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Asked: 2026-06-13T14:57:24+00:00

Would appreciate clarification as to how to properly interpret the yt:uploaderId value appearing in

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Would appreciate clarification as to how to properly interpret the yt:uploaderId value appearing in Favorites and Playlist Video feeds.

It appears to be cosistently of 24 characters (can someone confirm that this is a fixed field length?), appearing to comprise a 22 character yt:userId (again would be helpful to know if this field will always be 22chars), prepended by the characters ‘UC’.

So the thing is, how can I accurately determine the original uploader in playlist and favorites feeds?

Is it safe for me to treat yt:uploaderId less first two chars as always going to map to correct, respective yt:userId?

Knowing if fixed field lengths assistive to db design, as in do I need a char or varchar field and how long. Any best practice guidelines anyone can point me to?

Have read recent publications regarding clarifications around V2.1 and handling user unique identifiers (use yt:userId, if I understand correctly) and user display names (as per attr of yt:userName), but this query regarding finer point of what Id is actually being used in the yt:uploaderId field appears to be omitted?

Any and all insights appreciated!
Kind regards to those taking the trouble to respond and thanks in advance.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    yt:userId is a unique identifier for a given user. The yt:userId prefixed with UC is a unique identifier for a given channel representing videos uploaded by that user.

    In versions 1 and 2 (and 2.1) of the GData API, you can more or less use a normal YouTube username, a yt:userId value, or a UC + yt:userId value interchangeably when constructing URLs for accessing profiles or user upload feeds. (There might be some edge cases where one format isn’t supported for certain operations, in which case it would be best to file a bug.)

    In version 3 of the API, which wasn’t subject to the same legacy compatibility issues as the older releases, those values are used for distinct purposes. Normal YouTube usernames aren’t really used at all, the user id value is used as a channel id, and the UC + user id value is used as a playlist id.

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