You probably uploaded it a decade ago. Maybe it was a high school project with terrible lighting, or a "vlog" where you mostly just stared at the camera and breathed heavily. Whatever it is, that digital ghost is sitting there on your channel, and you need it gone. Learning how to delete video on YouTube isn't actually hard, but the platform has changed its layout so many times that the button you remember from 2018 has definitely moved. Honestly, Google doesn't really want you to delete content—data is their lifeblood—so they tuck the "remove" option inside a secondary menu.
Here is the thing: once it is gone, it is gone. There’s no "Trash" folder like on your Mac or PC. If you hit delete, that data is wiped from YouTube’s public servers almost instantly. If you didn't save a backup, you’re out of luck.
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The desktop method: Navigating the Studio maze
If you are sitting at a computer, don't look for the delete button on your actual channel page. You can click your profile picture and go to "Your Channel" all day, but you won't find a "delete" option there. It's a common trap. Instead, you have to go into the engine room: YouTube Studio.
Log in. Look at the top right. Click your face. Select YouTube Studio. Once you are in that dashboard, look at the left-hand sidebar. There’s a tab labeled Content. This is your master list. This is where every video you've ever uploaded lives, including those "Unlisted" ones you forgot about and the "Private" ones you were too embarrassed to share.
Hover your mouse over the video you want to kill. A few icons will pop up—a pencil, some analytics bars, a comment bubble. Ignore those. Look for the three vertical dots. That's the "Options" menu. Click it. At the very bottom of that list, you’ll see Delete forever.
YouTube will then give you a pop-up. It’s a "Are you sure?" moment. You have to check a box that basically says, "I understand that deleting is permanent and can't be undone." You click that, hit the final button, and poof. It’s off the platform. If you have a bunch of videos to nix at once, you can actually check the boxes on the left side of the video list, click More actions in the black bar that appears at the top, and select Delete forever. It’s way faster than doing them one by one.
Mobile app shortcuts and the "Library" confusion
Managing your channel on a phone is a different beast entirely. Most people try to do this through the standard YouTube app, which is fine, but it feels clunky.
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Open the app. Tap You in the bottom right corner (the icon used to be called Library, but Google likes to rename things every six months to keep us on our toes). Under the "Your videos" section, you’ll see a list. Find the offender. Tap the three dots next to the video title. A menu slides up from the bottom. Delete is right there.
It feels almost too easy on mobile. Maybe that's why people accidentally delete their best work while trying to clear out some storage space. If you are a "power user" and use the YouTube Studio app (which is a separate download from the main video player), the process is nearly identical. You go to the Content tab at the bottom, hit the dots, and tap delete.
Why you might want to "Private" instead
Look, I get the urge to purge. But sometimes deleting is a mistake.
If you delete a video, you lose all the watch time associated with it. If you’re trying to hit that 4,000-hour threshold for monetization, deleting a viral hit—even an embarrassing one—can tank your progress. Instead of nuking it, consider switching the visibility to Private.
When a video is Private, only you can see it. It disappears from your channel, it doesn't show up in search results, and it won't appear in anyone's "Recommended" feed. But the data stays on the server. If you change your mind in three years because you want to show your kids how cringey you were in 2024, you can just flip the switch back to "Public."
What happens to the links?
This is the part that trips people up. If you've shared a link to that video on Facebook, Twitter (X), or embedded it in an old blog post, those links don't just disappear. They stay there. But when someone clicks them, they’ll get that depressing gray screen with the slumped-over TV icon saying, "Video unavailable."
If you’re trying to clean up your digital footprint for a job search, remember that Google Search takes a while to catch up. Even after you've figured out how to delete video on YouTube and actually done it, the video might still show up in Google Image or Video search results for a few days—sometimes even weeks. The link is "dead," but the thumbnail might be cached.
Dealing with "Ghost" videos and copyright strikes
Sometimes you can't delete a video because the account isn't technically yours anymore. Maybe it’s an old school email you can't log into. If you can’t get into the account, you can’t delete the video. Period. YouTube’s support is famously automated, and they won't just take a video down because you claim to be the person in it—unless you file a privacy complaint.
If the video contains your face or personal information, you can go through the Privacy Complaint Process. This isn't a "delete" button; it's a legal request. YouTube will review it, and if it violates their privacy guidelines, they might remove it for you.
Also, a quick note on "Copyrighted" videos: If you have a video that was taken down by a copyright strike, it might already be "deleted" from public view, but the strike stays on your account. Deleting the video yourself won't remove the strike. You have to wait 90 days for the strike to expire or file a counter-notification if you think the claim was bogus.
The nuclear option: Deleting the whole channel
If you have 400 videos and you hate all of them, don't waste your afternoon clicking "Delete forever" 400 times. You can just burn the whole house down.
- Go to Settings in YouTube Studio.
- Click Channel.
- Go to Advanced Settings.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and click Remove YouTube Content.
- It will ask for your password.
- You can choose "I want to permanently delete my content."
This wipes your videos, your playlists, your likes, and your subscriptions. It’s clean, it’s fast, and it’s very, very final. Just make sure you’ve exported your "Subscriptions" list first if you don't want to lose track of the creators you actually enjoy watching.
Actionable Next Steps
Before you go hitting any buttons, do these three things:
- Download your data: Use Google Takeout. It’s a tool that lets you download every video you've ever uploaded in its original quality. Do this before you delete anything. You might not want that video public now, but you might want the file in 20 years.
- Check your embeds: If you have a website or a portfolio, check to see if you’ve embedded the video you’re about to kill. You’ll need to replace it with something else or remove the code so you don't have "broken" blocks on your site.
- Audit your "Unlisted" stash: Go to your Studio and filter by "Visibility: Unlisted." You’d be surprised how many old videos are floating around that you thought were gone but are actually just hidden.
Once you’ve backed everything up, go ahead and clear the clutter. A clean channel looks more professional and saves you the anxiety of someone "finding" that old video from your awkward phase.