YouTube

ChannelForge uploads each episode to your YouTube channel as a Short, with its title, description, tags and hashtags, on the channel's slots or when you press Post now. YouTube is in every plan, the Trial included.

Before you connect#

• You need a Google account with a YouTube channel. A brand channel is listed under its own name on Google's screen.
• If the Google account has no channel yet, create it on YouTube first.
• Connecting needs the editor role or above. Disconnecting needs an admin or owner.

Connect a channel#

1. Open Settings → Connections and press Connect on the YouTube card. (From a channel's page, Publishing → Manage connections opens the same page for that channel, and links the account to it straight away.)
2. On Google's screen, choose the Google account, then the YouTube channel.
3. Google lists what ChannelForge may do. Approve.
4. Back on Connections: "YouTube connected (1 account). Link it to a channel below."
5. Under Which account each channel posts as, pick the YouTube account in the channel's row and press Save.

Every connection asks Google for exactly this:

Some features ask Google for a little more, each on a button of its own, and only when you choose it:

To keep an extra permission when you reconnect, reconnect from the channel's page — Publishing → Manage connections, then Add on the YouTube card: Google is then asked for the extra permission the connection had. A reconnection started on Settings → Connections alone asks for the three basic permissions only, and the feature's own button asks for its permission again when it needs it.

What is uploaded#

The video goes up in parts. When YouTube answers a part with an error, the upload carries on from where YouTube says it got; a connection that drops part-way ends the attempt, and the next slot tries again. The characters < and > are swapped for look-alikes, as YouTube refuses them.

When it posts#

YouTube posts on the channel's slots, first of the platforms, or when you press Post now on the episode page. See Schedules and autopilot.

The daily upload allowance#

Google gives each Cloud project a fixed number of video uploads a day, counted on the Pacific day, and ChannelForge uploads through one project for every workspace. When the day's uploads are used up:

• a slot's YouTube post is not queued, and the slot says "ChannelForge's YouTube uploads for today are used up — the next YouTube post goes out after midnight Pacific";
• Post now answers with the same words;
• nothing is sent, the episode keeps its tries, and the slot's other platforms post as usual.

The next slot after midnight Pacific time posts it.

Long uploads#

YouTube takes videos longer than 15 minutes only from an account whose owner has verified it with YouTube (in YouTube Studio's feature eligibility settings). The shorts ChannelForge posts are 2–3 minutes, but a film — which ChannelForge uploads for you once film publishing is switched on — and a compilation you post by hand can run past 15 minutes. Verify the account before either.

Never twice#

When the upload's last part is sent and YouTube's answer is lost, ChannelForge asks YouTube how far the upload got. If it still cannot tell, the post is marked may be live and is not repeated: look at the channel, and if the video is not there, press Confirm it is not live, retry on the episode page.

YouTube's own rules#

• By connecting YouTube you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service; Google's handling of your data is in the Google Privacy Policy.
• YouTube's numbers are shown as YouTube reports them, labelled as YouTube's. Scores, rankings and projections computed from YouTube data — the YouTube side of the outlier radar, retention learning, the hook lab, breakouts, packaging tests and monetisation projections — stay off until Google approves them for ChannelForge. The same features work on Facebook and Instagram data meanwhile.
• Data of one workspace's YouTube channels is never combined with another's, and nothing from YouTube is offered through the API or the MCP server.
• Nothing already on your channel is changed without a consent you give for it (Allow edits, the packaging lab's refresh).
• An episode that passed its checks explains, under Original and reviewed on its page, how YouTube's disclosure rules apply to it. The rules are YouTube's and they change: check them when you post.

See Platform policies we follow.

Disconnecting and revoking#

Disconnect on the account in Settings → Connections deletes ChannelForge's copy of the connection, and its tokens with it. To remove ChannelForge's access at Google too, use myaccount.google.com/permissions. When a workspace is deleted, its YouTube connections and everything read from YouTube for it are deleted within 7 days.

Troubleshooting#

"Google did not return a refresh token — remove ChannelForge from your Google account permissions and connect again." Google had a connection on record and did not grant offline access again. Remove ChannelForge at myaccount.google.com/permissions, then connect.

"That Google account has no YouTube channel." Create the channel on YouTube (or pick the Google account that owns it), then connect again.

The account is marked "expired: reconnect". Google refused the connection — a changed password, a removed permission. Reconnect from the channel's page (Publishing → Manage connections → Add on the YouTube card) and approve again: the same account is updated, its channel links stay, and its extra permissions are asked for again.

A post says the day's uploads are used up. Nothing is wrong with your channel: the next slot after midnight Pacific posts it.

Related#

• Schedules and autopilot
• Ready-to-post packs — the YouTube tab
• Insights and the monetization tracker
• Troubleshooting