YouTube export

YouTube export uploads videos from Focal’s asset library to a YouTube channel. Use it when a video is approved in Focal and needs to go live on YouTube, or be ready there for a campaign, without anyone downloading and re-uploading it.

You start an export from the selection toolbar, sign in to Google once, pick your channel, and Focal uploads a copy of every selected video to it. The asset in Focal stays as it is. The title, description and privacy of the uploaded videos come from the space’s YouTube settings. YouTube export is one of the destinations described in Exporting assets.

Connect your YouTube account

Focal needs your permission to upload to YouTube, so the first export asks you to sign in with the Google account that owns the channel. The sign-in is personal: it belongs to you, not to the space or the organization, and every teammate who exports to YouTube connects their own account.

1. Open Assets, select one or more videos, and click the export button in the selection toolbar (Export assets).
2. Choose Youtube. The Export to Youtube dialog opens and reads “Please connect Youtube Channel to continue.”
3. Click Connect your Youtube Channel. A Google sign-in window opens.
4. Sign in to Google and allow Focal to upload videos and view your YouTube account.

When the sign-in window closes, the dialog moves on to your YouTube channels. Focal remembers the connection, so later exports skip this step. If Google stops accepting the sign-in, for example because you removed Focal’s access in your Google account, the dialog asks you to connect again.

Note: The Google sign-in opens in a pop-up window, so your browser needs to allow pop-ups from Focal.

Export videos to YouTube

Exporting to YouTube uploads the selected videos to one channel. The dialog lists the YouTube channels of the Google account you signed in with, under a line such as “Focal has detected 1 Youtube Channel.” Each channel has “Youtube Channel” under its name.

1. Open Assets and select the videos to send. Hold ⌘ (Ctrl on Windows) and click to add more, or hold Shift to select a range.
2. Click the export button in the selection toolbar (Export asset or Export assets) and choose Youtube.
3. Connect your YouTube account if the dialog asks you to.
4. Click the channel to upload to.
5. Tick the checkbox next to the channel’s name.
6. Click Continue to review the export.

Youtube is greyed out in the menu unless every selected asset is a video; its tooltip reads “Export to Youtube is only supported for video assets.” Remove the images and documents from the selection to enable it. Continue stays greyed out until the channel is ticked, and Back returns to the list of channels.

Review and start a YouTube export

The review step of the Export to Youtube dialog shows what is about to be sent before anything leaves Focal, and asks you to double-check it.

• Under What will be exported, a thumbnail of every selected video, with the name of the channel they go to.
• Under “And the youtube channel(s) below will be the target destinations:”, the Target destination, which names the channel.

1. Check the videos and the channel. Click Back to pick another channel.
2. Click Export.
3. The dialog shows “Export Started”: “The export process to Youtube channel” with the channel’s name “has been initiated”, and the number of media assets being uploaded.
4. Click Close Modal.

Focal uploads the videos in the background, one after another, so you can keep working. The uploaded videos appear in the channel’s content in YouTube Studio. Focal uploads them without notifying the channel’s subscribers.

Find exported videos on YouTube

An exported video lands in the channel’s content in YouTube Studio, with the title, description and privacy set in the space’s YouTube settings. Focal also keeps a link to it.

• In the asset view, open the Attributes tab. Under External Links, the YouTube link opens the video on YouTube, for the most recent export of that asset.
• In the asset library’s Grid mode, add the YouTube URL column with Configure columns to see the same link for every asset at once. See Asset library for Grid mode.
• With assets selected, the copy button in the selection toolbar opens Copy information, where YouTube URL and YouTube ID copy the video’s address or its YouTube ID. Both are greyed out until a selected asset has been exported.

Set the title, description and privacy of uploaded videos

Every video uploaded to YouTube from a space takes its title, description and privacy from the space’s YouTube settings. The settings apply to everyone’s uploads from that space, from the library, a board or a workflow, whichever channel they go to. Each person connects their own YouTube account when they export.

The settings are under Space Settings → Integrations, in the Youtube section, and only space owners and organization admins can change them. See Space settings: Integrations.

• Override Video title: a title for every uploaded video. Leave it empty to use the asset’s name. Focal removes characters other than letters, numbers, spaces, dashes, underscores and periods from the title and cuts it to 100 characters.

• Video description: the description of every uploaded video. Left empty, the description is “Uploaded from Focal”.

• Privacy status:

  • Unlisted
  • Private
  • Public

  The default is Unlisted.

Tip: We recommend leaving Override Video title empty: when it is set, every video uploaded from the space gets the same title. Name the assets the way they should read on YouTube instead, for example with a naming convention.

Disconnect your YouTube account

Disconnecting signs Focal out of your YouTube account and revokes the access you gave Focal. Do it to export with a different Google account, or when you no longer want Focal to upload on your behalf. Videos already uploaded stay on YouTube.

1. Select any video in the asset library, click the export button and choose Youtube.
2. On the list of channels, click Logout at the bottom of the dialog.

The dialog returns to “Connect your Youtube Channel”, and the next export asks you to sign in to Google again, with whichever account you choose. Disconnecting affects only your own sign-in; teammates who connected their own accounts stay connected.

Who can export to YouTube

Space owners, space members and organization admins can export from the asset library. Space guests work with assets through the boards shared with them, so the asset library’s export is for owners, members and admins. See Roles and permissions.

Videos in a board’s tasks can be exported to YouTube from the board’s selection toolbar too, by people with Full Access, Edit Access or Upload Access to the board’s view; for them the export button appears in the toolbar. See Sharing boards.

On YouTube’s side, the channels offered are the ones that belong to the Google account you signed in with. When Google returns no channel, the dialog reads “Focal was unable to connect to your export account. This could be due to a permissions issue with your account. Please try again later.” Check that the Google account has a YouTube channel, or sign in with the account that owns it.

Limits of YouTube exports

YouTube export works within a few limits, whatever your role:

• Videos only: YouTube export uploads video assets; Youtube is enabled when every selected asset is a video.
• Count: up to 100 videos per export. Split a larger selection into several exports.
• One channel per export: export again to send the same videos to another channel.
• Assets you can see: an export only includes assets you have access to in Focal.

YouTube export and workflows

Focal can upload to YouTube in two ways:

• YouTube export, this article: your personal sign-in, used to send videos from the library or a board when you choose.
• Upload to YouTube, a workflow step: uploads videos to a channel automatically, for example every video approved in a review. The step has its own YouTube Channel field and Connect account button. See Actions.

Both use the space’s YouTube settings for the title, description and privacy of the uploaded videos. Meta and TikTok exports work the same way as YouTube export; see Meta ads export and TikTok export.