Revisiting Youtube’s Archive: Two Proven Watch Strategies

How to Watch Deleted YouTube Videos Online in 2 Ways | Ultimate Guide

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube features a wide variety of corporate and user-generated content ranging from music to DIY videos. Along with all this massive inflow, there are scenarios where the video content that you like or wanted to watch gets deleted for any reason. Either the uploading channel deleted the video, or YouTube sometimes deletes videos for violating any of the platform’s rules – showing the dismal message “We’re sorry, this video is no longer available”. You’ll be thinking it is probably impossible to access deleted YouTube videos that you wanted to watch so badly. Though it may be true to some extent, in reality, nothing gets deleted from the internet. To help you watch deleted YouTube videos, we’ll dive into the two most handy methods down below. So, let get started.

You might be interested in How to Make a Playlist of Uploaded Videos and Others’ Video on YouTube>>>

• Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL
• Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL
• Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare FilmoraX

Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL

Internet Archive(known as the Wayback Machine) is a website archival system that has been collecting and cataloging websites since 1996. This means the system has effectively saved the site’s current layout and data. This enormous world archive of the Web’s past has amassed over 100 terabytes of storage with around 10 billion web pages.

On the archive.org website, you can find many of your favorite web site’s “snapshot” at a time in the past. For our case, we need to find and watch deleted YouTube videos, so for that, all we need is the link of the video, and we can most probably find it on archive.org. The steps for finding and restoring deleted YouTube videos are simple and as follows.

1. First of all, find the URL in your YouTube email, channel account if you’re searching for your uploaded video. You can find the link in browser history, in YouTube history, or you may have shared the link on social media.

If you want to watch a deleted YouTube video using the Wayback Machine, you must find the link to the video you want to access; without the URL, you won’t be able to access the deleted YouTube video.

2. Head over to the archive.org website and paste the YouTube video URL in the search bar and press return.

3. Once you find your video on the internet archive, you can see the details of the video.

4. You won’t be able to play the video directly, but you should be able to download it. Right, click the video to find the option to download the video.

This method works mostly as the Wayback machine is pretty active and regularly crawls the web to archive the sites. But sometimes, this method may not work and would require a more sophisticated way to watch deleted YouTube videos.

Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL

But what if you don’t have a URL for the deleted YouTube video? The internet is a global village network. Everything on the internet is connected, and that connection makes it more useful for example, even though a YouTube video might be deleted, you can somehow access and watch the deleted YouTube videos without a URL because people always replicate videos and share them on other YouTube channels or social media platforms. To make sure you get to watch your favorite YouTube video again, we will dive into the vast internet and find the deleted YouTube videos.

This method can be a bit complicated and would require you to give full attention to find the video you want to watch that badly that you’ve landed on this article.

1. Open a new tab in your browser and go to the Google search bar. We’re going to employ a technique from the SEO expert’s toolbox – Google Search Operators.

2. In the search bar, type “site:www.youtube.com + name Of TheVideo”

3. This way Google will crawl all the name relevant videos only from the YouTube databases and move us closer to finding our deleted YouTube video.

4. If you know the video was shared by someone on Facebook or any other social media platform, you can change the site URL in the search bar, replacing YouTube with Facebook, for example.

5. Once you find the video URL, you can simply go back to the first method that we discussed and paste the URL into the internet archive. The archive will give you the video and you can enjoy watching a deleted YouTube video.

Note: If you still cannot find the video using this method, I’m sorry to tell you the video may be completely deleted from the server, and you cannot access it anymore.

Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

Want to make a YouTube video again? Wondershare Filmora is a relatively lightweight and powerful platform you get an intuitive interface and the power to create wonderful, unique content. To help you make your own YouTube video with Filmora, we’ll go through a short introduction of the flow and features first:

• Organize media with folders and projects
• Cutting and trimming raw footage
• Unlimited Layering
• Visual effects and filters
• Attach/detach audio and music
• Add creative text and icons with a wide range of templates to choose from
• Advanced color correction tools
• Export videos to YouTube directly and support various output formats

Make a YouTube video with several clicks using Wondershare Filmora:

1. Download and install Wondershare Filmora on your computer by tapping the download wizard below. Remember to join the Wondershare Video Community to connect with other video creators.

