If your YouTube channel is hacked, it usually means hackers made unauthorized 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 unauthorized 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 you can review them all at once and decide what to do next.
When you confirm 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 you can quickly remove access or make adjustments if needed.
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What happens next
- We’ll make the changes you requested 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. Keep in mind that you can edit changes you marked as authorized, but can’t undo changes you marked as unauthorized.
To complete the clean up of your channel:
- In YouTube Studio, check your Dashboard
page to see if you got any new Community Guidelines strikes. If you did, contact us to start an investigation.
- Make sure 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 you’re subscribed to.
- Review your AdSense and Content Manager settings to make sure they’re still the way 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 unauthorized changes:
- Take action on unauthorized uploads
- Remove unknown users
- Restore your channel's basic info and branding
To ensure a thorough review of your channel and it's associated Google account, it's also important to check for other changes a hacker may have made.
Take action on unauthorized 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.
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For channels using YouTube Studio: Remove access to your channel
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For Brand Accounts: Remove users from your Brand Account
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.
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Note: If you're unable to update your channel name, check that any translations are deleted first.
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- Handle: Update your channel handle.
- Profile picture: Update your channel profile picture.
- Banner image: Update your channel banner image.
To make sure your channel and it's 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 you’re subscribed to.
- If you have AdSense and Content Manager accounts, check their settings to make sure they’re still the way you want them.
- Turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing
- Set up 2-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 Program), 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.