Move to YouTube Studio Channel Permissions for Brand Accounts

The new YouTube Studio allows you to add managers and editors who can help you manage your channel  without giving them access to your entire account. There are a number of different access levels, from just viewing the information, to managing everything. Originally these new permissions were only available to channels on Google accounts. That option is now also available to channels on Brand Accounts*. 

What's the catch? If you switch your channel from Brand Account permissions to Studio Permissions, your current managers will be removed from the Brand Account. And none of the new permission levels give someone else full access to the channel.

YouTube has a handy table that compares different permission levels.

I'll go through the differences so you can choose what's best for your channel. 

• Brand Account Permissions
• YouTube Studio Channel Permissions
• Move from Brand Account permissions to Studio permissions
• Return to using Brand Account permissions
• Moving away from Brand Accounts

Read on for more details. 

Brand Account Permissions

There are four Brand Account access levels: 

Primary Owner: Can do everything.

Owner: Can do everything on the channel, including adding and removing other Brand Account owners and managers. Cannot switch to using Channel Permissions or accept an invitation to link to a Content Manager.

Manager: Can do everything, except add or remove other managers and owners, join or leave an MCN, transfer the channel, delete the channel or make a purchase.

Communications Manager:  Communication Managers only had a role on Google+. They cannot access a Brand Account's YouTube channel.

Pro: 

• Give someone else full access to a YouTube channel, including all features. 
• Also allow the same people to manage images and albums in Google Photos.

Con: 

• Other owners can transfer away the channel, so it's a security risk.
• There is no way to provide just viewer access, or allow editing without seeing your revenue.

YouTube Studio Permissions

There are currently six different YouTube Studio permission levels:

• Owner: that's you! You cannot add another Owner. You can do everything, including delete the channel.
• Manager: Edit channel details; upload, edit, publish and delete videos; post comments in Studio.  Manage live streams and moderate Chat in Live Control Room, delete or reset stream keys. Add or remove other managers and editors. 
• Editor: Edit channel details; upload, edit and delete draft videos, post comments in Studio. Manage live streams and moderate Chat in Live Control Room.
• Editor (limited):  Same as Editor, except cannot view revenue data in Analytics. Cannot enter into contracts.
• Viewer: View channel details, analytics, and stream settings (other than the stream key). Cannot edit channel details.
• Viewer (limited): View all channel details except revenue information. Cannot edit channel details.
• Subtitle Editor: Add, edit, publish and delete subtitles on videos. Cannot edit anything else, access revenue data, upload or publish content other than subtitles, of view all channel data.

Pro: 

• Granular permissions, giving others just the level of access they need, and no more.

Con: 

• This only provides access to YouTube Studio. Not all channel features can be managed in YouTube Studio (yet). 
• Only Owners have access to the channel on YouTube.com, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids app, or YouTube APIs. 

Features that are currently only available to Owners: 

• Live streaming 
• Comment on videos on other channels
• Create a Community post
• Create a Story
• Manage playlist order
• Studio Mobile access, including video updates, commenting, and analytics
• YouTube Studio mobile app: commenting and playlist editing.

Update September 2021: Channel Permissions users can now use the YouTube Studio mobile app to access analytics and video updates.

Update January 2022: Channel Permissions users have access to Live Control Room and can manage live streams and live chats.

Update April 2022: New Subtitle Editor role lets you add people who can only add and edit video subtitles. 

If you need a channel manager who can perform any of these functions, continue to use Brand Account managers.

Switch from Brand Account Permissions to Studio Permissions

It's easy to switch to using Studio Permissions for your Brand Account channel.

1. Sign in to YouTube as the primary owner of the channel's Brand Account.

      See how to manage Brand Account permissions (and see the Owners and Managers).

2. Open YouTube Studio at studio.youtube.com

3. On the left menu, click the Settings gear

4. On the Settings screen select Permissions

Under Move Permissions to YouTube Studio it says:

Get more roles to choose from including Manager, Editor, Editor (limited), Viewer and Viewer (limited). Build a great team to help you manage your channel. Some limitations apply.

5. Click Move Permissions

6. Select a role for current Brand Account owners and managers, or choose to remove access. 

7. Tick the box to acknowledge the following: 

I understand that these people will be invited to access my channel in YouTube Studio on the web, and will lose their permissions in YouTube mobile apps, YouTube.com, and other Google services. I also understand that I'm responsible for the actions of people I give permissions to.

8. Click Invite

9. It will then show you the current permissions.

You can also add other Managers, Editors and Viewers from the Permissions page.

Note: This will immediately remove all other Brand Account managers and owners from the Brand Account. 

The invitee has 30 days to accept the invitation they received by email. 

Return to using Brand Account Permissions

If you decide that the YouTube Channel Permissions are not working for your channel, you can switch back to using Brand Account Managers. 

Note that to transfer your channel you will have to move permissions back to your Brand Account.

1. Sign in to YouTube as the channel Owner and open YouTube Studio

2. Click the Settings gear

3. Select Permissions

4. At the top of the Permissions screen click opt out of permissions

5. Acknowledge that everyone with access will lose permissions, and you will have to add them back to your Brand Account. 

6. Click Opt Out

Moving away from Brand Accounts 

If you have added managers or editors to your Brand account channel, you may want to consider whether it's worth adding the former Brand Account managers back to the Brand Account. 

Other than YouTube, Brand Accounts are currently only used for Google Photos and Google My Business. 

Google Photos has other sharing options: 

• You can share photos of specific people or all photos from a specific date onward using Partner Sharing
• You can create a shared album which allows others to add their own photos

Google Photos also does not support Brand Accounts on mobile devices. 

So overall, unless you need multiple people to manage albums or a photo library, you might not need to add a Brand Account manager for your photos. 

In Google My Business, you can add and remove owners and managers directly in your Google My Business account.

Despite those other options, I don't think Google will be retiring Brand Accounts any time soon, even if they are mainly of use on YouTube. 

• Brand Accounts allow you to manage multiple YouTube channels by signing in to a single Google account.
• Brand Accounts allow co-ownership of a YouTube channel. There are shared channels where multiple creators need to be able to fully manage the channel.
• Brand Accounts allow transfer of channel ownership (especially important for channels owned by businesses).

Learn More

• Add a manager, editor or Studio viewer to your YouTube channel
• Manage your Brand Accounts for YouTube and Google Photos
• YouTube Help: How Brand Accounts Work with YouTube
• YouTube Help: Add or remove access to your YouTube Channel
• YouTube Help: Change channel owners & managers with a Brand Account

* This change was launched in September 2020, so you may have seen it in your channel settings.

Last updated April 2022