Thanks to your articles and some experimentation on my part, I have figured out how to make videos on my new Apple iPhone 3GS. My question is: how do I upload these videos directly to YouTube as I keep reading you can do?
If you’ve been experimenting, I’m surprised you haven’t tried to email a video to yourself and noticed the “Upload to YouTube” button immediately below the email option, but I’ll let ya slide this time and show you how to do it.
First off, a suggestion: while you’re on a regular computer, I suggest that if you don’t have a YouTube account that you sign up for one. It’ll make the upload process from your iPhone 3GS a ton easier. I mean, you could enter all the account information on your cell, but, really, do you want to suffer through field after field after field of data entry when you could probably do the entire process in just a minute or two on your laptop or desktop system? 🙂
Here’s the sign up link: Sign up to get an account on YouTube.
Great. Now, let’s get to it!
I took an (I admit, extraordinarily boring) example video while working on this blog entry that’s about ten seconds long. When I look at the video in the photo gallery on the iPhone, it looks like this:
What you want to do is tap on the box with the arrow coming out of it on the lower left corner. Now you’ll see some options:
Really, you should have already seen this if you’ve been experimenting with different features on your phone, but I’ll cut you some slack!
Tap on “Send to YouTube” and…
Here’s where you want to know your YouTube account settings. Enter them and tap on “Sign In”. Now YouTube wants you to enter a title, description, tags, and categorize the video.
We’ll start with the first few fields, then continue:
Remember as you go through this that the better your description the more likely people will find it when they’re searching YouTube for specific types of videos.
And tags are perhaps the most important one to be generous and label properly: better to have a few extra than to be too stingy…
When you’re ready, tap on “Publish” on the top right and you’ll rather suddenly be dropped back into your photo gallery without any additional feedback:
If you look closely, though, the “online activity wheel” is shown on the top left and sure enough, while you’re wondering what’s going on, the video is actually being uploaded to YouTube directly.
After a few moments (or longer), you’ll see the following pop up:
I’m enthusiastic, so I’ll tap “View on YouTube”, which switches me to the YouTube player app on the Apple iPhone 3GS:
And, finally, when I can view the video, well, I’m moving a bit too fast, perhaps:
A little bit of time passes and finally, yes, I can view the video.
Here’s an embedded copy:
As I said, it’s pretty boring, but considering I took the video on my iPhone, uploaded it to YouTube and was able to share the URL with my friends, all within about three minutes, well, it’s a pretty nice feature.
And now you know how to use it too!
I uploaded my iPhone5 video with the YouTube app, but the quality is horrible. I clicked on HD before downloading and it didn’t seem to help. Any suggestions???
Hi Dave,
Thank you for very clear instructions on how to upload a video from my iPhone to YouTube. I easily followed your instructions, and at the end the message came on that the video could not be uploaded to YouTube, without any explanation. What do you think? The video is 7 minutes and 45 seconds. I promised my granddaughter that I would put her video on YouTube. How can I ask YouTube what the problem is?
Thank you, Dave.
Warm regards,
Kathleen
hi how do i view uploaded youtube videos on my iphone? sometimes i get a message saying not available due to owner not making it viewable on mobile device,so how do i change that in settings?
thanx, niall.
The “not available on mobile devices” error is typically associated with the video including unlicensed audio content (e.g., a song off the radio) and is something YouTube sets. Sometimes ya just gotta use a Web browser, no easy way around it.
I’m really loving the theme/design of your web site. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility issues?
A couple of my blog audience have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox.
Do you have any ideas to help fix this issue?
Davo
thanks, yeah, it’s not your prob considering people like you they need.. they’ll pay people who don’t have the experience or understand IT over the long term and will drop the jobs too whilst clogging the customer service so bad people come here to you whilst making profit..
app specific will be outdated considering apps engineering and security in future times.. nobody is using it for obvious reason:
apple icloud accounts have hegemony in the same options to send data files considering pointless additions when selecting ‘other’ in mail, to say, imap/pop setup.. it’s ridiculous and not thought out… either way, it maybe political or just a combination of stupidity… with regards to gmail.. apple didn’t go all the way in design either.. they’re just idiots.. nothing to do with ‘people smart’ or ‘customer service ingenuity’..
