YouTube provides creators with a powerful platform to share a wide range of video content, allowing you to publish, organize, and manage your work efficiently. Running a channel lets you shape your content strategy, refine your video layout, and build a strong library of high-quality creations over time. If videos get accidentally deleted, don’t worry - recovering deleted YouTube videos is possible. From official support options to a free third-party deleted YouTube video finder, here is a complete guide.
Can You Recover Deleted Videos from YouTube
Yes, deleted YouTube videos can often be recovered even without a backup, but the following conditions must be met:
The video hasn’t been deleted for longer than YouTube’s server retention period.
Your YouTube account hasn’t been permanently disabled or deleted.
The video wasn’t removed by YouTube due to copyright strikes or community guideline violations.
The first condition relates to how YouTube’s servers store data. When you delete a video, YouTube does not immediately wipe it from its servers. Instead, the data is retained for a certain period, usually several days to a few weeks. During this window, the video data still exists on the servers, making recovery possible.
However, if your YouTube account was permanently disabled or you deleted your account, the videos within that account are generally unrecoverable. There’s nothing to do even if you contact the YouTube support.
It’s important to note that these conditions do not apply if you still have the original video files saved locally or in the cloud. Having a backup locally means you are in a fortunate position to recover all deleted YouTube videos without any issues. In the next part, we’ll look at four practical methods in this guide to recover your lost videos with or without backup.
Where to Find Deleted YouTube Videos
I know you’re anxious to find out where to find deleted YouTube videos, but it's worth spending a little time understanding how YouTube stores and deletes videos, which will help you search more effectively and increase your chances of recovery. Most people think that once the video is deleted, it is removed forever.
In actuality, when you delete a video from your YouTube channel, it usually doesn’t disappear immediately. Instead, YouTube often keeps the video on its servers for a certain period. This buffer period gives you an opportunity to recover the video, but the time is limited and depends on YouTube’s server policies.
If you’re hoping to retrieve a deleted video, the first step is to log in to your YouTube account and check the “Video Manager” or “Content Library” to see if the video still exists in places like “Deleted Videos” or “Drafts.” Sometimes videos are accidentally deleted or temporarily taken down due to technical issues, and remain accessible there for a short time.
Besides, if your video was previously set as private or unlisted, it might not vanish right away from all devices and caches after deletion, which also provides a chance to recover it.
However, if you have already emptied the trash or it’s been a long time since the deletion, the video is likely permanently removed. In such cases, YouTube typically does not offer direct recovery options.
Now, let’s move on to the next part, where we’ll show you how to recover deleted YouTube videos in some different situations.
Recommend Deleted YouTube Video Finder
If you’re looking to recover deleted YouTube videos, Kingshiper Data Recovery is an excellent YouTube video finder. It provides various features designed to improve your data recovery efficiency. As one of the most stable and lightweight free data recovery software, Kingshiper offers a comprehensive set of tools to help you retrieve lost video files with ease.
It allows users to scan and recover deleted video files from various storage devices, including PCs, USB drives, SD cards, and more. You can recover multiple video formats such as MP4, MOV, AVI, and WMV in one single click. If you saved your video locally before uploading it to YouTube, this tool can help you find the original file. It supports 1000+ file formats, in addition to video files. This tool also does well in recovering documents, images, audio, and other compressed files.
Key Features:
Deep Video Recovery: Powered by advanced scanning algorithms, Kingshiper can recover deleted YouTube video files lost due to accidental deletion, formatting, virus attacks, and more. It's one of the most reliable tools for recovering video content.
Smart File Filtering: Built-in intelligent filters allow users to locate target video files quickly by sorting through file type, size, or modified date, significantly improving recovery speed and accuracy.
Works with All Major Devices: Recover video files from hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, SD cards, and other storage media to meet the needs of all kinds of users.
Fast Scan & Recovery: Kingshiper Data Recovery offers both quick and deep scan modes to ensure you get the best chance of recovery, even on large drives.
Safe Recovery Process: All recovery processes are read-only, which means your existing data won't be overwritten or damaged. Your privacy and files stay protected.
