How to delete a YouTube channel or a video from this platform definitively?

How to remove a YouTube channel

Want to learn how to delete a YouTube channel or need to find out how to delete a video from your YouTube account?
If you follow our blog regularly, you will know that one of the recommendations we give is that if you have an online business or e-commerce, you should consider integrating video marketing into your company’s marketing plan. And if the videos you share with your potential customers and target audience are uploaded to this digital platform, all the better. It is the second most widely used search engine today.
But, on the contrary, and despite the great potential of this platform today, your bad experience with it, your lack of knowledge of how YouTube really works or simply the fact that you have given priority to other channels, may be reasons to abandon it.
In short, there may be one or more reasons why you want to remove some of your content or even your current account. Reasons we’ll talk about before we take a step-by-step look at how you can do it.

Why might I want to remove a video or channel from YouTube?

The reasons for unsubscribing a channel from this platform are multiple and as personal as they are non-transferable.
Analyzing the most frequent reasons that lead a user or company to delete a YouTube account, the most recurrent are these:

► At the express request of a user who appears repeatedly on them

On many occasions, you go to a public place, shoot a video and share it without much evil. This measure may be considered an offence of misappropriation of the recorded image of a musician or actor.
The same applies to a person who does not wish to appear on this social network or who does so without your express consent.
The problem is that a large number of users are unaware of this premise, which covers users who, without their prior consent, appear on public digital material on the Internet.
Therefore, from now on, if you record audiovisual content with the intention of uploading it to your account, ask them to give you their approval.
This way, you will avoid legal and bureaucratic problems.

This reason is related to the above and unauthorized use of images may be reported.
Not for nothing, many bands have their own channel to upload videos of their performances and obtain the consequent benefit.
Something similar happens when you use background music previously recorded by a soloist or musical group.

► As it is worthless content or needs updating

It usually affects those who explain the operation of programs or computer utilities that have fallen into disuse or the classic guides that explain various ways to fix some appliances or similar product.
If your account is full of clips of this type, you can delete your entire channel or just those that refer to obsolete themes.

► For providing an inappropriate image of you

Sometimes, publishing according to what content on YouTube can mean that a Human Resources manager decides not to count on you, if, through your Curriculum Vitae, you are opting for a vacancy in your company.
Reputation and Personal Branding online is very important these days, so clearing your trail may be a more than adequate option.

► To avoid YouTube sanction

The company automatically removes all material that does not meet its requirements, but may impose a higher penalty, such as closing your channel or not allowing advertising in your videos.
This works in the same way as Google Adsense ads, which depend on the content displayed by the platform (in this case it would be a Web site) to be displayed or not.

► To change your design, brand, business or activity

This option is very suitable for company name changes or to open new ways to give free rein to your ideas.
Erasing the past can be a good place to start, so it wouldn’t be crazy to want to delete your YouTube channel to start “from scratch” with a new one.

► For change of strategy

It may also be the case that you may have noticed that it is a better idea to upload your content to other social networks that are more specific and related to your business and where it is easier to reach your potential audience.
Maybe you managed to create your YouTube channel with a lot of illusions, but it turned out that it wasn’t the best way to communicate with your audience.

► Lack of interest

Simply, out of tiredness or laziness. The use of this social platform can be stressful if you are a very active person on this social network.
Even more so, if in addition to uploading your videos to the channel, you have to do SEO to your YouTube channel, to get your content positioned correctly.
Disappearing for a while can help you to value the use of it much more.

For what reasons can YouTube delete a video or even delete your entire account?

Although in this article we are looking to resolve the question of how to remove a channel voluntarily, it may be that YouTube itself will delete your account.
As a curiosity, you should know that between October and December 2017, the company decided to delete eight million videos that were infringing on copyright, spam, could be classified as adult videos or incited violence and xenophobia.
The company’s managers have indicated that they will continue to do so, while respecting the decisions of its users. That said, here are some of the reasons why you might lose your account:

1) Nudity or any kind of sexual content

As you can imagine, this is not exactly the place on the Internet where you should search for or upload your sexual audiovisual content, much less other people’s content.
For the platform, any sign of pornography will be more than enough reason to delete your account and, what is worse, you will be reported to the authorities, as this social network actively collaborates with the police.
This is precisely to eradicate the existence of this type of video explicitly on a platform that is for all audiences.

