N unavailable videos are hidden – YouTube Message and Fix

ByŽeljko Aščić
Content

Picture this: you patiently create and curate a YouTube playlist, constantly adding your audio gems, only to discover a few months later, that a significant chunk of the videos it once held are now nowhere to be found.

Annoying, right?

Even worse… An ambiguous message is shown:

N unavailable videos are hidden!

There can be any number instead of N, leaving you puzzled about what songs are missing from your favorite playlist.

Why some of my playlist videos are hidden?

There are a number of reasons why these videos are hidden but it’s always that these videos are deleted. Either by Youtube or by the original uploader.

Videos mostly get deleted due to the following reasons:

  • copyright issues
  • videos set on private
  • deleted accounts
  • or simply the user decided he does not need specific video anymore

How to recover those unavailable videos?

There is no way for you to recover those videos (unless you are the original uploader and have a backup somewhere).

Luckily if you are just a consumer, the chance is good that those videos still exist on Youtube (uploaded by a different person).

1. Show which videos are missing:

  • On Youtube click the Menu option (top left)
  • Select the Playlist that is missing videos
  • Click on the Playlist Options button (like on the image bellow)

Now scroll through your playlist and you will be seeing deleted videos and move to step 2.

A message will be shown “Video unavailable” if you click on the video, but without the name of the video!

2. How to find the names of deleted videos from your playlist?

Once “deleted videos” are visible go one by one and do the following to find names of what is missing:

  • Click on the “Deleted video”.
  • Select and copy the Youtube ID of the unavailable video
  • Paste the ID into Facebook search, then go to Posts. If that does not work Google it or try Bing.
  • Scroll through pages and one will mention what is the video behind that ID (in my case Nibana – Ask the Universe Sephira Remix)
  • Go to YouTube
  • Paste again the name you found eg “Nibana – Ask the Universe Sephira Remix”
  • Pick a video from the playlist and add it again to the appropriate playlist.
  • Delete unavailable video from the playlist.
  • Rinse and repeat until you have exhausted all unavailable videos.

Happy listening/watching!

p.s.
Do note that when you are Googling or Binging Youtube ID, sometimes it helps to put it in quotes e.g. “8CL65ohQbxM”.