If you notice your YouTube favorites playlist is suddenly missing, don’t panic. There are a few potential reasons why this may occur and solutions to restore your favorites playlist.
What causes a YouTube favorites playlist to go missing?
Here are some of the most common reasons a YouTube favorites playlist may disappear:
- You accidentally deleted it
- Your account was hacked and the playlist was deleted
- A glitch or bug in YouTube caused it to vanish
- Switching between YouTube accounts and not seeing the right favorites
- YouTube rolled out an update that impacted playlists
If you’re sure you didn’t intentionally delete the playlist, it likely disappeared due to a technical glitch or change by YouTube. Playlists vanishing has happened to many users over the years on the platform.
How to restore your missing YouTube favorites playlist
If your favorites playlist has gone missing, here are some steps to try and get it back:
- Check different YouTube accounts – Make sure you’re logged into the right Google/YouTube account that contains the missing playlist.
- Contact YouTube support – YouTube may be able to restore your deleted or missing playlist if you reach out to their help team.
- Check playlist trash – Playlists end up in the trash for 30 days if you delete them, see if it’s in there.
- View playlist history – You can see your YouTube watch history and playlist history to find videos that were in your favorites.
- Recover from Google Takeout – Download your Google Takeout data, favorites may be in archives.
- Use YouTube playlist recovery software – Third party apps can scan your history and reconstruct deleted playlists.
- Re-add videos to a new playlist – Tedious, but you can browse your history and likes adding videos to a new favorites list.
Checking different YouTube accounts
A common reason people can’t find their favorites playlist is because they are logged into the wrong YouTube account. For example, if you have separate accounts for personal and business use, you may save favorites to each one.
Be sure to check any other Google accounts you use with YouTube and see if you accidentally saved your favorites there. Log out and log back in to the proper account.
Contacting YouTube support for help
Since YouTube stores data on favorites playlists on their servers, their support team may be able to restore a deleted or missing playlist for you. This isn’t guaranteed to work, but it’s worth trying.
To contact YouTube support, go to the YouTube Help Center and select the appropriate options to reach an agent. Explain your playlist was deleted and ask if they can restore it.
Checking the YouTube playlist trash
If you accidentally deleted your favorites playlist, it will sit in the YouTube playlist trash for 30 days before being permanently erased. Playlist trash works like an email trash folder.
To view playlist trash, go to your Playlists page on YouTube’s website. Click on the 3 dot menu next to any playlist and choose “Deleted playlists.” See if your favorites is in the trash bin and restore it.
Using YouTube History to find videos
Even without the playlist, you can still see exactly which videos you added to favorites in the past through your YouTube History.
Go to YouTube History and filter by “Liked videos” to see everything you previously favorited. You can add videos back to a new favorites playlist from here.
Recovering favorites through Google Takeout
Using Google Takeout to download an archive of your Google account data can potentially help restore a missing or deleted YouTube favorites playlist.
In your Takeout archive, look in the YouTube and YouTube Music folder for playlist data. Favorites may be found in JSON files you can import back to YouTube.
Using third party YouTube playlist recovery apps
Software like DiskDrill and PlayListRecover can scan your YouTube watch history and liked videos list to recreate deleted playlists like favorites.
These apps piece together the videos you added to favorites in the past based on your viewing history. You can then export a new favorites playlist from the software.
Manually rebuilding your favorites playlist
If all else fails, you can manually recreate your YouTube favorites playlist by going through your liked videos and history. Tedious, but an option if you want the exact same videos.
Browse your YouTube account adding any videos you remember favoriting before back to a new playlist. Reference your History and Liked Videos sections to help.
YouTube favorites not showing: What to check
In some cases, your YouTube favorites playlist still exists but isn’t showing up where expected. Here are some things to verify if this happens.
- You’re using the right YouTube account
- You have the latest version of the YouTube app
- Your favorites playlist privacy is not set to private
- You don’t have a filter enabled hiding the playlist
Double check what account you are logged into on YouTube, update any apps, and inspect your playlist privacy settings if favorites is missing in action.
Make sure you’re logged into the correct YouTube account
As mentioned before, if you have multiple YouTube or Google accounts, you may simply be looking at the wrong one for your favorites.
For example, favorites you add while logged into a personal account will not show up if viewing YouTube logged into a brand account. And vice versa.
Log out of YouTube and log back in to the account where you believe you created the missing favorites playlist.
Update to the latest version of YouTube mobile apps
On mobile devices, make sure you’ve installed the current version of the YouTube app for iOS or Android. Outdated app versions can sometimes cause issues with playlists.
Open your device’s app store, search for YouTube, and update to the latest release. Then check if your missing favorites appears.
Favorites privacy accidentally set to private?
Playlists on YouTube can be set to either public, unlisted or private. If your favorites was changed to private, you’ll need to make it public again.
Go to the Playlists page and see if favorites shows up there. Open playlist settings and change visibility to Public so it displays properly.
You have a filter or search hiding favorites
On the YouTube website, filters and search queries can inadvertently hide your favorites playlist from view.
Make sure you don’t have any filters enabled on the side. And clear out any text in the search bar that could be filtering the playlist out.
How to avoid losing favorites in the future
To avoid this issue down the road, here are some tips to keep your YouTube favorites safe:
- Back up your YouTube data locally using Takeout
- Use a third party app to download your YouTube playlists
- Export your favorites playlist to a document or spreadsheet
- Avoid mass deleting/modifying playlists on YouTube
- Pin your Favorites playlist to the top so it’s harder to lose
Routinely backing up your YouTube data and playlists gives you a copy you can restore from if favorites or other playlists vanish again.
Also be cautious when mass managing playlists – make backups first. And pinning favorites makes it readily accessible.
Use Google Takeout to back up YouTube data
The Google Takeout tool allows you to download an archive of your YouTube account data, including video history, playlists, likes, and more.
You can save this archive somewhere safe so that if your favorites playlist gets deleted, you can extract a copy from the Takeout file.
Use third party apps to export playlists
Services like Playlist Push and Playlist Buddy let you easily download all your YouTube playlists to your computer as backup files.
They also make it simple to upload playlists back to YouTube. Helpful in case favorites or other playlists are ever removed.
Manually export your favorites playlist
You can manually create your own backups of the favorites playlist using a spreadsheet or document.
Export your list of favorited videos to a file, adding each video’s name and URL. That way you have all the links documented if you need to recreate it.
Pin your favorites playlist
YouTube allows you to pin specific playlists to the top of your list for easy access. This can help avoid losing tabs on important playlists.
Pin favorites to the top so it’s always visible. If it vanishes, you’ll notice right away.
Recover and prevent lost YouTube playlists
Losing your YouTube favorites playlist can be frustrating. But with the right tools and preventative measures, you can often get it back and avoid repeats of this issue.
Be proactive backing up your account data and playlists. Check for simple issues like wrong accounts. And leverage YouTube’s help if all else fails.
With caution and planning, you can minimize YouTube playlist losses and quickly restore favorites if needed. So you can relax knowing your painstakingly curated list of beloved videos is safe.
