YouTube Shorts

Admitted ShootFeed users, including invited early-access beta testers, connect YouTube directly in Settings → Profiles. There is no separate YouTube beta application, owner acceptance or Google test-user invitation. Add your channel handle, review the displayed connection terms and authorize the intended channel through Google. The selected Google account must manage that channel. Normal workspace membership and current app access still apply.

Existing beta connections with the original upload, channel-read and Analytics permissions can use the same visibility choices without another YouTube acceptance or reconnect solely for visibility. The owner can still revoke app or workspace access. An old access-request record is not required for normal YouTube use, and prior requests and correspondence are retained as history.

Use the small info tip beside the YouTube account field to find your handle at [youtube.com/handle](https://www.youtube.com/handle), or the channel ID under YouTube Settings → Advanced settings. The @handle is enough. See [YouTube’s channel URL guide](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6180214) and [channel ID guide](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3250431).

Use Settings → Profiles → Add Account to choose YouTube and enter the intended channel's @handle or channel ID. Review and accept the linked ShootFeed Privacy Policy, ShootFeed Terms and YouTube Terms, then authorize the exact channel through Google. ShootFeed verifies ownership and channel identity; a Google sign-in alone does not connect the channel. Uploading also requires the authorization to identify one unambiguous channel matching your selection. If it identifies multiple channels, reconnect and choose the intended channel in Google before uploading. Upload permission, channel/status read access and non-monetary Analytics access are separate from Google Drive. Connecting a channel does not select it automatically on posts.

In either post editor, YouTube Shorts is hidden for photo-only or multiple-video posts. A convertible single-video Post shows the connected channel choice muted with Choose Video to enable YouTube Shorts. Select Video, then select the intended connected YouTube channel. The still cover is not uploaded as a YouTube photo post. Native YouTube photos and carousels are not supported.

Choose YouTube visibility, then complete YouTube title, YouTube caption, Made for kids?, and Realistic altered or synthetic content?. The two audience/disclosure choices begin unselected and require an explicit Yes or No. Publishing choices save automatically and report failures. Title and caption edits in either editor stay as drafts until Save Changes. Neither action uploads the video. Use a square or vertical MP4, at most three minutes and 1 GB for this pilot. ShootFeed does not automatically crop, trim, or combine media into a Short. Use audio you have rights to publish on YouTube; permission to use music inside another platform may not transfer.

Choose Connect in Profiles without submitting a separate channel-access request. The channel owner still completes Google authorization and the displayed privacy consent. Availability depends on current workspace access; a Google approval or an existing beta connection does not enable public uploads by itself. A currently admitted workspace can connect its first account while its profile is still being set up; publishing starts only after that profile is configured. The private-beta sign-in rules remain in effect until ShootFeed opens broader app access.

Visibility starts Private. Admitted users, including early-access beta testers, can choose Unlisted (anyone with the link) or Public before approving or scheduling that YouTube upload. A private YouTube upload is not a publicly posted video. A successful transfer alone does not prove public publication or native Shorts classification. ShootFeed records distinct public and unlisted outcomes only after verifying processing and the exact chosen visibility. Unlisted is not publicly listed. Shorts classification still needs verification in YouTube. Once uploaded, use YouTube Studio to change visibility; do not upload a second video just to change privacy. An upload that has started locks its YouTube settings. For a lost response or uncertain result, inspect the actual YouTube result and contact support before another attempt; do not create a duplicate upload blindly.

When the shared daily YouTube upload allowance is full, ShootFeed keeps the publication queued until the next midnight Pacific reset. This wait happens before a new YouTube upload is created. Existing uploads resume from their saved session; uncertain upload attempts are held for review instead of creating another copy. Disconnecting a channel does not restore already-used daily capacity.

YouTube is included in Performance for eligible connected channels. Current video counts and available daily analytics appear in Posts, Best Times and Audience; daily reports can lag and do not imply public visibility. The report path for verified connections requests views, engaged views, likes, comments, shares, watch time, average viewing duration/percentage and subscriber changes for the exact connected channel. Permission configuration is not proof an actual report is available. Reports can lag, missing days are unavailable rather than zero, and views and engaged views are distinct. A negative daily likes value is kept as reported and does not discard the rest of the report. The derived daily interaction count stays unavailable for that day; current video likes come from the separate video-statistics response. Revenue reports are not requested. The preview does not offer YouTube Best Times, audience breakdowns, or a Shorts-classification indicator.