2. Launch Wondershare Filmora, add your videos to the Media Library. And you’ll also be greeted with a sleek and simple interface with controls for everything such as transitions, titles, layering clips, soundtrack, and more.

3. Add your video to the timeline, then go to the Titles tab, and you will see hundreds of titles and text templates. Select the template you love and add it to the video.

4. Then you can also go to the Effects tab and apply astonishing filters to the video

5. Once you’re done, you can click Export and upload your video to YouTube directly.

The free version will have a watermark on the exported video.

There’s nothing more delightful than to put your skills to work and save time by using Filmora. The time you save can be put into making more content and editing videos to boast of your creativity to friends.

Conclusion

YouTube has immersed so much in our day-to-day life that on average a mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 mins. To satiate our thirst for video content, YouTube has become the sole free platform. But even if your favorite song or movie gets deleted, you don’t have to worry as I’ve compiled the best solution to watch deleted YouTube videos and even be able to restore deleted YouTube videos to relish watching them with your friends and family. Leave your comments below if you love this article.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube features a wide variety of corporate and user-generated content ranging from music to DIY videos. Along with all this massive inflow, there are scenarios where the video content that you like or wanted to watch gets deleted for any reason. Either the uploading channel deleted the video, or YouTube sometimes deletes videos for violating any of the platform’s rules – showing the dismal message “We’re sorry, this video is no longer available”. You’ll be thinking it is probably impossible to access deleted YouTube videos that you wanted to watch so badly. Though it may be true to some extent, in reality, nothing gets deleted from the internet. To help you watch deleted YouTube videos, we’ll dive into the two most handy methods down below. So, let get started.

You might be interested in How to Make a Playlist of Uploaded Videos and Others’ Video on YouTube>>>

• Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL
• Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL
• Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare FilmoraX

Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL

Internet Archive(known as the Wayback Machine) is a website archival system that has been collecting and cataloging websites since 1996. This means the system has effectively saved the site’s current layout and data. This enormous world archive of the Web’s past has amassed over 100 terabytes of storage with around 10 billion web pages.

On the archive.org website, you can find many of your favorite web site’s “snapshot” at a time in the past. For our case, we need to find and watch deleted YouTube videos, so for that, all we need is the link of the video, and we can most probably find it on archive.org. The steps for finding and restoring deleted YouTube videos are simple and as follows.

1. First of all, find the URL in your YouTube email, channel account if you’re searching for your uploaded video. You can find the link in browser history, in YouTube history, or you may have shared the link on social media.

If you want to watch a deleted YouTube video using the Wayback Machine, you must find the link to the video you want to access; without the URL, you won’t be able to access the deleted YouTube video.

2. Head over to the archive.org website and paste the YouTube video URL in the search bar and press return.

3. Once you find your video on the internet archive, you can see the details of the video.

4. You won’t be able to play the video directly, but you should be able to download it. Right, click the video to find the option to download the video.

This method works mostly as the Wayback machine is pretty active and regularly crawls the web to archive the sites. But sometimes, this method may not work and would require a more sophisticated way to watch deleted YouTube videos.

Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL

But what if you don’t have a URL for the deleted YouTube video? The internet is a global village network. Everything on the internet is connected, and that connection makes it more useful for example, even though a YouTube video might be deleted, you can somehow access and watch the deleted YouTube videos without a URL because people always replicate videos and share them on other YouTube channels or social media platforms. To make sure you get to watch your favorite YouTube video again, we will dive into the vast internet and find the deleted YouTube videos.

This method can be a bit complicated and would require you to give full attention to find the video you want to watch that badly that you’ve landed on this article.

1. Open a new tab in your browser and go to the Google search bar. We’re going to employ a technique from the SEO expert’s toolbox – Google Search Operators.

2. In the search bar, type “site:www.youtube.com + name Of TheVideo”

3. This way Google will crawl all the name relevant videos only from the YouTube databases and move us closer to finding our deleted YouTube video.

4. If you know the video was shared by someone on Facebook or any other social media platform, you can change the site URL in the search bar, replacing YouTube with Facebook, for example.

