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ClickRuntime

Connect Google Drive to YouTube

Google Drive is where finished videos, thumbnails and images usually end up; YouTube is where they need to go. Connecting the two turns a Drive folder into an upload queue, and sends notes and transcripts back to Drive so they sit with the rest of your files.
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Ideas

What you can do with Google Drive and YouTube

Uploads from a Drive folder, scheduled publishing, AI-written titles, banner rotation and transcripts saved back to Drive. These are ready-made starting points. Anything else you can describe works too.
Every 15 minutesAI

Publish rendered videos from Drive to YouTube

Videos your editing or AI video tool saves to Drive are uploaded to YouTube with a title and description, then moved to a Published folder.

See how it works
Every 15 minutesAI

Upload Drive videos to YouTube with AI titles, descriptions and tags

Drop a video into a Drive folder and it goes to YouTube with a search-friendly title, description and tags, and you get the link by email.

See how it works
On a schedule

Publish one video a day from a Drive folder

One video from your Drive queue folder is published at the same time every day, and you get an email confirming it.

See how it works
The moment it happensAI

Save a YouTube video's summary and social posts to Drive

Send a YouTube link and a Google Doc with a summary and ready-to-use social posts appears in your Drive folder.

See how it works
On a schedule

Rotate your YouTube channel banner from a Drive folder

Your channel banner changes on the schedule you set, using the next image in a Drive folder.

See how it works Your own logic

Any other automation you can describe in words

Your own rules, schedule and AI steps with Google Drive and YouTube, plus any other app. Describe it and your assistant builds it.

See how to build your own

Build your own

Build any Google Drive and YouTube automation you can describe

The ideas above are ready-made starting points, not a fixed list. Describe what should happen between Google Drive and YouTube in your own words, with your conditions, other apps or an AI step, and your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

For example, ask your assistant

Upload new videos from my Drive folder to YouTube, but skip any file under 2 minutes and move it to a "Shorts" subfolder instead.

For each new video in my Drive folder, have AI write the title and description from the matching transcript .txt file in the same folder before uploading.

Use cases

Why people connect Google Drive and YouTube

How the two apps work together

  • The script checks a Drive folder for new video files every few minutes and keeps a record of files already uploaded.
  • Each file is uploaded to YouTube with the title, description and privacy setting you specify, and the video link is stored.
  • The video link can be written back to Drive, for example into a doc or a renamed file, so the folder shows what is published.

  • Video editors hand off by dropping files in a folder

    Finished exports go into a Drive folder, and each new file is uploaded to YouTube as private or unlisted. The editor does not need channel access.

  • Course creators publish lesson videos in batches

    A folder of lesson recordings is uploaded with titles from the filenames and added to the right playlist. A full module goes up without manual uploads.

  • Agencies keep client video archives

    Video details, links and stats are written to a document or sheet in the client's Drive folder. The client has a record of everything published.

  • Podcast teams repurpose recordings

    Episode video files in Drive are uploaded with an AI-written description and chapter list from the show notes. The audio team keeps working in Drive only.

More apps

Google Drive, YouTube and other apps in one automation

An automation isn't limited to two apps. Add the next step in another app and it runs as part of the same automation.

Drive uploads to YouTube with a Slack note

When a new video lands in my Drive "Ready to Publish" folder, upload it to YouTube as unlisted and post the link in #video-review on Slack.

Track Drive uploads in a sheet

After each video in my Drive folder is uploaded to YouTube, add a row to my Uploads sheet with the filename, YouTube link and upload date.

Email the client their new video link

When a video from a client's Drive folder is uploaded to YouTube, email the client the unlisted link for review from my Gmail.

Setup

Connect Google Drive and YouTube once

Every idea on this page uses the same two connections, so you set them up once. If one is missing, your assistant tells you and links to the right place.

Google Drive

File storage

  1. At console.cloud.google.com, create a project and enable the Google Drive API.
  2. Set up the OAuth consent screen and add the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.
  3. Create an OAuth client of type Web application with the redirect URI https://clickruntime.com/oauth/callback.
  4. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, open Connections, choose Google Drive and enter the client ID and secret, then connect.
  5. Prefer a service account? Under IAM & Admin → Service Accounts, create one and add a JSON key, share your folders or a Shared Drive with its email, and save the key as a secret on Connections & secrets.

YouTube

Video / Social

  1. In Google Cloud Console, enable the YouTube Data API v3 for your project.
  2. Under Credentials, create an API key and restrict it to the YouTube Data API. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, save it as a secret on Connections & secrets.
  3. For channel actions, set up the OAuth consent screen with the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube scope, then create a Web OAuth client with the redirect URI https://clickruntime.com/oauth/callback.
  4. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, open Connections, choose YouTube and enter your OAuth client ID and secret, then authorise your channel.

FAQ

Questions about connecting Google Drive and YouTube

Does it need access to my whole Drive?
It needs to read the folder you name. If you want files moved to a Published folder after upload, it also needs permission to change files in that folder.
How big can the videos be?
Videos are uploaded in parts, so normal-length videos are fine. Very long, high-resolution files may need a longer run time, which you can set in your ClickRuntime dashboard.
How many videos can go up each day?
YouTube's default quota allows around six uploads a day per project. You can apply to Google for a higher limit.
Can I check videos before they go public?
Yes. Ask for private or unlisted uploads and make them public yourself after a look.
Will a video be uploaded twice?
No. Each file is remembered or moved after upload, so it is published once.
Will it move or delete the file in Drive after upload?
Only if you ask. By default the file stays where it is, and the script remembers which files it already uploaded.
Can it upload as private first?
Yes. Set the privacy to private or unlisted in your request, and change it to public later yourself or with a separate step.
Does it work with shared drives?
Yes, if the connected Google account has access to the shared drive folder.

Related pages

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