Disconnect the channel in ShootFeed or revoke its access through your Google Account to stop future access. Existing uploaded videos remain in YouTube until you manage them there. ShootFeed stores encrypted connection credentials and private upload/status records, and uses requested Google data only for the chosen features. YouTube API data is not sold, used for advertising, or used to train generalized AI models. Disconnect removes saved YouTube API data and usable local credentials for that profile. A confirmed invalid Google grant removes its saved account authorization and provider data. The existing publisher checks due authorizations in bounded steps and removes unrefreshed API receipt/session data after 25 days, even with the YouTube feature paused. A temporary provider outage does not prove revocation. An opaque blocked application record remains to prevent duplicate uploads. Cleanup also prevents reconnecting from silently creating another YouTube upload for the same post. Verify the actual destination before creating and approving a new post if another upload is needed. Account export includes non-secret upload records, excluding tokens and resumable capability URLs. For export/deletion or an uncertain upload, contact support without sending credentials or authorization links. When YouTube access is revoked and ShootFeed has removed the saved channel identity, Reconnect opens the connection notice and Google authorization without asking you to type the handle again. Choose the intended channel in Google; ShootFeed verifies one unambiguous authorized channel. If it is already attached to this profile, an unused setup row reuses that connection rather than creating another connected copy. Authorization returns to the exact account row. Reconnecting does not restore erased receipts, reset used upload capacity, or republish earlier posts.

Both editors offer a regular YouTube account button for the connected channel and eligible video. Title, description, visibility, audience and disclosure settings remain below those buttons. A channel selection saves a draft choice, not approval or publication. The verified @handle is shown when available; the stable channel ID remains the internal authorization/publishing identity and fallback label. Changing the display does not change the channel.

## Editing publishing choices and captions

The post format control labels are Video and Carousel. A video uses the Reel publishing mode internally; YouTube Shorts remains unavailable for photo-only or multi-video carousels.

YouTube Shorts publishing is a compact accordion in Accounts, visible only when a connected YouTube account is selected for that post. It contains visibility, Made for kids, and realistic altered or synthetic content choices. Instagram and TikTok publishing use the same compact nested accordion treatment, with their logos before the titles.

The writing section stays named Captions, including when YouTube is selected. Expand YouTube there to edit Title and Caption. Its caption starts from the Instagram caption. In Settings → Captions, Default YouTube Shorts title (optional) supplies a separate Smart Text pattern for connected YouTube channels, in both One caption and Individual modes. It supports All Profiles and profile overrides. A configured pattern can use credited names, including a chosen role, without AI. Leave it blank to retain suggested titles: with automatic AI captions enabled, named subject/model mentions supply the title, rather than photographer credits. Titles stay within 100 characters, and a custom post title or caption is preserved during automatic refreshes.

Generate (or Regenerate) reuses the shared caption generation preview, without a separate YouTube model request. The title uses the configured Shorts title pattern when present, otherwise named subjects or the first caption line, within YouTube's title limit. When available, the video speech context and representative frames improve the draft. Unavailable analysis falls back to visual context; generation does not infer unsupported dialogue, change disclosures, or publish. Mentions Only removes written prose and retains that platform's included mentions and credits. This action is local and does not ask the AI to generate replacement text. Apply to All is a separate explicit action and includes the selected YouTube caption in both directions. Review the drafts, then use Save Changes.

Settings → Publishing → YouTube Shorts supplies starting visibility, audience and synthetic-content choices for new drafts in the selected profile. The section is shown only when an eligible YouTube or TikTok account is connected to an active profile, and it contains only connected platforms. Private and Choose for each video are the initial safe values. Existing defaults are preserved. Saving does not backfill posts, select YouTube automatically, or change account access. A connected account's Set publishing defaults button opens the matching profile/platform here. Save publishing defaults records that exact account's review; another account still needs its own review. Defaults are shared by same-platform accounts within a profile, while review reminders are per account.

