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.

Runs: On a schedule
Apps: Google Drive, YouTube
AI: Not needed
Access: Drive read; YouTube youtube (manage)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Monday at 8am, take the next image from my Banners folder in Drive and set it as my YouTube channel banner.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A channel runs weekly themes and seasonal promotions, and the banner is the first thing visitors see. Changing it means remembering, finding the right image and going through YouTube Studio. It is usually still showing last month's promotion.

Rotating banners from a Drive folder keeps the channel looking current, with the design team simply adding images to the folder.

What you get out of it

A channel that looks current
The banner matches this week's theme or promotion, not one that ended weeks ago.
Designers just add images
The design team drops banners into a folder; no YouTube access needed.
Runs in order
Images are used in turn, so every design gets its week.
Set the schedule once
Weekly, daily or on set dates, it keeps going without reminders.

How it works

What happens, step by step

On the schedule you set, ClickRuntime lists the images in your Banners folder in Drive.
It picks the next image after the one it used last time.
The image is uploaded to YouTube and set as your channel banner.
It remembers which image it used, so the next run moves on to the following one.

Before it runs live

Connect Google Drive
Connect YouTube

What you get

RunsOn a schedule

Rotate your YouTube channel banner from a Drive foldertoday, 9:00Succeeded

YouTube · Channel bannerBanner changed to 03-autumn-sale.png (3 of 8 in the Banners folder).

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. 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.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Google Drive and YouTube steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

rotate_the_youtube_channel_banner_from_drive_images.pyexample

from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from googleapiclient.http import MediaInMemoryUpload
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, state

def api(name, version):
    return build(name, version, credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)

FOLDER_ID = "banners-folder-id"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    drive, yt = api("drive", "v3").files(), api("youtube", "v3")
    images = drive.list(q=f"'{FOLDER_ID}' in parents and mimeType contains 'image/' and trashed=false",
                        orderBy="name", fields="files(id,name,mimeType)").execute()["files"]
    if not images:
        return {"changed": False}
    i = ((state.get("index") or -1) + 1) % len(images)
    img = images[i]
    data = drive.get_media(fileId=img["id"]).execute()
    banner = yt.channelBanners().insert(media_body=MediaInMemoryUpload(data, mimetype=img["mimeType"])).execute()
    channel = yt.channels().list(part="brandingSettings", mine=True).execute()["items"][0]
    channel["brandingSettings"].setdefault("image", {})["bannerExternalUrl"] = banner["url"]
    yt.channels().update(part="brandingSettings", body={"id": channel["id"], "brandingSettings": channel["brandingSettings"]}).execute()
    state.set("index", i)
    return {"banner": img["name"]}

FAQ

Common questions

What size should the images be?

YouTube recommends 2048 × 1152 pixels, with the important part in the centre so it shows on phones.

In what order are images used?

Alphabetical by file name, so you can number them. After the last one it starts again.

Can I tie a banner to a date?

Yes. Put the date in the file name and ask it to pick the banner for the current week.

What permissions does it need?

Drive read; YouTube youtube (manage). Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (on a schedule). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

On a schedule