Microsoft may actually be planning and executing concepts with other things for a reason as we speak because of the politics involved..
the average user doesn’t have the time to mess around with stuff that’s going to be outmoded in a few years given global changes and things like imap/pop setups in user interfaces that apple currently has of which expert programmers consider still suck for the end user..
mobile is about speed, ease of use and fast media.. we haven’t even begun and Microsoft and apple have been too slow.. conclusion: GEOPOLITICS pertaining to tech and media and resources, nothing more, nothing less..
iTunes is a joke considering that media companies, namely music cos, haven’t even begun to embrace mobile – which is supposed to be the hottest programming out in terms of future…
this is mobile.. let’s make it super.. they haven’t progressed at all since version 3 or the black berry..
there used to be copying pics to send and they’ve made it attachment happy?!! haha.. you can’t send a variety of files in this age of severe lack of profit in music/media content for Telco distribution.. it’s a botched option of control because they haven’t lifted their game as the inherent value of what’s going on still remains as a PR hype devices sales using slaughter house manufacturing jobs overseas.. nothing wrong with global work yet a few benefit here.. nothing genius going on or innovative.. essentially the retail side is pointless, the company isn’t worth what it is and it’s too cumbersome.. the top folk make the bucks though it’s nothing particularly clever considering they could reinvent and profit the entertainment/music content for net driven markets tomorrow, easily..
there’s the ‘capture’ app for iph. 5 which makes the original app for youtube a let down it’s that bad… the facebook app is also a let down because Zuck admitted the lack of engineering and focus not broad enough in all mobile sectors… you’ll find countless probs with it..
they have a HUGE way to go.. and to make device fraud less likely and to compete with illegal distribution of content whilst gravitating to new tech device encryption of which will profit and centralize the entertainment industry holistically rather than one company against another messing around…
as Richard Stallman the legend of GNU said at Australian conference “in 15 years the music business will be at a loss anyway no matter what..”
the upside is that if tech globalism will be less than wars, currency wars and corporate espionage/warfare, than either way, it’ll be exciting for all.. in the sense that people who aren’t in these companies will continue to lead the market hahe
I think it’s a combination of profit pr hype, market bully industry control (they’ll cut throat or buy out anything that could change the game bcoz these folk have the power to) and manufacturing jobs shifted for just that along with sheer incompetence..
I can’t see what’s going to change drastically with iphone 6 considering the interface, much of it, on iphone 5 is pointless..
basically, APP design is where it’s at..
with more app writers all of this wouldn’t be relevant or a problem as it stands.. apple are messing around..
don’t wanna sound too mental, don’t care though, but I don’t know what’s happened to Microsoft or Apple as I personally feel it’s by design in some respects and other out of control circumstances there’s no point going on about..
cheeeeers dave, thanks man
Before you throw the baby out with the bathwater, Simon, I would say that a) I agree Apple’s done a poor job of keeping up but b) you can use an app-specific password in Google 2-step verification. Oh, and I would bet that over 90% of Google users don’t have a clue what we’re talking about and definitely do NOT have this verification in place… 🙂
Dave,
blog is outdated because when using an iphone, everybody uses 2-step verification now.
the youtube tab on the ‘camera roll’ section will ask for standard user name and password.
You will find if you have 2-step in gmail the iphone uploading onto youtube is USELESS.
this is an iphone ERROR on the OS which hasn’t evolved since version 3 to be honest.
Like Windows 8 has gone nowhere and they may as well have not bothered since XP still is excellent.
Like Mountain Lion considering Snow Leopard is still excellent.
