# Can you organize YouTube videos into folders? — SubSense Last reviewed: October 3, 2026. HTML version: https://www.subsenseapp.com/answers/organize-youtube-videos-into-folders/ **Not folders as such — on YouTube the thing that holds videos is a playlist, and it does the job a folder would.** YouTube's own definition is one line: “A playlist is a collection of videos” (*YouTube Help: Create & manage playlists (computer)*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop). The word “folder” does not appear on that page or on the other YouTube playlist pages we read today, so treat any “folder” you see described elsewhere as a nickname for a playlist. Below: how to make one, how to file videos into it, and what it can and cannot do. ## Make a playlist your folder On a computer, from any video: **More** › **Save** › **Create new playlist**, type a name, set its privacy and click **Create**. The help is clear on the privacy box: “If it's private, only you can view the playlist” (*YouTube Help: Create & manage playlists (computer)*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop). The phone app behaves a little differently, and it catches people out. Tapping **More** › **Save** under a video files it straight away, “to the last playlist you’ve saved to, or to your Watch Later playlist”; a message then names the playlist, and tapping **Change** on it lets you pick another or start a **New playlist** (*YouTube Help: Create & manage playlists (Android)*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid). You can also build one from the **You** tab: in the Playlists section, tap **New playlist** and choose videos from your watch history. ## Watch Later is the inbox you already have Every account has a ready-made playlist for “not now”. YouTube puts it simply: “By adding videos to your Watch later playlist, you can easily find them whenever you want.” On a computer you can add a video without opening it — point at its thumbnail and click **Watch later** — and remove one from the **You** page through **More** › **Remove from Watch later** (*YouTube Help: Add & remove videos from Watch later*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/56101?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop). One exception the page names: a video set as made for kids cannot be added to a playlist or saved to Watch Later. *Our view, not YouTube's:* the system that lasts is small — Watch Later as the inbox, a handful of named playlists as the folders, and a few minutes now and then moving things from one to the other. ## Keeping a playlist in order The playlist help documents three tools (*YouTube Help: Create & manage playlists (computer)*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop): - **Reorder** — open the playlist and drag a video up or down. This “isn’t available for playlists that only contain YouTube Shorts.” - **Filter by type** — chips for **All**, **Shorts** and **Videos**; the Shorts chip “is only available on computers.” - **Delete** — **More** › **Delete playlist**, with a caveat worth knowing: “Your old playlist may continue to exist in viewers’ watch histories.” The help describes no sub-playlists. Nothing on the playlist pages we read covers putting one playlist inside another, so a folder-within-a-folder layout is not something YouTube documents; flat, well-named playlists are the closest you get. ## Private folder, shared folder A playlist's privacy decides who sees it. YouTube's comparison table, for owners who set it to **Public**, **Unlisted** or **Private**: a public playlist “Shows up in search, related videos, and recs” and is posted on your channel; an unlisted one can be shared by link but stays out of search; a private one cannot have its URL shared at all (*YouTube Help: Change playlist privacy setting*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3127309?hl=en). If the folder is for a group, playlists can be collaborative: open it, select **Share**, then **Invite collaborators**. The playlist has to be unlisted or public first — “If your playlist isn’t unlisted or public yet, you’ll be asked to make it shareable before your invite is sent” — and voting on the order is switched on by default for collaborative playlists (*YouTube Help: Collaborate on playlists*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6109639?hl=en). Someone else's playlist can also sit alongside yours: while watching a video from it, **Save playlist** adds it to your You tab (*YouTube Help: Save playlists*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/4541577?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop). ## Videos, yes — channels, no Playlists hold videos and Shorts, not channels. If what you actually wanted was to group the channels you follow into folders, that is a different question: the subscriptions help page describes a list of your channels and a filter on it, and none of its three versions we read today describes folders or groups you create for subscriptions (*YouTube Help: Subscribe to YouTube channels*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/4489286?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid). The iPhone version mentions categories at the top of the subscriptions page, “meant to help you catch up on new content” (*YouTube Help: Subscribe to YouTube channels, iPhone version*, read 3 October 2026 — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/4489286?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS) — YouTube's groupings, not yours. What can be done with channels is on [our page about organising and sorting subscriptions](https://www.subsenseapp.com/answers/organize-and-sort-youtube-subscriptions/). Related: [Sort a channel's videos by date](https://www.subsenseapp.com/answers/sort-youtube-videos-by-date/) · [Can you watch YouTube without subscribing?](https://www.subsenseapp.com/answers/watch-youtube-without-subscribing/) · [How to see all the channels you're subscribed to](https://www.subsenseapp.com/answers/see-all-youtube-subscriptions/)