Method 1. How to Recover Deleted YouTube Videos with Professional Data Recovery
Data recovery software can help you retrieve accidentally deleted video files and recover valuable videos. Using advanced scanning technology, these tools can accurately locate and restore deleted or lost videos. Although YouTube’s own recovery options are limited, a professional finder typically supports more video recovery situations and offers a higher success rate.
Follow these steps to recover deleted YouTube videos using Kingshiper Data Recovery:
Step 1. Launch Kingshiper Data Recovery on your Windows computer, select “Deep Recovery” in the left panel, which will perform a thorough scan to find more deleted files you deleted before. Then, click the “Recover” button.
Step 2. Choose the original location of your YouTube video files, such as your computer’s hard drive, USB drive, or desktop. Click “Scan” and the software will automatically search the selected location.
Step 3. During the scanning process, you can browse or filter the results in real-time and then double-click any video file you want to preview before recovery.
Step 4. Once you’ve selected the videos, click “Recover” and save them to a new, secure location. This helps avoid overwriting any original files and ensures a safe recovery.
Method 2. Recover YouTube Videos through Local Backup
If you’ve ever backed up the video files, Windows File History is another useful tool that can help you get back the YouTube video files if you accidentally delete or lose them. While this feature cannot restore files that were never backed up or have been permanently deleted, as long as File History was enabled in advance, you can easily find the earlier versions of video files stored on your local hard drive.
To recover videos using the File History:
Step 1. Locate the folder on your Windows PC where the original YouTube videos were saved.
Step 2. Right-click the folder and select “Properties”.
Step 3. Go to the “Previous Versions” tab and select one of the versions.
Step 4. Click “Open” to preview the contents. After confirming the files you want, click “Restore” to restore the video files to your computer.
Method 3. Recover YouTube Videos with a URL Link
As we all know, YouTube is one of the most used video platforms in the world. Once the video is permanently deleted from this platform, it can’t be directly recovered. That said, if you still have the original URL of the video, there’s a chance to retrieve some of its information. By using third-party tools or search engines, you might be able to check if the video was archived online or if cached versions exist. Here’s how you can do it with a URL link.
Using archive.org
archive.org is a well-known web archiving service that stores snapshots of web pages at different points in time. If your deleted video was archived before it was removed, you might be able to access some of its content here. Follow these steps to recover YouTube videos:
Step 1. Go to the archive.org website. Paste the video link you saved into the search bar.
Step 2. Press “Enter” to search the videos. Then, you can click on the blue dots on the timeline to open the archived pages and check if it is the target file you want to recover.
Using Google Search
Google Search provides a unique method for recovering videos by using its web caching feature, giving users the opportunity to recover videos. This approach primarily depends on cached snapshots automatically saved by Google’s search engine. Here’s a simple overview of the main steps to recover deleted YouTube videos using Google Search:
Step 1. Open your Google Chrome browser.
Step 2. Copy the video’s ID, the string of letters and numbers after “v=”. Then, paste it into the Google search bar and press “Enter”.
Step 3. Browse the search results. If you find the target page, try to access it and download the video.
Method 4. How to Recover Deleted YouTube Videos through Official Support
If the above methods cannot work, the final action you can take is to ask the official support for help. Recovering deleted videos through YouTube's official support channels is a safer and more reliable option, especially when the video was removed due to account issues or system errors, and it is difficult to recover data by yourself.
When this happens, it's best to visit the YouTube Help Center to avoid making the situation worse through improper actions. The official YouTube support team can evaluate your case and provide professional recovery guidance to help you find your deleted YouTube videos.
Here’s what to do:
Step 1. Go to the official YouTube website and sign in to your account.
Step 2. Scroll down the page and click the “Help” icon on the left sidebar.
Step 3. In the pop-up window, select “Send feedback”. Describe the issue you’re experiencing.
Step 4. Click “Send” to submit your request to YouTube’s support team.
In-Closing
Recovering deleted YouTube videos saves users from having to recreate their content. With advances in recovery technology, there are now several new ways to retrieve deleted videos. This article mentioned the best and easiest methods to recover deleted YouTube videos on Windows computers. Whether you’re using web archives or local backups, we’ve provided detailed steps. For a safer, more comprehensive, and faster recovery, consider using Kingshiper Data Recovery. This all-in-one tool can deeply scan all files ever created on your computer, allowing you to recover precious YouTube content quickly without needing a prior backup.
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