How To Activate or Deactivate Video Commenting in YouTube

How to Turn on or off Comments on YouTube

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

YouTube comments are enabled by default, and if they aren’t, learning how to turn on comments on YouTube is extremely simple. One of the major benefits of having the comments enabled on your YouTube videos is that you get genuine feedback from your audiences.

As a brand, it is imperative to thoroughly read all the comments that your YouTube videos receive. This not only helps you do sentimental analysis; it also enables you to understand what the viewers expect from you, and where should you focus more while recording and editing your footage.

Keeping all these points in mind, the following sections explain how to enable comments on YouTube and how to turn off comments on YouTube. Here you will also get to know what other types of security and privacy options are there that you can use to filter the comments posted by the disturbing elements.

Part 1: How to Turn on or Turn off Comments for YouTube Channel

If you don’t want any comments on any of the videos that you publish, you must learn how to disable comments on the YouTube channel. The process of doing so is explained below:

Step 1: Get to YouTube Studio

Use your favorite web browser to go to YouTube and sign in to your Google account. Click your profile picture from the top-right corner of the webpage, and click YouTube Studio from the menu that appears.

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Step 2: Go to Channel’s Advanced Settings

From the bottom of the left pane, click the Settings icon, click Channel from the Settings box that comes up next, and go to Advanced settings from the right window.

Step 3: Turn Off Comments

From the Audience section in the right pane itself, click to select the Yes, set this channel as made for kids. I always upload content that’s made for kids radio button. Click SAVE from the bottom-right corner to save the changes in order to turn off comments on all the videos on your YouTube channel.

To turn on comments on all the videos on your YouTube channel, you can follow the instructions given below:

1. Set Channel Videos as Not Made for Kids

Use the method explained above to get to the channel’s Advanced settings box. Select the No, set this channel as not made for kids. I never upload content that’s made for kids radio button. Click SAVE to save the changes.

2. Define Acceptable Comment Types

Click the Settings icon from the bottom of the left pane one more time. On the Settings box, go to the Upload defaults category from the left pane, and go to Advanced settings from the right. From the Comment visibility drop-down list under the Comments section in the right, choose your preferred comment allowance type, and click SAVE to allow the comments on the videos the channel has.

3. Set Comment Allowance for Videos

Back on the YouTube Studio page, click Content from the left pane. From the right section, check the Video box at the top of the list to select all the videos the channel has. Click Edit from the column header, and click Comments from the menu that comes up. From the New value drop-down list, choose your preferred allowance option for the comments, click UPDATE VIDEOS from the upper-right area, check the I understand the implications of this action box, and click UPDATE VIDEOS to allow comments on all the videos of the channel.

Additional Info about Comments Options

The four options that become available when you allow the comments on your YouTube channel along with their meaning are:

• Allow all comments

When you choose this option, YouTube allows everyone to post any kind of comment, irrespective of how inappropriate or unacceptable the text is.

• Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review

This option allows all the comments from all the users only if YouTube assumes that the text is safe, and doesn’t contain any inappropriate words. In case YouTube detects some objectionable content such as spam or slang, the comment is not published, until you review the text, and approve it manually.

• Hold all comments for review

Selecting this option holds all the comments from all the users, and waits for you to review and allow or disallow each of them manually.

• Disable comments

When this option is selected, no one can post a comment to the video(s) whatsoever.

Part 2: Turn on or Turn off Comments for Specific Videos

As you might have noticed, any video that is marked as ‘Made for kids’ doesn’t allow users to post comments. You can exploit this feature to enable or disable commenting on specific YouTube videos as well.

To learn how to turn on comments on YouTube for a specific video, you can follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Go to the Content Page

Use the method explained earlier to go to YouTube Studio, and click Content from the navigation bar in the left.

Step 2: Go to the Target Video’s Details Page

Hover the mouse over the target video in the right window, and click the Details icon.

Step 3: Turn on Comments

From under the Audience section in the right window of the Video details page, select the No, it’s not made for kids radio button. Next, click SHOW MORE, scroll down to the Comments and ratings section, and choose your preferred privacy option from the Comment visibility drop-down list. Click SAVE from the upper-right area to save the changes.