It’s all about releasing products hocking of the manufacturing for job losses and making profit or PUMP N’ DUMP of stock…
nothing to do with IT&T evolution as those companies collectively, aka the garbage that ITunes is now (try the ‘forgot Apple ID’ link and see what happens, it’ll send you a reset password..), HAVE DESTROYED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY.
designed to happen, allowed to happen. meaningless products for what were great companies initially.
anyway, with 2-step doesn’t work.
solution?
you have to have a gmail account without 2-step to use on iphone and iphone 5.
P.S Iphone 6 will be yet again a shoddy release just like Mountain Lion compared to Snow Leopard.
cheers
I uploaded a video to YouTube. I even have a link for it. But if I try to search for it by the title, I can never find it. What gives here. ?
Me too!!
How about on my arrow icon,there is no “send to youtube”how can I get that? Only “email video” and ” message”
Please help me!
I have the same question others have had about uploading to a different account. I am not prompted for a username and password; it goes straight to the “Publish Video” screen, which shows me which account I’m already signed in to and doesn’t offer me the chance to sign out (as far as I can tell). I’ve tried logging in to the other account via the youtube app and by visiting youtube on Safari, but no luck. Any other ideas, or any idea why these steps are not working for me?
It doesn’t give me the box with the arrow! Do I have to be signed in on the app too? Not just on safari web browser?
I think this is outdated if you don’t have the old youtube style with an actual username. Meaning I have two google accounts, one is tied to a youtube account I have had for years and the other is a new google account I created which is immediately tied to youtube. If you try this technique with the old username/google account tie in, it works fine. But when you try to enter user/password for the newer accounts it never gets past the authentication saying invalid user/password. Yes, I did try it several times to make sure I was not entering the creds incorrectly.
yes but what if the video is apparently too long then what do you do?
Hi, I am trying to upload a video exactly as you are saying, but I jjust can’t get into my account. It says ‘usernam or password wrong’ but they ar enot as I can log in into the pc with those as well as into the youtube app. any help appreciated… also can i upload videos with the iphone 5 youtube app?
thanks!
Bill, I’m confused by “download” in that sentence. Do you mean you are trying to transfer a video from your iPhone to your *computer* or to *YouTube*? If the former, that’s an oddly long period of time, but if the latter, 20min = a ton of video so a few hours to upload is believable…
I am downloading a video taken with my i phone .. it states that the time to download is 420 minutes .. yikes! The video is approximately 20 minutes long – is this time to download normal. If not, what can I do to shorten the download time? Thank You
i set up a you tube account and it want take my pass word or user name
Easy does it, Paul. You are one of the few people with more than one YouTube account, and all you need to do is go through the steps to share a new video and YouTube should prompt you for your password, at which point you can see what account you’re using. In terms of the upload, it should continue even if the screensaver comes up on the phone, though it’s something you can experimentally verify and report back to everyone here.
Indeed, this is a community site: why not help out with what you have figured out rather than tell me to “earn my ranking”? 🙂
As this is one of the top results on google for this question, you’ve provided very little information. My videos have not uploaded to my YouTube account, so I need to figure out which of my YouTube accounts it may have gone to. I also need to know if it has stopped uploading when the screensaver kicks in on my phone and the uploading bar is no longer there when the phone is switched back on. Thanks for your Mac-level information, now can you please elaborate for serious computer users? You are at the top of Google so please earn your ranking.
Dear Dave:
I just found your page with a quick Google search, and I want to thank you for taking the time to put this together. This has been the easiest time in all the 14 years that I have been on-line in the gathering of pertinent info that is germane to my task. I too will be buying you a coffee, as soon as my disability pension cheque arrives. Seriously.
Thank you again, Dave!
I do know that “send to youtube” thing but when I do that, it always say: “Youtube not Available”. The internet connection is fine. So, is there an app that makes you upload iPhone Videos to Youtube?
Note: My iPhone is 3GS
Thank you that helped me upload a Death Cab for cutie video up to Youtube.
Yes, I’ve tried it, with the portrait view as shown in this clip and it works. However, the results are totally disappointing, as the view on you tube is very narrow- giving a very poor impression, and not reflecting well on i phone as a high tech product.
