Making a living as a content creator can lead to a very exhausting and long hours schedule life. Even though as a youtuber you hold certain freedom and liberties you don’t possess in other kinds of jobs, recent studies have shown that 71% of content creators have considered quitting social media after experiencing burnout.
So if you are struggling as a creator and decided to stop sharing your life and ideas on YouTube you can either hide or delete your YouTube channel in order to pause your online presence.
How? To hide your YouTube channel go to “Settings”, then click on “Advanced Settings” and then “Remove Content” and then select the option “I Want to hide my channel”. If you want to delete your YouTube channel, follow the same steps: “Settings”, then click on “Advanced Settings” and then “Delete Channel” and lastly select “I want to permanently delete my content”.
Let’s dive into this step by step guide so you can decide what is best for you, your channel and your online strategy!
If you want to take your channel down, you can choose two different ways to go: Hide or Delete. What you choose may vary depending on permanency. Hiding your channel is a more temporary solution while Deleting it is a more permanent one.
If you want to permanently delete your content, here's a simple step by step guide you can follow to delete your YouTube channel.
Log in into your account and then go to “YouTube Studio”. In the left menu go to “Settings”.
Select the “Channel” option and then click on “Advanced Settings”. Scroll down until you see the “Remove Content” option and click on it. You may be asked to sign in into your account again for security reasons.
Click on “I want to permanently delete my content”. Check the two boxes to show that you fully understand the consequences of deleting your channel. Lastly, click on “Delete My Content” to officially delete your channel.
Open your YouTube app and sign in into your account. Then tap on your profile picture and tap on “Manage Your Account”.
Scroll down and go to “Data & Privacy”. Under "Download or delete your data," select "Delete a Google service”. You may be asked to sign in into your account again for security reasons.
Find YouTube on the list and tap the trash bin icon. Select "I want to permanently delete my content". Check the two boxes to show that you fully understand the consequences of deleting your channel. Lastly, click on “Delete My Content” to officially delete your channel.
Deleting your channel is irreversible. Once you do it you will be also permanently deleting all your subscriptions to other channels, comments you made on different videos, your replies and likes on someone else’s comments, your search and watch history. Also any paid subscriptions you owned will be cancelled.
So if you are looking for a more temporary solution, hiding your channel can be the best way to go. When you hide your YouTube channel you’ll be making your online activity private until you decide to re-enable your channel.
Log in into your account and then go to “YouTube Studio”. In the left menu go to “Settings”.
Select the “Channel” option and then click on “Advanced Settings”. Scroll down until you see the “Remove Content” option and click on it. You may be asked to sign in into your account again for security reasons.
Click on “I want to hide my channel”. Check the three boxes to show that you fully understand the consequences of hiding your channel. Lastly, click on “Hide My Channel” to officially hide your channel.
Open your YouTube app and sign in into your account. Then tap on your profile picture and tap on “Manage Your Account”.
Scroll down and go to “Data & Privacy”. Under "Download or delete your data," select "Delete a Google service”. You may be asked to sign in into your account again for security reasons.
Find YouTube on the list and tap the trash bin icon. Select "I want to hide my channel". Check the three boxes to show that you fully understand the consequences of deleting your channel. Lastly, click on “Hide my channel” to officially hide your content.
When hiding your channel you agree to make private your channel names, likes, subscriptions and subscribers until you decide to re-enable your channel. Also, you agree to permanently delete your comments and replies on other videos.
So before deciding what to do with your channel, think about the irreversible changes and the goal you are seeking in order to decide if deleting or hiding is the best way to go.
YouTube is a platform where creators hold a lot of power over their channel and content. However sometimes a youtuber may decide to delete or hide their channel if they feel like not uploading videos anymore, are dealing with a creative crisis or changes on their overall social media strategy.
Here are the most common, personal or strategic, reasons to delete or hide your channel on YouTube:
Having a YouTube channel more than often requires sharing your personal life. If you start getting concerned about the misuse of your content, online safety or data security you may want to take action to protect yourself.
Deleting or hiding your content will help you step out of the public online eye for a while.
The pressure to constantly create and upload videos according to a time schedule can lead to burnout. Also, dealing with negative comments or harassment can really affect your well being.
Stepping away from social media can help maintain a healthier digital balance.