A post without selected platforms shows an Add account action in the card planner. In the detail editor, Add account to profile opens the profile’s settings when no connected destination is available. Select at least one account appears only when account choices are available but none are selected.

The Accounts section groups these controls under Publishing settings, followed by Video/Carousel and the selected platforms in the profile’s account order. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts use matching header heights, chevrons, separators and spacing. YouTube visibility appears as a chip beside its title; its writing row uses the same readiness dot and generation-button styling as other caption rows.

The YouTube caption field shares the other caption fields’ three-row minimum, automatic growth and undo/redo behavior. Its visible labels are simply Title and Caption.

The inline caption editor uses the same platform switcher for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. YouTube adds a compact Video title input above the shared caption field, with Video title (required) as its placeholder and no extra label row. Title and caption changes, generation, Mentions Only, Apply to All, and Undo/Redo use the regular draft workflow. YouTube requires a non-empty title for upload; unfinished drafts may still be saved without it. See [YouTube’s upload requirements](https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos/insert#errors).

When YouTube is selected, a video title is required before approving the whole post. Approve appears muted until the title is valid. On desktop, hovering or keyboard focus on Approve opens a compact explanation popup. On mobile, tap the muted Approve button to see it. The popup is centered on the card, slightly narrower than it, and appears above or below the buttons to fit the screen. It closes when the pointer leaves, on an outside tap, Escape or scrolling. Showing the explanation never approves or changes the post. Add and save the title in YouTube captions, or remove YouTube if it is not an intended destination. Draft saving still accepts an unfinished title. Bulk approval stops before approving any posts if a pending YouTube post has a missing or invalid title; it identifies that post instead of approving only its other platforms.

YouTube’s caption (its video description) is optional. In the detail editor, use the switch beside YouTube in Captions to include or omit it. Turning it off keeps the saved text for later and uploads an empty description. The required Title remains editable, and an empty title still shows Needs Review and blocks approval even when the caption is off. Title generation remains available while the caption is off. This switch uses the existing per-post caption preferences and does not change selected platforms or other captions. See [YouTube’s upload reference](https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos/insert#errors) and [required upload interface](https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/required-minimum-functionality#uploading-videos).

Changing Video/Carousel keeps your selected accounts. YouTube Shorts requires Video; ShootFeed’s Reddit destination requires Carousel. A previously selected incompatible account keeps its accent highlight with a muted appearance and can be removed. Media delivery shows Format Needs Review and the affected platform. Choose a compatible format or remove that destination before approving or publishing; incomplete drafts remain saveable. Switching back restores the existing selection. Other platforms keep their existing video/carousel delivery rules, and Media delivery explains any omitted media or crop adjustments.

For a private uploaded video, Review private YouTube video opens that exact video in YouTube. Sign in to the channel owner account to view private content. The review message shows the verified channel handle, and I made it public is for confirming an actual public publication after review. A private upload is not a reason to send a second copy of the video.

Access renewal happens automatically through the existing publisher worker. ShootFeed refreshes expiring access and verifies the selected channel before saving renewed access. A prematurely rejected token gets one refresh attempt before reconnect is requested. Temporary outages retain authorization for retry. Unrecoverable account access creates a notification with the recovery action; an application service problem directs the owner to support. Healthy connections do not show a manual Renew access shortcut. This does not change publishing approval or permit a duplicate upload.

Approved YouTube schedules reserve publishing availability for each selected channel. If a day is fully booked, choose another date before confirming. An unavailable change leaves the previous saved schedule intact. Cancelling an unstarted post releases its place; an upload already started keeps its duplicate-prevention record.

## A video removed in YouTube

If the authorized channel is verified but YouTube no longer returns a published video, ShootFeed treats that destination as unavailable instead of telling you that channel permission is missing. Deletion and other causes of inaccessibility are not distinguished without evidence. The ShootFeed post and duplicate-prevention history stay intact. Saved performance figures remain historical; ShootFeed does not upload another copy automatically.