Why isn’t there just a button on youtube? This really annoyed me because I could do that on a old HTC phone. Like my iphone is atleast 10 times better then the HTC, yet there’s no button on youtube. It’s ridicoules. And I think it should be impleted immedetly.
I made YouTube account, it only works when I’m on the Internet YouTube so when I upload video it says login and password but when I enter it it just says login and password again. What do I do?
I uploaded one video but I have three other ones I want to do and my IPhone comes up with a message “unable to sent to you tube” do you know why?
also I went to search for my video in you tube but I cannot find it any where… do you know what’s going on?
Dusty,
Thanks so much for the help. I actually rebooted the mainframe and re routed the server to a dsl based encryption.
Jeff all you have to do is upload the drivers main frame to the devices overload positioning element, hope that helps.
I have an iPhone 4 and I have uploaded videos onto YouTube from the iPhone. However the videos have black bars on the side, narrowing the video. How do I get rid of the black bars?
Is it possible to take any video from YouTube and post it to my FACEBOOK using my 3GS? if so what are the steps?
hey, when i try to upload my video to youtube, and meet erro 403, can you take a look at this ,
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4706973/upload-video-to-youtube-via-iphone-application-serviceforbiddenexception
I love your article, it’s very interesting. I’ve created a post similar to this on my blog, iPhoneFuze. It’s located at – http://iphonefuze.com/2011/01/06/beginner-want-to-share-your-videos-from-your-iphone-straight-to-youtube-learn-how-to-here/
Hi!!
I’m trying to send a video from my iphone4 to youtube. Ihave done this already with videos in my regular camera log. My problem is that i’ve copied videos from my old phone to pc and then into itunes. When i’m playing the video now it’s in the ‘ipod section’ of my phone and this doesn’t give me the option to forward to mail or youtube 🙁
Any help??
I found that like others i could not post a video to youtube with my iphone 3gs every time i tried it would tell me it failed but by chance i finally got one to go through and i caught that i had to be signed in to youtube on my home pc. so sign in to youtube on your lap top or desk top then try sending from iphone3gs mabye that will help some
dave i like to video the band playing music then post to you tube but my iphone seems to have a limit of 1min 30secs – how is it possible to upload say a 5 or 6 min video??
I have tried over and over to send video from my iphone to You tube. I get right to the end of the instructions only to get the message – You Tube not available – what am I doing wrong? Help!
Sorry, Teresa, but I’m afraid that there’s nothing I am aware of embedded in videos that will uniquely identify the phone or device that was used to shoot it…
Hi Dave, I recently has my IPhone 8gb stolen. There are YouTube videos online that concern me that this MAY be my IPhone used in making these videos. Dave is there anyway I can tell how the video was made ( with what type of camera) or recording device. I know it’s an odd question but I could use your help please. Thank you for your time Dave.
@Brian Santilena try logging out of your personal account from the Youtube app. Then log in with your business account before trying again.
@Ruthie press the curved arrow at the bottom left of the screen while viewing the video.
@Michelle Try again using Wifi, ensure your phone doesn’t lock while the video is being uploaded, if your phone is jailbroken try restoring it in case some error ocurred during the jailbreak process. If all else fails contact Youtube and Apple support.
Hello, I hope you are having a great day. I have gone through this process about 5 times and tried different videos as well. It will go all the way through and then tell me it could not publish? I have no idea how to fix this? or if its even possible. Thank you.
I’m trying to upload a video from my iphone onto youtube, but I’m not given the option even of sending it anywhere by email. Any idea of what gives?
Question:
I sent a video directly from my iphone to my personal youtube account. Worked great. Now id like to send a video to my other (business) youtube account and my iphone defaults to my personal youtube account info. I cant find out where to reset OR enter in another account info. I’m stuck with uploading to one account now!
HELP please!
Many Thanks.
Brian.
OMG – I am so relieved that I found this website – how ridiculously easy!!