Send New YouTube Upload Alerts to a Discord Channel

Before you start

• A connected bot with YouTube Alerts enabled and notifications switched on for your Discord server.
• A public YouTube channel ID beginning with UC, followed by 22 letters, digits, underscores or hyphens. A handle or video URL will not work.
• Manage Server permission or the configured notification manager role to manage subscriptions, plus View Channel and Send Messages for the bot at the destination.

1. Enable notifications and choose a destination

   Follow the sign-up link to create your account, then open your bot and enable YouTube Alerts in Modules. Open its Settings for the intended server and switch on notifications. Pick a default destination channel and, if needed, a manager role. Save the settings before adding subscriptions.

   The destination must be a text or announcement channel in the same Discord server. The bot needs permission to view it and send messages, and the person adding the subscription must be able to view it. If no default is selected, a new subscription uses the channel where you invoke /youtube add.

2. Subscribe with a public YouTube channel ID

   Find the creator’s YouTube channel ID, not its @handle, channel nickname or a link to one video. In Discord, select /youtube add and fill the channel option with that UC-prefixed ID. The command saves the subscription and returns its subscription number; it does not confirm that the feed has already been fetched successfully.

   Only one saved subscription per YouTube channel is allowed in a Discord server. If an add request is refused, check for an existing subscription as well as the configured subscription cap. Alerts retain the destination stored when you added the subscription; changing the default channel does not move existing subscriptions.

3. List, remove or move subscriptions

   Use /youtube list to see each subscription’s number, YouTube ID and destination channel. It also reports feed status, delivery status and the last check time when available. Management commands require Manage Server or your configured manager role, so ask a manager to inspect these details if you do not have access.

   To stop watching a channel, use /youtube remove and enter the saved subscription number in the id option. Removal still works if the destination was deleted or the bot lost channel access. To move future alerts, remove the subscription, change the default destination and add it again. That new subscription starts with a new silent baseline.

4. Understand timing and supported content

   Subscriptions are scheduled for checks ten minutes apart while the module is running. This is polling, not a promise to post at the moment an upload goes live. YouTube feed availability, bot uptime and Discord permissions affect delivery. After a gap, the bot selects at most the three newest unseen eligible entries from the returned feed, rather than replaying an unlimited backlog.

   The module treats returned video entries alike. It has no Shorts-specific filter or dedicated live-stream start detection; a Short or stream-related video can only be considered if it appears as an entry in the public channel feed. Twitch, Instagram, TikTok, arbitrary RSS URLs and private feeds are not supported.

5. Alerts stopped? Check these four things

   Right channel: run /youtube list and confirm the subscription still names the intended destination channel. Changing the default channel does not move a saved subscription, so remove it and add it again to move alerts.

   Bot can post: confirm the bot can view the destination and send messages there, whether it is a text or announcement channel. /youtube list shows a delivery status, and missing permissions pause delivery without consuming new entries.

   Retry setting: Retry rejected alerts is off by default. Enable it in YouTube Alerts settings and save if you want retries. Only explicit Discord access or permission rejections are retried, up to three total attempts per alert and three pending alerts per subscription. Network failures, 5xx responses, interrupted sends and lost responses are never replayed, so an attempted alert can still be missed.

   Upload in the feed: confirm the new upload appears in the channel’s public YouTube feed. Feed failures are checked again at the next interval, but an upload that is missing from the feed cannot be delivered.