Fix subscriber notification problems

To comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other laws, notifications are turned off on content set as “Made for kids.” Learn more about setting your audience, and why it’s important to do so accurately.

Troubleshoot notifications

1. Ask viewers to check their settings. Viewer notification settings cause almost all notification issues. Ask viewers to use the notifications troubleshooter if they aren’t getting notifications.
2. Notify subscribers when uploading videos. When uploading a video, keep the box next to “Publish to Subscriptions feed and notify subscribers” on the “Advanced settings” tab checked.
3. Check how often you've posted in the last 24 hours. Viewers can get a maximum of 3 new video notifications from each channel in a 24 hour period. Read more about notification limits below.
4. Avoid publishing videos in bulk. If you publish more than 3 videos in a short time period, we may temporarily stop sending notifications for 24 hours. Publishing videos in bulk can overwhelm subscribers and our notification systems. This hold happens even if all but 1 video is opted out of sending notifications. If you upload a few videos at a time, try uploading them as “Private” first. You can then publish each video at different times.
5. Keep videos public after publishing. It typically takes 10–20 minutes for all notifications to be sent. If you quickly change your video’s privacy setting to “Private” after publishing, we’ll stop sending notifications. 
6. Check if your subscriber count changed drastically just before publishing your video. In these situations, we'll tell all eligible subscribers, but it may seem like less than 100% of subscribers were told due to reporting delays.
7. Check for known issues. In rare instances, there may be issues in delivering notifications. To learn if these issues are happening, check the Known Issues section of the Help Center or the TeamYouTube Twitter handle.
8. Send feedback. If you’ve checked all of the above and subscribers still aren’t getting notifications, send us feedback.

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FAQ

How often can I notify subscribers?

• Viewers can get a maximum of 3 notifications from each channel in a 24 hour period. These notifications include video uploads, live streams, and premieres.
• You can only send 1 Community post notification in a 3 day period.

Why are there notification limits on new videos?

Notifications help viewers get to know their favorite creators. When viewers get too many notifications, they often turn off notifications altogether, which affects all creators. Limiting notifications to 3 new video notifications per channel per 24-hour period helps keep viewers active on YouTube long-term.

Why are some subscribers getting notifications hours after I publish my video?

Personalized notifications are sent at the optimal time for each individual subscriber. This setting might mean that some subscribers who have their notifications set to “Personalized” get their notification hours after you publish your video. We set delivery time to when we think the subscriber is most likely to watch your video after seeing the notification.

Subscribers who choose to get all notifications are typically told within minutes of you publishing a new video.

What does "Personalized" notifications mean?

The definition of “Personalized” differs by person. They're customized to each viewer based on their watch history, when they watch videos from a channel, how popular certain videos are, and when they open notifications.

Why does YouTube have a “Personalized” setting? Why not send all notifications?

Most viewers don’t want to get all notifications. If subscribers feel overwhelmed by the number of notifications they’re getting, they may turn off notifications altogether. 

Personalized notifications help prevent users from turning off all notifications for your channel, or for all channels. They help keep viewers more engaged with notifications long term.

“Personalized” subscribers are still valuable for your channel. These subscribers will see every video that you upload in their subscription feed. This setting distinguishes your videos from millions of other videos on YouTube.

How do live stream notifications work?

Similar to video uploads, notifications for your live stream are sent to subscribers who:

1. Turned on “All notifications” for your channel and
2. Have turned on YouTube notifications for their account and device

If you're using an encoder, notifications are sent to these subscribers after your live stream is made public and we detect that you're Live. For instance, if your live stream is public but we haven’t gotten ingestion from your encoder that you’re Live, we won’t send notifications.

Learn more about live streaming on YouTube.

Why are there multiple viewer notification settings?

Notifications help viewers get to know their favorite creators. We want to give viewers the option to customize their notifications by individual channel or for their whole account.

Some notification settings are outside of YouTube’s control. For example, a subscriber's device setting can override YouTube and prevent notifications from reaching subscribers.

Which settings can impact notifications?

Changes to the following settings are not reflected on individual channel pages.

On the YouTube app or website:

• Account notification settings on a computer: On a computer, viewers can control whether they get email updates and computer notifications from YouTube by going to Settings Notifications. They can also choose whether to get notifications from individual channels as email updates, notifications, both, or neither.
• Account notification settings on mobile: On a mobile device, viewers can turn notifications from subscriptions on or off by going to Settings Notifications.
• Subscription manager on a computer: Subscribers can turn off notifications for individual channels from the subscription manager on a computer.
• Channel settings on mobile: On mobile, viewers can use the Channel settings page under Settings Notifications Channel settings to turn off notifications for individual channels.

On your device:

• Device notification settings: On a mobile device, viewers can turn off YouTube notifications in their device settings. These settings override any YouTube app and account settings.
• Chrome notification settings: On a computer, Chrome users can turn off Chrome notifications in their settings. This setting overrides the YouTube setting for Chrome notifications.

For an overview of all of these settings, check out this video from TeamYouTube.

Why are notifications turned off on “made for kids” content?

To comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other laws, we limit data collection on content designated as made for kids. Certain features may be restricted or turned off on this content, including notifications, and your subscribers will no longer get notifications about your channel. You can learn more about setting your channel or video’s audience here.