Have you ever thought of how many hours every single YouTuber spends to create and publish their videos? Believe me, a lot.
But beginners and those who want to plan their time accordingly want to know how long does it take to upload a video on YouTube?
Therefore, to answer your question in a rush, uploading a video can take from 2-3 minutes to 1-2 hours.
It depends on the factors that determine how long it takes to process a video on Youtube. These usually are the file type and size, internet bandwidth, and also upload traffic. That we are going to talk about.
Table of Contents
- How Does YouTube Video Processing Work?
- How Long Does it Take to Process a Video on YouTube?
- YouTube Processing Stuck: What To-Do?
- How to Upload a Video on YouTube Faster? 7 Tips for Everyone!
- Summary
How Does YouTube Video Processing Work?
It’s not a joke. Many beginning YouTubers wonder what it means when they get a message that their video is processing while uploading a video to YouTube. This simply means that the video has been uploaded and is now getting ready to be available on all devices and formats.
Here’s the deal:
People send videos will all kinds of formats and sizes to YouTube, which may not be compatible with all devices.
Therefore, it’s the duty of YouTube to re-encode the video files after uploading them to ensure all devices can view the videos. In addition, they also create multiple versions of each video to allow playback at different resolutions like 480p or 1080p.
That’s how it works.
How Long Does it Take to Process a Video on YouTube?
Usually, it could take from 2-3 minutes to 1-2 hours – it depends.
As mentioned above, the time it takes to process a video on YouTube depends on various factors. Aside from the stated factors such as file size, internet bandwidth, and also upload traffic, the quality of the video also matters, the format, and even location.
Why location, you may ask?
Just like all other video sharing sites, YouTube has servers in multiple locations throughout the world. Therefore, if you are uploading a video from the USA, your video may process faster, thus being able to reach the rest of the United States servers faster.
Note that this is compared to anyone uploading from any other part of the world, which will require the video to travel to multiple servers, thus taking time when processing.
Additionally, when it comes to the video format, a higher resolution format will undoubtedly be slower to upload than a lower resolution. For instance, 1440p and 2160p will take longer to process than the 240p and 360p.
Anyway, sometimes you can see a lower video quality after uploading the file. It happens due to faster uploading speed. After a few hours, the video appears in high quality.
Another factor that affects the video process is the number of videos currently being processed before you. Therefore, always consider these factors before uploading your video.
Here’s is a rule that helps you to estimate uploading time:
However, uploading standard 1080p YouTube resolution videos takes, most of the time, the same time as video length itself is. If the YouTube video is up to 10 minutes long, the process itself should not take more than 10 minutes.
YouTube Processing Stuck: What To-Do?
No one wants to see the dreaded message that your YouTube processing is stuck, right?
However, it does happen only to leave you wondering what to do next. Don’t worry, because we will share with you some steps to take when this happens.
1. The first step to take if the YouTube processing gets stuck is to check your internet connection.
An unstable or slow internet connection is the number one cause of YouTube uploading getting stuck. Therefore, ensure the internet connection is okay by searching the ‘‘interest speed test“ on google.com. If it’s slow, stop all unnecessary online activities until the process is complete.
2. If you checked the internet and it’s not slow or unstable, stop the uploading process and switch to another browser or device.
For example, if you are uploading the video with your iPhone using the YouTube app, stop it and transfer the video to your computer. Note that you can use any web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, among others.
3. If it’s not possible to switch to another device, then you can uninstall the app on your iPhone and then reinstall it. Afterward, start to upload the video again.
How to Upload a Video on YouTube Faster? 7 Tips for Everyone!
Uploading videos on any platform can be time-consuming and YouTube is no exception. Nonetheless, there are many ways to make your YouTube video upload faster.
These usually include:
1. Making Sure the Internet is Fast
Before uploading a video, make sure the internet is fast by stopping any other internet activities like downloads of other videos, playing online games, opening different apps, among other activities.
Also, if it’s possible, you should use a household Wi-Fi connection or, even better, an ethernet cable instead of a public Wi-Fi network when uploading the video. This move will not only make the internet connection fast but also stable.
2. Compress the Video Files with YouTube Approved Formats
Smaller size videos are known to take less time to upload. However, since not all videos come in smaller sizes, you have a choice to compress them by using the right YouTube format. This way, you get to upload the videos easily without interfering with the quality of the video.
For example, the MOV video file is larger than an MP4 file because the MP4 format removes any unnecessary information without affecting the quality of the video, so use it.
3. Avoid Uploading the Video During Peak Hours
There are certain hours in the day when many people are uploading videos to YouTube at the same time. When this happens, it is likely it will take longer to upload your videos.
Therefore, you should upload your videos during off-peak hours, like between 2 and 4 pm during weekdays CTS or EST time.
However, on weekends post a bit early between 10 am – 11 am CTS or EST time.
Off-course take into consideration the best time to upload the video on YouTube according to your viewer’s daily route, schedule, and habits. In this way, you should upload the video just before they join YouTube.
4. Switch Devices if the Video is Uploading slow
If it takes time to upload videos on your iPhone, then it’s time you switch to another device. Transfer the video files to your computer or laptop and upload them on the YouTube website.
If it takes too long to upload with Safari, try other web browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.
The good news is that apart from making the uploading process go fast, these web browsers also enable you to recover stuck or interrupted uploads.
5. Clear Browser’s Cache, Cookies, and History
When it comes to browser cache, it simply is known to store certain information about the web pages you visit.
However, no matter how important it is for the cache, some information can cause problems or delay when uploading a video to YouTube.
Therefore, before uploading any video to this site, you should clear all the browsers, cache, cookies, and history.
6. Disable the Web Accelerator
Although a web accelerator is meant to speed up web loads, it gets in the way of uploading videos to YouTube since it makes them load slower.
That’s why every time you upload a video, you should disable the web accelerator for faster uploading.
7. Delete Non-Critical Programs and Unused Files from the Hard Disk
Just as clutter makes our homes dysfunctional, unnecessary files and unused programs also slow down your computer’s speed.
Therefore, delete all the non-critical programs and the unused files to help you speed up the video uploading time.
Summary
Being the 2nd most visited site in the world in 2022, YouTube is surely the best place to share your videos. This also results in a heavy load on the platform.
Anyway, we recommend uploading not super long videos, up to 30 minutes is perfect, and use the mp4 as a format for processing. The whole process should not take more than half an hour.
So, all the best!
Glen Beker
Hello there! I am glad that you are visiting my Blog! I am Glen Beker and I’m a 100% tech-addicted guy, Blogger, Video Editor and Entrepreneur. I spend a lot of my time learning and editing various video blogs (vlogs) for YouTubers, testing vlogging equipment, and giving vlogging tips to many starting video makers or editors from all over the world! If you want to consult with me about vlogging – feel free to contact me!