How to Split a Video for YouTube
To split a video for YouTube , meaning cut a section out of the middle of one that's already published , open Trim & cut in the Studio Editor and use the red box. The blue box marks what you keep; the red box marks what disappears.
Split a video for YouTube with the red box
Under Content, click the video, open Editor, then Trim & cut. Drag the sides of the red box until it covers exactly the passage you want gone. For a second section, click New Cut and place another red box. A video with three problems takes three boxes in one editing session, not three separate edits.
The reason to do this in Studio rather than re-uploading is what survives: after the edit, the video keeps its URL, its view count and its comments. Everything a re-upload would throw away stays where it is.
Choosing where a Short begins
Splitting has a smaller cousin in the Shorts camera. The Trim tool there lets you choose the starting point and trim video segments. Useful when the first second of a take is you reaching away from the phone, and re-recording the whole thing would be absurd.
It sets entry and exit points rather than removing an interior chunk, so it solves a narrower problem than the red box does. But it solves it before publication, which is always the cheaper moment.
Splitting and then reordering
Studio can remove a section. It can't move one.
Montaj keeps a real timeline, so a split is the start of a decision rather than the end of one: cut a clip into pieces, drag the pieces into a different order, split again, and walk any of it back through 100 steps of undo. The footage stays on your device the entire time — nothing is uploaded while you're rearranging it. That's the difference between editing and the surgical version of splitting a video for YouTube after it's already live.
How to cut a section out of a YouTube video in 4 steps
- 1
Open Trim & cut on the published video
In YouTube Studio, open the video under Content, choose Editor, then click Trim & cut. The blue box marks what you keep; the red box marks what goes.
- 2
Drag the sides of the red box over the section to remove
Position it so the red box covers exactly the part you want gone. Everything outside it stays.
- 3
Click New Cut for each additional section
One red box removes one section. New Cut adds another, so a video with three bad patches takes three cuts rather than three separate edits.
- 4
Save, knowing what survives
After the edit the video keeps its URL, its view count and its comments. Only the footage changes.
The verdict
— Chloé, Senior Video Editor