Note: To learn how to disable comments on YouTube for specific video, you can repeat the above steps, and choose the Yes, it’s made for kids radio button from the Audience section when you are on the Video details page.

FAQs About YouTube Comments

1. Why can’t I comment on the YouTube video?

There could be several reasons for this. For instance, the video or the entire channel is configured as ‘Made for kids’ by the owner, comments are disabled for the video or the channel by the owner, you are using some inappropriate words in the comment that have been temporarily blocked by YouTube, and the text requires to be reviewed and approved by the owner before it becomes visible, etc.

2. I want people to comment on my Private video. What should I do?

At the time of this writing, YouTube doesn’t allow anyone to post a comment on any video that has been set as ‘Private’. If your video is configured that way, you must change its nature to ‘Unlisted’, and share its link to the users before they can post a comment.

3. How can I block certain words and links on the YouTube comments?

You can go to YouTube Studio > Settings > Community, and on the Automated Filters tab in the right window, add the words to block in the Blocked words field. You can add multiple words by separating them with commas. To block the comments with links, check the Block links box. Click SAVE to save the changes.

4. If I turn comments off and back on again, will the old comments come back?

Yes. When you turn off the comments, the existing comments disappear. When you turn them back on, all the previous comments reappear, and become visible to the audience.

5. If I change my comment settings, will the existing comments be impacted?

That depends on the nature of the comments. For instance, if you modify the settings, the changes are reflected on the comments posted on the new videos, and the new comments on your channel homepage. However, there will be no impact on the existing comments on the existing videos, new comments on the existing videos, and the existing comments on your channel’s homepage.

Conclusion

It is easy to understand how to turn on comments on YouTube. The best thing is, the comments are enabled by default, and if you don’t need them, you can simply disable them by configuring the videos or the entire channel as ‘Made for kids’. If the comments on any video were enabled previously, and are disabled later on, the existing comments automatically disappear. They reappear when the comments on the video are reenabled.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

Vlogging Hurdles: How to Triumph Over Ten Common Obstacles

10 Common Vlogging Fears and How To Beat Them

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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All forms of creative expression that require you to put yourself out there for the world to see can be scary. But even though other forms of creative expression, like art and writing, may reflect something about the personhood of their creator, very few forms of creative expression seem to shine as much of a spotlight on who you are as a person as vlogging.

When it comes to vlogging, it is your face, voice , thoughts, and feelings that your audience sees and hears close-up. That is why vlogging can seem even more terrifying.

Below is a list of 10 of the most common fears people have with vlogging and ways to overcome them.

1. Fear of Looking Stupid Talking To Your Camera

It can be nerve-racking to talk to your camera in public, especially if your vlog set-up attracts a lot of attention (Casey Neistat’s famous rig consisting of a DSLR camera with a GorillaPod tripod and a Rode shotgun mic attached to it definitely attracts more attention than just your everyday smartphone). Despite a lot of vloggers suggesting that people don’t care as much as you think they care, it still is an activity that stands out, gets noticed, and creates curiosity, which is plenty to feel nervous about.

My advice is to start with shorter conversations with your camera in public and gradually build your way up to longer ones or save all your longer talks for when you’re in a more private setting. Short conversations may include one simple sentence about where you are going. Then, in another separate recording, in a different setting with different people, you can explain why you’re going there. If you’ve never broken up your speech like this for your vlogs, you might wonder if this will make your vlogs look disjointed. But this is actually a technique (below) that can enhance your vlogs.

As you continue to vlog in public more, you’ll become increasingly comfortable with it.

2. Fear of Being Judged by Others

After uploading your vlog online, the next thing you might worry about is being judged and criticized by anonymous haters on the internet. No matter how perfectly you present yourself, this will happen. But you will be ok.

You just need to be strongly grounded in your intrinsic worth and not take too seriously the judgments of those who don’t even know you. You can adjust your community settings on YouTube so that you have more control over others’ comments. But I suggest you just get used to others’ disapproval because it’s something that comes with putting yourself out there on such a public platform.

