Your YouTube Short has been muted and marked as Unlisted
Received an email regarding a short published on YouTube.
"We wanted to let you know that the privacy setting for your YouTube Short has been switched to Unlisted because the video you sampled audio from has either been deleted or opted out by its original creator."
Ouch...
As it was one of the highest viewership clips to date.
YouTube Short Unlisted — Key Points
Status changed to Unlisted
Your YouTube Short has been automatically switched from public to Unlisted.
It will not appear in the Shorts feed or YouTube search results.
Why this happened
Your Short used sampled audio from another YouTube video.
The original video was either:
Deleted by the original creator, or
The creator opted out of having their content sampled/remixed.
YouTube therefore removed the sampled audio from your Short.
Audio has been muted
YouTube automatically muted the sampled audio in your Short.
Short will be deleted
The muted Short will be automatically deleted after 30 days.
You can download the muted version from YouTube Studio before September 30, 2026, if the download option is available.
Important re-upload warning
You may not have permission to re-upload the Short using the original sampled audio.
The safest approach is to replace the audio with:
Your own original music
YouTube Audio Library music
Properly licensed music
Other audio you have permission to use
What you should do
If the Short is worth keeping:
Download the muted version before September 30, 2026.
Replace the original sampled audio.
Re-edit/re-upload the Short with new, authorized audio.
Avoid relying on the deleted/opted-out video's audio for future Shorts.

