so how can I share this playlist with a friend?
Let’s see if I can view it, if I send the playlist link via email.
- So I’m going to highlight the link in the browser
- Copy it.
- Now I’m going to go to my Gmail and send it to my Yahoo address.
- Subject line, GoPro.
- Click send.
- Let’s check my Yahoo account.
- Here’s the email or subject line GoPro.
- Click on the link. N
Now I can view the private playlist with all the videos in it. This means I can send this private playlist link to anyone that has an email, and when they click on it, they’ll be able to see all the videos in the playlist. I could also change the visibility settings to unlisted, like I showed you before, so anyone that I send the link to, would be able to view the playlist.
Just keep in mind that when you create a private playlist featuring videos from other people’s channels, the videos in that playlist will be available to the public.
Here’s how to collaborate on playlists, so you can let friends add videos to your playlist.
When you turn on this feature, anyone you share this playlist link with can add videos to the playlist.
- To select the playlist you want to add collaborators to, click on content,
- Click on playlists
- Click on the selected playlist.
- Click the dropdown to set it from private to public.
- Click the three dots
- Click collaborate.
- Make sure you’ve got these two sliders to the right so you can allow new collaborators.
- And it says, share the link to invite collaborators.
- So you can copy the link and put it in your browser.
Now you can see all these videos have been added by drostvideo, but other people can also add videos to this playlist. Once you’ve been invited to a playlist, you can add and remove videos that you added in the past.
Keep in mind that when the playlists chnages or new collaborators join the playlist, the playlist owner will receive a notification.
If you want to learn how to use playlists to get more views on your channel and videos, watch this video titled “Boost Your Channel’s Visibility using Playlists”
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