3. Fear of Not Being Interesting Enough

A lot of people fear that they aren’t interesting enough to watch. This fear stops many people from vlogging. Some people get around this self-doubt by focusing their content on something other than themselves. But people are so much more interesting than the tools and objects that they test out and review on YouTube. Even if you’re unable to secure the interest of the masses, there are bound to be a handful of people from all around the world who do find you interesting.

4. Fear of Your Lifestyle Not Being Exciting Enough

When you look at the vlogs of many of the top YouTubers, their lives appear so action-packed. It’s hard not to think that all vlogs are meant to be very stimulating. But if you believe that that is the standard for vlogs, you might either be discouraged and drop vlogging altogether or you might try too hard to schedule your life around getting stimulating vlog content. Neither is a good option. Face your fear of your audience getting bored and just go ahead and vlog your lifestyle just as it is.

5. Fear of Losing Your Authenticity

When you have the ability to control what others see, you may be tempted to present yourself and your life in the most likable way to avoid disapproval and rejection. But the further away from your true self that you fabricate your story, the more inauthentic you’ll feel. Embrace disapproval and rejection and understand that, no matter how perfectly you present yourself, you just can’t avoid disapproval and rejection. It’s going to happen no matter what! So you might as well present yourself just as you are.

6. Fear of Your Production Not Being Good Enough

Fearing that your production quality won’t measure up is another common fear that holds people back from vlogging. Just get started and put something together with the equipment and skills you already have. Loosen up a bit on your rigid high standards and experience for yourself that the consequences of doing your best with what you have are not so bad. You will develop your equipment and skills as you get more and more into vlogging.

7. Fear of Failing To Get Big

Getting a lot of subscribers is a common end goal for many who go into vlogging. This goal can seem impossible to reach with how crowded the vlogosphere has become with so many ambitious vloggers who are competing for views and subscribers.

How can you know for sure that you won’t be wasting your time and effort trying? The truth is… you can’t know for sure. But dismissing all of your time and effort as a waste just because you’re not at the end yet will take away from the joy you could have with vlogging. Rather than focusing on getting big, focus on enjoying the process of vlogging.

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### 8. Fear of Being Distracted From the Moment

Whether you’re vlogging or not, living in the present moment can already be a challenge with a smartphone. When something exhilarating happens, many of us feel compelled to pull out our phone to capture it, only to experience that fleeting moment through a small preview screen.

Vlogging appears to take that to another level, especially if you’re using complicated equipment that takes more time to set up and if you’re trying to capture enough footage to produce an entire vlog out of one day. How could all that time devoted to capturing your footage not get in the way of your present moment?

Well, like all hobbies, activities, and passions, vlogging does take time and you’re going to have to accept that it does. You may not know it now, but after giving vlogging a try, you may discover that you really enjoy it. And if you do, you won’t worry about missing out on life just as a painter who happens to be in the middle of his painting during a sunset wouldn’t worry about the sunset he’s missing out on.

If, in the end, you realize you don’t enjoy vlogging, then at least you’re left with a documented piece of a memory that you can relive again and again, which can actually help you appreciate your past moments even more.

9. Fear of Making Others Uncomfortable

Even though you might have learned to enjoy and be comfortable with vlogging, your vlogging might make others uncomfortable. You can still vlog while respecting others’ boundaries by having a conversation first, before you start vlogging, around whether or not they feel comfortable with appearing in your vlog. You can then make sure to exclude those from your vlog who are uncomfortable with appearing in your vlog.

Sometimes, though, as much as you try to exclude certain people from your vlogs, they might still end up in your footage. You might even find out after you’ve captured great footage that people do not want to be in your video. In these cases, you can always censor their faces out in editing.

10. Fear of Permanently Leaving a Bad Mark

Anything you make public over the internet, including vlogging, comes with the risk of making a permanent mark that won’t go away, even if you try to delete your original content later. That can definitely be a scary thing.

Luckily, with vlogging, you still have a lot of control. In both filming and editing, you can choose to share whatever you’re comfortable with sharing with the rest of the world.

In post-production, you can use some video editing software to delete unwanted parts from the video clip, blur the video background , or adjust the video color. Filmora is such a video editing software that has been widely used by many YouTubers; you can download it now and have a try.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett