YouTube is running a test where you might not get notifications for a channel even if you’ve subscribed for “all” notifications.
Announced on its ongoing test thread, YouTube says that a “small” test is being run right now in which viewers who are subscribed to a channel and have opted in for “all” notifications from that channel may not get notifications if they haven’t actively interacted with that channel recently. “All” notifications from a channel involves the subscriber being notified of every upload a channel makes.
YouTube explains that the reason for this test is that it says viewers often opt-in for “all” notifications and tend to forget to update their preferences if they later feel overwhelmed by the number of uploads and/or are no longer interested in that channel, with some just turning off all YouTube notifications instead.
YouTube says:
Viewers often opt in to receive “All” notifications from many channels. When they feel overwhelmed or are no longer interested in a specific channel, instead of updating their subscription and notifications to better reflect their preferences, they simply turn off all notifications from the YouTube app entirely. It’s common for users to have turned on All notifications for a channel, only to have turned off app-level notifications (Creators can see how this impacts their channel in the Audience tab).
It’s further noted that “channels that upload infrequently will not have their notifications affected,” and “actively engaged viewers” will also see no change. Notifications will still appear in a subscriber’s inbox as well.
Importantly, YouTube has been testing this for the better part of a year now, initially starting in March 2025.
More on YouTube:
Follow Ben: Twitter/X, Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
