Review older Youtube-hosted videos
In July 2021, Google made an important security update to videos hosted on Youtube. Any videos that were uploaded prior to 2017 yet marked “unlisted” are now marked “private.”
If you have videos or playlists dating back further than the past four years, we recommend checking your website where the video is linked or embedded. If the video is affected by this change, you will see a message on Youtube instead of the expected video:
This video is private.
How to recover a video marked private
In order to restore your video, you will need to find the now-private video on its Youtube channel, and change its status to “Unlisted” or “Public.” This will make the video available again, though the video may have a new link once this change is made.
Unfortunately, when a video is marked private, Youtube will not disclose what channel the private video is a part of. You will need to check channels for which you have access in order to find the video. If you know that the video in question is on an official UMaine/UMM channel, you may reach out to us here in Marketing & Communications and we will attempt to locate the video on the channels we help maintain.
Hosting videos on your Youtube user account? Consider creating a channel
If your Youtube-hosted videos are stored on your own Youtube account (meaning your user name appears as the video’s owner), consider creating a channel for your videos. Content that is stored on Youtube will eventually disappear if it is only stored on an individual user’s account, should that account be turned off one day. Channels, on the other hand, may have multiple administrators, and channel ownership can be passed from one person to another without disrupting the video availability.