Clean up a hacked YouTube channel

If your YouTube channel is hacked, it usually means that hackers made unauthorised changes to your channel and its associated Google Account. After you recover your Google Account, you can start cleaning up your YouTube channel to undo unauthorised changes. There are two ways to clean up your channel:

• Use the cleanup tool in YouTube Studio (limited to channel owners and managers)
• Manually clean up the channel

Use the cleanup tool in YouTube Studio

YouTube Studio's cleanup tool shows a list of unusual activities on your channel so that you can review them all at once and decide what to do next.

When you confirm that a change wasn't made by you, the tool suggests next steps and can correct the change. You can also review channel permissions in the tool so that you can quickly remove access or make adjustments if needed.

Note: Channel owners and managers can use YouTube Studio's cleanup tool. If you don't have access to the cleanup tool, you can manually clean up a hacked channel.

Review unusual activity

On a computer, go to the cleanup tool in YouTube Studio. Click Start review. Note: This notification only appears when we've detected unusual activity on your channel. Check activity: Review the changes listed and tick the box next to the changes that you made. Note: If you made all the changes, you can click I made all changes at the bottom. Click Next. Review plan: Review the actions that we'll take under How we'll fix this. Click Next. Check permissions: Review who has access to your channel. If needed, update roles or remove access. Click Next. Submit: Finish the additional steps listed to complete the clean up of your channel. Click Submit.

What happens next

• We'll make the requested changes as soon as you submit your review. Changes should be made within a few hours.
• You'll get an email with a link to track your clean up request.
• If needed, you can go back to the cleanup tool and edit your review before the date specified in the email, usually 30 days from submission. Bear in mind that you can edit changes that you marked as authorised, but can't undo changes that you marked as unauthorised.

Complete clean up

To complete the clean up of your channel:

• In YouTube Studio, check your Dashboard  page to see if you have got any new Community Guidelines strikes. If you have, contact us to start an investigation.
• Make sure that your information like channel name, handle, profile picture and banner image haven't been changed without your consent.
• Review the latest comments made by your channel.
• Check your playlists, custom thumbnails and the channels that you're subscribed to.
• Review your AdSense and Content Manager settings to make sure that they're still how you want them.
• Take steps to secure your channel to help prevent your channel from being hacked.

Manually clean up a channel

When a YouTube channel is hacked, the most frequent changes hackers make can be found in uploads, channel permissions and channel info. To undo any unauthorised changes:

• Take action on unauthorised uploads
• Remove unknown users
• Restore your channel's basic info and branding

To ensure a thorough review of your channel and its associated Google Account, it's also important to check for other changes that a hacker may have made.

Take action on unauthorised uploads

• If videos uploaded by a hacker have no associated Community Guidelines strikes, copyright strikes or Content ID claims, you should delete them.
• If videos uploaded by a hacker have associated strikes or claims, contact us to start an investigation.

Remove unknown users

• For channels using YouTube Studio: Remove access to your channel

• For Brand Accounts: Remove users from your Brand Account

Restore your channel's basic info and branding

If any of these elements have been changed, it's important to restore them to their original state quickly so that your channel doesn't get permanently suspended for trademark infringement.

• Channel name: Update your channel name.
  • Note: If you're unable to update your channel name, check that any translations are deleted first.
• Handle: Update your channel handle.
• Profile picture: Update your channel profile picture.
• Banner image: Update your channel banner image.

Check for other changes

To make sure your that channel and its associated Google Account are thoroughly reviewed, here are some other things to check:

• Check your video privacy settings. Hackers may change privacy settings so that your existing videos are hidden.
• Review the latest comments made by your channel.
• Check your playlists, custom thumbnails and the channels that you're subscribed to.
• If you have AdSense and Content Manager accounts, check their settings to make sure that they're still how you want them.

 

Tip: To help prevent your channel from being hacked in the future, we recommend that you take additional steps to secure your YouTube channel, such as:

• Turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing
• Set up two-step verification with a passkey
• Add account recovery options

Get additional help from YouTube

If your channel is eligible (for example, if you're in the YouTube Partner Programme), once you recover your Google Account, you can get in touch with the YouTube Creator Support team for help.

If you're not eligible for Creator Support, you can get help from @TeamYouTube on Twitter.