Your content focus may have shifted, making your current channel irrelevant. You can opt to delete your entire channel or start rebranding efforts that may take time and hiding your channel in between can be a good thing to do until you come up with a new social identity.
Trends and audience behavior around your content may shift, making other platforms more suitable for you.
Disagreements with YouTube’s terms of service or ad revenue policies can lead you to delete your channel. Sometimes the constant changes in the algorithm can be frustrating as they impact your reach and engagement which can lead to hiding your content for a while or deleting it all together.
Running a YouTube channel requires time and effort. Sometimes you may not be able to keep up with it in order to create high quality content. Life may get in the way making YouTube a no longer great platform choice for you and your priorities.
Both deleting and hiding your YouTube channel involves irreversible outcomes. So before going for any of these options, take the time to seriously consider the implications. Here are some thighs you can do to safeguard the time and effort you put into your content.
Before deleting or hiding your channel, select the videos and playlist you don’t want to lose and download them to keep a copy of your work
If you delete your channel, all your monetization opportunities, including ad revenue, super chats and memberships, will no longer be available as deleting your channel removes your eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program.
If you hide your channel, monetization opportunities will be paused, but you can reactivate them later once you re-enable your channel.
In both scenarios, if you have active earnings or pending AdSense payments, these do not immediately disappear. Instead, they remain in your Google AdSense account until payout.
If you want to learn more about monetization opportunities, go check our guide on CPM & RPM to understand YouTube’s Ad Revenue!
Deleted channels cannot be recovered. Once removed, all videos, comments, and data are gone.
Hidden channels can be restored by signing in and reactivating them in YouTube Studio.
Deleting or hiding your YouTube channel impacts only your YouTube presence. Any other Google service you own, like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos will not be affected.
When you delete your YouTube channel you are deleting your videos, comments, messages, playlists and watch history. The rest of your Google Account will remain untouched.
When you hide your YouTube channel you are making your videos, playlists and channel details private for a while. The rest of your Google services will continue to function as usual.
Quick note: Always make sure you have backed up any important data before making significant changes to your accounts.
Once you delete your YouTube account there’s no way back. All your content including videos, comments, playlists and subscriptions will be removed permanently.
Nonetheless, here are some things to keep in mind while deleting your channel:
Recovering a deleted channel is in most cases something impossible to do. So think carefully about it before making the decision. If you are uncertain, consider hiding your channel or unlisting some videos instead.
If you want to delete your channel but can’t do it, here are some possible reasons and ways to fix them:
In order to permanently delete a channel you must be the Primary Owner. If you are a part of a YouTube Brand Account with different owners you may not have the necessary permissions to delete the channel.
You can go to Google Account Settings and check and manage your permissions.
If you have an outdated version of YouTube, some options may not be available. So clear your, try a new browser cache and update YouTube Studio to see the whole menu of options.
If your account isn’t verified, you might face restrictions when trying to delete your channel. Make sure your account is fully verified by following YouTube’s verification process.
If your account has an active Premium subscription this might prevent deletion. Cancel any active subscriptions before attempting to delete your channel.
Sometimes there can be temporary bugs or maintenance periods interfering with some functionalities. When this happens, you can try again later or contact the YouTube Support Team.
If you can’t decide between hiding or deleting your channel but you do want to make some changes with less irreversible outcomes, here are some things you can do to avoid deleting or hiding your channel.
Instead of entirely deleting your channel, consider a rebranding strategy. If you feel like your channel it’s not working or you are struggling to grow, don’t erase all your hard work. Try to re-name your channel, play with different titles and thumbnails, explore different content types and strategies to make some changes.
If you want to take a step down from social media exposure, before permanently deleting your content you can choose to unlist or make your videos private. This way you don’t erase them and get to keep them on the platform but only for yourself.
If you are struggling with your mental health due to a violent or demanding audience, you can disable comments in order to reduce the interaction with your audience for the period of time you consider.
If you're considering deleting or hiding your YouTube channel, it’s often due to a personal, strategic, or policy-related reason. Before going to drastic measures with irreversible consequences, think about what you want right now and what you may want in the future.
Explore different possibilities and take care of your content before it is forever gone. If you want to permanently erase your online presence, delete your channel and be over with it. But if you are trying to get a time off to renew your strategy, hiding your content will give you that space until you are ready to come back to it without having to start from zero.
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