2) Violent (explicit) content

Likewise, this is another reason that you can imagine as obvious and that will be punished (at least) with the expulsion of YouTube as the owner of a channel of its own.
Here all kinds of scenes are contemplated in which violent and bloody acts are staged and which threaten the integrity of the human being or any living being.

3) Cyberbullying

As was the case with your intention to delete your Facebook account, if you upload content where someone else who is intentionally being abused is seen (even if you are not the one who is abusing them), your channel will be deleted.
Similarly, if any other user of this platform warns the YouTube team of this violation, they will do the same.

4) Copyrighted videos

Respecting the authorship of content on the Internet is, for some years now, this party has been particularly persecuted and punished.
And here it wasn’t going to be any less, so if you upload audio or video content that is owned by another person or artist without their express consent, you can also be left without your account.

5) Tagged videos with misleading information

Although this would be the’lightest’ infringement of all, it will not be allowed under the rules of good use of the platform.
In an attempt to better position their content or to encourage “easy clicking”, many users can fill in the tag and metadata spaces with information that does not correspond to the actual content of the tag and metadata.
This will obviously lead to misuse of the social network and a rather poor user experience on it, as they will not find what they are looking for.
Finally, after knowing the most frequent reasons, the time has come to go into the subject and develop the central theme of this article.

How do I delete a video from YouTube?

Given the reasons that can lead us to delete both individual videos or even the entire channel and even the reasons why the appropriate platform could do so, let’s look at how to delete content on this social network:

Login to your account

The first step will be to log in to your channel, in order to perform the following actions that I will mention later.

Go to Creator Studio

Once inside, you must click on the logo of your Brand, where it will be displayed, showing an option called “Creator Studio”.
Entering here, you will access an options panel where, from the options on the left, you must choose “Video Manager”, as shown in the following image:
Screenshot of Channel Dashboard – YouTube Studio

Remove the video you want from your list

In this next step, the platform shows you a list of all the contents you have uploaded to your channel. You will see how to the right of each one there is a small drop-down panel.
Click on it and choose the’Delete video’ option. After a classic verification question, click on accept and you will have succeeded in erasing it.
Screenshot of Channel Videos – YouTube Studio

How to delete or delete a YouTube channel step by step?

Deleting a video from YouTube is a task that can be motivated by various causes and conditions, which we have just reviewed in detail.
If you are sure of it, you can proceed as follows:

1) Login to your channel

The first thing you should do is, as you may be imagining, log in to your own account, logging in as you usually do, from the “Login” option at the top right.
In this way, you will be able to navigate through the options that will be shown and explained below.
Remember, you’ll need to create a Gmail account to sign in to your account, which will be the one you’ll use to sign in to this other Google platform.
Screenshot of YouTube

2) Access the configuration options

Then, once inside, go to the left option panel, where you will see the so-called “Settings”. This is where you come in.
Now, in the “Advanced configuration” section of the panel (you will find it as the last option), you will see a series of instructions to configure the different customizable elements of your channel.
You should look at the last item below, where it says “Delete channel”. As you can imagine, that’s where you’ll have to pay your attention.

3) Confirm your identity

In order to permanently delete your YouTube channel, Google asks you to verify that you are indeed responsible for and managing your account.
And it does this by asking you again for your Google Account password (or for Gmail, Drive, YouTube, etc.). Once you have completed it, click on OK and you will proceed accordingly.

4) Confirm that you want to delete your channel (and not hide it)

This social network has a pre-delete option, which is that, just when you are about to finish the procedure, it allows you to choose between deleting your YouTube account completely or hiding it from other users.
You should weigh this decision carefully, as this decision will also erase the number of subscribers you have, your interactions with other channels, your own subscriptions to other accounts and other activity you have had during the time you have had it active.
If your decision is final, proceed by clicking “Delete my content”.
Your decision to remove your YouTube channel must have a specific motivation to avoid regretting what you are going to do later.
If your videos don’t break the rules and respect copyright, you may need to think about your decision a little.
Also, you can’t forget that your channel is just another way to interact with the rest of the world. Only you can choose the image you want to transmit on the Internet.

Conclusion

Luckily, Google, the company that manages this social network, takes requests to remove individual channels or videos very seriously, so in less than 48 hours you can check that your request has been accomplished. I hope I helped you learn how to remove a YouTube channel. The process is as simple as it is effective in erasing everything you want with efficiency and ease.
And you, why did you decide to delete your account or delete your videos from YouTube permanently? Don’t hesitate to tell us in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.