Keep your YouTube account in good standing
Violating our Community Guidelines or copyright policies can affect your account standing. Accounts in bad standing lose access to certain account features and programs. To stay in good standing, your account must have:
- No Community Guidelines strikes
- No copyright strikes
- No more than one video blocked worldwide by Content ID
Check your account standing
You can check your account standing on the Features page, under your Channel Settings.
Penalties that affect your account standing
Community Guidelines strikes
If you receive a Community Guidelines strike and feel that your video was removed in error, you can appeal the strike. The strike will expire in six months.
Copyright strikes
If you get a copyright strike, that means your video has been taken down from YouTube because a copyright owner sent us a complete and valid legal request asking us to do so. When a copyright owner formally notifies us that you don’t have their permission to post their content on the site, we take down your upload to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
If you receive a copyright strike, you can take one of the following actions:
- Complete Copyright School and wait six months for the strike to expire (as long as you don't receive another copyright strike in that time).
- Ask the person who requested removal of your video to retract their claim.
- If you believe that your video was removed in error, you can submit a counter notification.
Before submitting a counter notification on the basis of fair use, make sure you understand how fair use works and when it applies.
Content ID global blocks
If a copyright owner uses Content ID to claim and block your video worldwide, you’ll be warned that your account is in danger of falling into bad standing. If you receive a second global Content ID block within 30 days, your account will fall into bad standing. The penalty associated with each global block expires after 30 days.
If you believe that a video has been blocked in error, you may dispute the associated claim.
Deleting videos which put your account in bad standing won't restore your good standing.
Features available to accounts in good standing
The following YouTube features are available to users who are in good standing:
- Uploading videos as Unlisted
- Uploading videos that are longer than 15 minutes
- Uploading videos under Creative Commons licenses
- Branding Watermark
- Custom video thumbnails
- Live events and Hangouts on Air
- Appealing rejected Content ID claim disputes
- Sharing Private videos
- YouTube Video Editor
- Interactive Cards
- Revenue sharing on cover videos
Certain channel features for YouTube creators are also restricted to accounts in good standing.
Accounts in bad standing won't be able to join the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube partners may have their monetization disabled for a different set of reasons.
Please note that for many of these features, good standing is not the only criterion for access. If you’re in good standing and don’t have access to certain features, you may need to verify your account.