5. Once you find the video URL, you can simply go back to the first method that we discussed and paste the URL into the internet archive. The archive will give you the video and you can enjoy watching a deleted YouTube video.

Note: If you still cannot find the video using this method, I’m sorry to tell you the video may be completely deleted from the server, and you cannot access it anymore.

Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

Want to make a YouTube video again? Wondershare Filmora is a relatively lightweight and powerful platform you get an intuitive interface and the power to create wonderful, unique content. To help you make your own YouTube video with Filmora, we’ll go through a short introduction of the flow and features first:

• Organize media with folders and projects
• Cutting and trimming raw footage
• Unlimited Layering
• Visual effects and filters
• Attach/detach audio and music
• Add creative text and icons with a wide range of templates to choose from
• Advanced color correction tools
• Export videos to YouTube directly and support various output formats

Make a YouTube video with several clicks using Wondershare Filmora:

1. Download and install Wondershare Filmora on your computer by tapping the download wizard below. Remember to join the Wondershare Video Community to connect with other video creators.

2. Launch Wondershare Filmora, add your videos to the Media Library. And you’ll also be greeted with a sleek and simple interface with controls for everything such as transitions, titles, layering clips, soundtrack, and more.

3. Add your video to the timeline, then go to the Titles tab, and you will see hundreds of titles and text templates. Select the template you love and add it to the video.

4. Then you can also go to the Effects tab and apply astonishing filters to the video

5. Once you’re done, you can click Export and upload your video to YouTube directly.

The free version will have a watermark on the exported video.

There’s nothing more delightful than to put your skills to work and save time by using Filmora. The time you save can be put into making more content and editing videos to boast of your creativity to friends.

Conclusion

YouTube has immersed so much in our day-to-day life that on average a mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 mins. To satiate our thirst for video content, YouTube has become the sole free platform. But even if your favorite song or movie gets deleted, you don’t have to worry as I’ve compiled the best solution to watch deleted YouTube videos and even be able to restore deleted YouTube videos to relish watching them with your friends and family. Leave your comments below if you love this article.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube features a wide variety of corporate and user-generated content ranging from music to DIY videos. Along with all this massive inflow, there are scenarios where the video content that you like or wanted to watch gets deleted for any reason. Either the uploading channel deleted the video, or YouTube sometimes deletes videos for violating any of the platform’s rules – showing the dismal message “We’re sorry, this video is no longer available”. You’ll be thinking it is probably impossible to access deleted YouTube videos that you wanted to watch so badly. Though it may be true to some extent, in reality, nothing gets deleted from the internet. To help you watch deleted YouTube videos, we’ll dive into the two most handy methods down below. So, let get started.

You might be interested in How to Make a Playlist of Uploaded Videos and Others’ Video on YouTube>>>

• Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL
• Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL
• Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare FilmoraX

Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL

Internet Archive(known as the Wayback Machine) is a website archival system that has been collecting and cataloging websites since 1996. This means the system has effectively saved the site’s current layout and data. This enormous world archive of the Web’s past has amassed over 100 terabytes of storage with around 10 billion web pages.

On the archive.org website, you can find many of your favorite web site’s “snapshot” at a time in the past. For our case, we need to find and watch deleted YouTube videos, so for that, all we need is the link of the video, and we can most probably find it on archive.org. The steps for finding and restoring deleted YouTube videos are simple and as follows.

1. First of all, find the URL in your YouTube email, channel account if you’re searching for your uploaded video. You can find the link in browser history, in YouTube history, or you may have shared the link on social media.

If you want to watch a deleted YouTube video using the Wayback Machine, you must find the link to the video you want to access; without the URL, you won’t be able to access the deleted YouTube video.

2. Head over to the archive.org website and paste the YouTube video URL in the search bar and press return.

3. Once you find your video on the internet archive, you can see the details of the video.

4. You won’t be able to play the video directly, but you should be able to download it. Right, click the video to find the option to download the video.

This method works mostly as the Wayback machine is pretty active and regularly crawls the web to archive the sites. But sometimes, this method may not work and would require a more sophisticated way to watch deleted YouTube videos.

Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL

But what if you don’t have a URL for the deleted YouTube video? The internet is a global village network. Everything on the internet is connected, and that connection makes it more useful for example, even though a YouTube video might be deleted, you can somehow access and watch the deleted YouTube videos without a URL because people always replicate videos and share them on other YouTube channels or social media platforms. To make sure you get to watch your favorite YouTube video again, we will dive into the vast internet and find the deleted YouTube videos.

This method can be a bit complicated and would require you to give full attention to find the video you want to watch that badly that you’ve landed on this article.

1. Open a new tab in your browser and go to the Google search bar. We’re going to employ a technique from the SEO expert’s toolbox – Google Search Operators.

2. In the search bar, type “site:www.youtube.com + name Of TheVideo”

3. This way Google will crawl all the name relevant videos only from the YouTube databases and move us closer to finding our deleted YouTube video.

4. If you know the video was shared by someone on Facebook or any other social media platform, you can change the site URL in the search bar, replacing YouTube with Facebook, for example.

5. Once you find the video URL, you can simply go back to the first method that we discussed and paste the URL into the internet archive. The archive will give you the video and you can enjoy watching a deleted YouTube video.

Note: If you still cannot find the video using this method, I’m sorry to tell you the video may be completely deleted from the server, and you cannot access it anymore.

Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

Want to make a YouTube video again? Wondershare Filmora is a relatively lightweight and powerful platform you get an intuitive interface and the power to create wonderful, unique content. To help you make your own YouTube video with Filmora, we’ll go through a short introduction of the flow and features first:

• Organize media with folders and projects
• Cutting and trimming raw footage
• Unlimited Layering
• Visual effects and filters
• Attach/detach audio and music
• Add creative text and icons with a wide range of templates to choose from
• Advanced color correction tools
• Export videos to YouTube directly and support various output formats

Make a YouTube video with several clicks using Wondershare Filmora:

1. Download and install Wondershare Filmora on your computer by tapping the download wizard below. Remember to join the Wondershare Video Community to connect with other video creators.

2. Launch Wondershare Filmora, add your videos to the Media Library. And you’ll also be greeted with a sleek and simple interface with controls for everything such as transitions, titles, layering clips, soundtrack, and more.

3. Add your video to the timeline, then go to the Titles tab, and you will see hundreds of titles and text templates. Select the template you love and add it to the video.

4. Then you can also go to the Effects tab and apply astonishing filters to the video

5. Once you’re done, you can click Export and upload your video to YouTube directly.

The free version will have a watermark on the exported video.

There’s nothing more delightful than to put your skills to work and save time by using Filmora. The time you save can be put into making more content and editing videos to boast of your creativity to friends.

Conclusion

YouTube has immersed so much in our day-to-day life that on average a mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 mins. To satiate our thirst for video content, YouTube has become the sole free platform. But even if your favorite song or movie gets deleted, you don’t have to worry as I’ve compiled the best solution to watch deleted YouTube videos and even be able to restore deleted YouTube videos to relish watching them with your friends and family. Leave your comments below if you love this article.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube features a wide variety of corporate and user-generated content ranging from music to DIY videos. Along with all this massive inflow, there are scenarios where the video content that you like or wanted to watch gets deleted for any reason. Either the uploading channel deleted the video, or YouTube sometimes deletes videos for violating any of the platform’s rules – showing the dismal message “We’re sorry, this video is no longer available”. You’ll be thinking it is probably impossible to access deleted YouTube videos that you wanted to watch so badly. Though it may be true to some extent, in reality, nothing gets deleted from the internet. To help you watch deleted YouTube videos, we’ll dive into the two most handy methods down below. So, let get started.

You might be interested in How to Make a Playlist of Uploaded Videos and Others’ Video on YouTube>>>

• Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL
• Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL
• Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare FilmoraX

Part 1: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos with a URL

Internet Archive(known as the Wayback Machine) is a website archival system that has been collecting and cataloging websites since 1996. This means the system has effectively saved the site’s current layout and data. This enormous world archive of the Web’s past has amassed over 100 terabytes of storage with around 10 billion web pages.

On the archive.org website, you can find many of your favorite web site’s “snapshot” at a time in the past. For our case, we need to find and watch deleted YouTube videos, so for that, all we need is the link of the video, and we can most probably find it on archive.org. The steps for finding and restoring deleted YouTube videos are simple and as follows.

1. First of all, find the URL in your YouTube email, channel account if you’re searching for your uploaded video. You can find the link in browser history, in YouTube history, or you may have shared the link on social media.

If you want to watch a deleted YouTube video using the Wayback Machine, you must find the link to the video you want to access; without the URL, you won’t be able to access the deleted YouTube video.

2. Head over to the archive.org website and paste the YouTube video URL in the search bar and press return.

3. Once you find your video on the internet archive, you can see the details of the video.

4. You won’t be able to play the video directly, but you should be able to download it. Right, click the video to find the option to download the video.

This method works mostly as the Wayback machine is pretty active and regularly crawls the web to archive the sites. But sometimes, this method may not work and would require a more sophisticated way to watch deleted YouTube videos.

Part 2: Watch Deleted YouTube Videos without a URL

But what if you don’t have a URL for the deleted YouTube video? The internet is a global village network. Everything on the internet is connected, and that connection makes it more useful for example, even though a YouTube video might be deleted, you can somehow access and watch the deleted YouTube videos without a URL because people always replicate videos and share them on other YouTube channels or social media platforms. To make sure you get to watch your favorite YouTube video again, we will dive into the vast internet and find the deleted YouTube videos.

This method can be a bit complicated and would require you to give full attention to find the video you want to watch that badly that you’ve landed on this article.

1. Open a new tab in your browser and go to the Google search bar. We’re going to employ a technique from the SEO expert’s toolbox – Google Search Operators.

2. In the search bar, type “site:www.youtube.com + name Of TheVideo”

3. This way Google will crawl all the name relevant videos only from the YouTube databases and move us closer to finding our deleted YouTube video.

4. If you know the video was shared by someone on Facebook or any other social media platform, you can change the site URL in the search bar, replacing YouTube with Facebook, for example.

5. Once you find the video URL, you can simply go back to the first method that we discussed and paste the URL into the internet archive. The archive will give you the video and you can enjoy watching a deleted YouTube video.

Note: If you still cannot find the video using this method, I’m sorry to tell you the video may be completely deleted from the server, and you cannot access it anymore.

Part 3: Bonus Tip—Make Your Own YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

Want to make a YouTube video again? Wondershare Filmora is a relatively lightweight and powerful platform you get an intuitive interface and the power to create wonderful, unique content. To help you make your own YouTube video with Filmora, we’ll go through a short introduction of the flow and features first:

• Organize media with folders and projects
• Cutting and trimming raw footage
• Unlimited Layering
• Visual effects and filters
• Attach/detach audio and music
• Add creative text and icons with a wide range of templates to choose from
• Advanced color correction tools
• Export videos to YouTube directly and support various output formats

Make a YouTube video with several clicks using Wondershare Filmora:

1. Download and install Wondershare Filmora on your computer by tapping the download wizard below. Remember to join the Wondershare Video Community to connect with other video creators.

2. Launch Wondershare Filmora, add your videos to the Media Library. And you’ll also be greeted with a sleek and simple interface with controls for everything such as transitions, titles, layering clips, soundtrack, and more.

3. Add your video to the timeline, then go to the Titles tab, and you will see hundreds of titles and text templates. Select the template you love and add it to the video.

4. Then you can also go to the Effects tab and apply astonishing filters to the video

5. Once you’re done, you can click Export and upload your video to YouTube directly.

The free version will have a watermark on the exported video.

There’s nothing more delightful than to put your skills to work and save time by using Filmora. The time you save can be put into making more content and editing videos to boast of your creativity to friends.

Conclusion

YouTube has immersed so much in our day-to-day life that on average a mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 mins. To satiate our thirst for video content, YouTube has become the sole free platform. But even if your favorite song or movie gets deleted, you don’t have to worry as I’ve compiled the best solution to watch deleted YouTube videos and even be able to restore deleted YouTube videos to relish watching them with your friends and family. Leave your comments below if you love this article.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

The Inner Workings of YouTube’s System After an Upload

How Does YouTube Work After a Video Is Uploaded

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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