TUTORIAL: How to set your thumbnail for YouTube Shorts (2024)

[@BoardGameHeaven]

UPDATE: kzbin.infoXrV0JlF3W7A

[@bluesbrother928]

I was struggling for hours to get this solved - thank you !!

[@TheHerbalBeat]

Very helpful. I have watched many videos trying to explain how to change shorts thumbnail...you were the only one to do justice to my quest.

[@outdoorengines]

I don't know why this video doesn't have 1 million views. After going through 1 hour of videos 'explaining' it, this is the only one that made it work. Also, why the hell is KZbin making it so hard to do this??? Dankjewel voor je topvideo!!

[@BoardGameHeaven]

You're welcome and thanks for the kind words! Feel free to share the video! ;)

[@JoshuaGaccione]

Dude - literally the only place I could find this! Thank you!

[@BoardGameHeaven]

I'm glad my video is helping so many people! :D

[@BloodySimon45]

Thank you for all your help.

[@This_be]

KZbin really loves to make things ridiculous.

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Indeed. Why can't we just change a thumbnail like with regular videos?

[@tohidhashemkhani]

Thank you for your help, I looked for it a lot and found it here, thank you very much

[@bruhTV26]

Thank you bro, this helped so much!!

[@SilverHunterN]

Thank you for this easy to follow video. No idea why KZbin can't let us chagne thumbnail on PC or Laptop. That tip with making the thumbnail be the 1st frame can be very helpful, but I would make the thumbnail be 1 to 2 seconds long, as that might make viewers go "what was that, that was too quick to see."

[@NotYourFriend-YT]

Hey there BGH-just wanted to say THANK YOU! This was driving me nuts on my channel, and this method worked for me. Really appreciate you putting this information out there -- you've earned my sub!

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Thanks so much!

[@tremblayshow]

Thank you! you the man! hopefully everyone see's this video that was struggling like me!

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Hey, thanks! Well, feel free to share ;)

[@prosperiawellbeing]

Amazing! This is exactly the explanation I needed! ... But it doesn't help me with the hundreds of shorts I've already uploaded, and seemingly can't change now. :(

[@BoardGameHeaven]

You can actually! Just edit the shorts with the regular KZbin app (not Studio), and the pencil is also there!

[@FabrykaRozwoju-x]

@@BoardGameHeaven awesome my man, thanks a lot. Liked & subscribed as a thanks.

[@justinbrown5820]

Thank you. The first person to explain this updated thumbnail Nonsense. Very much appreciated you.🎉🏆

[@PRAMATV]

I knew there must be a way. Thank You!

[@BoardGameHeaven]

You're very welcome!

[@ollyjensen]

Sehr gut erklärt! Du bist der erste bei dem ich das verstanden habe 💪💪💪

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Danke!

[@diveodyssey]

what a legend. I've been getting frustrated with YT picking rubbish thumbnails for my shorts, so will re-upload my most recent ones with this method - will have to get the videos onto my phone first but that's not the end of the world. Cheers!

[@drummrboi9]

Worked for me even after uploading! Just have to go through the KZbin app! Thanks!

[@MrReborn56]

Thank you so much, i can change it through youtube but not youtube studio, you're a lifesaver.

[@drummrboi9]

@@MrReborn56 No problem! It’s amazing it takes so much digging but at least it’s possible now!

[@_aisolo]

THANK YOU!! THIS IS WHAT I NEEDED!!

[@ebizfacts]

Great video, helped me a lot. However, I did find a way to change the thumbnail on a PUBLISHED video. Use the regular YT app, not the YT Studio app. Go to edit the video, should be a pencil icon over the thumbnail. Click that and you can select a different frame for the thumbnail. I just changed the thumbnail on 2 of my old shorts that way.

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Excellent! Thank you! I may have to update my video now :D

[@smartize]

thnks man

[@prosperiawellbeing]

OMG! Yes! This works. Excellent find to be able to use my cover as the thumbnail image. Thank you!

[@gintech0670]

Great information ❤

[@ichefr]

Thank you very much, that was very helpfull. Dank u wel.

[@FOOTNOTEMedia]

FANTASTIC - very useful indeed !! Thank you

[@Tcash_FPV]

Thank for sharing this

[@MissHaberdashChristmas]

Thanks for this 😊

[@sandramahjoub1591]

Thank you very much! Very well explained.

[@kosfireandbushcraft]

indeed very helpful! i just made my first short and your video was a lifesaver! had no idea how complicated youtube is -.-

[@just_russ4633]

You can change the thumbnail on a short by editing the length of the short in KZbin. If you delete a scene or two the thumbnail will change accordingly by one or two scenes. Sometimes KZbin picks a thumbnail right on a transition and it looks terrible so I just edit out a frame or two and it fixes it. But you still get the thumbnail KZbin decides, it's just alongside where it was originally.

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Yeah, but it's so much easier and better to just *upload* a thumbnail, which you still can't do. So I find adding one at the start of my videos before uploading it the easiest way of doing it. Thanks for the comment!

[@just_russ4633]

@@BoardGameHeaven Unfortunately I don't have a modern phone and it cannot edit and upload, so that is what I have to do. Cheers.

[@diacor4life489]

Thank you! Still the bigger question lingers... why?! 🤣

[@Allfyve]

Thank you so much!

[@BrianRouse]

Thanks for the info…I never upload shorts this way…only through the studio and it was super annoying to not be able to edit the thumbnail.

[@kayderrspace]

THANK YOU so much, you helped a lot. Works great on Android. Also the explanation is very detailed, well done👏👏

[@Delightful-b3l]

Thank you

[@FriskaAgari]

Agree!! why KZbin not make a fiture like Instagram reel so the creator can upload their fav thumbnails 🙄😑

[@This_be]

BTW this works on bluestacks if you set the resolution to 720p!

[@TSK-u2g]

Thank you!

[@PierreFarrugia]

You are my hero

[@BoardGameHeaven]

lol, you are too kind

[@PierreFarrugia]

@ I am an adventure content creator and always struggled with this problem, thanks again

[@abcorganizersunlimited]

Thank you for the tutorial, it doesn’t let me edit or add short thumbnails on regular KZbin app when first uploading, but I’ll try uploading from my phone the next short I publish and see if your solution works for me! 😅

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Yeah, sadly this is the only way you can pick your own thumbnail currently. Just follow the tutorial exactly.

[@abcorganizersunlimited]

@@BoardGameHeaven thank you

[@NiloyNiloy-oq4no]

Thankyou very much 🥰🥰♥️♥️♥️

[@dandelionsLife-BibleReading]

Thanks for the video. Just have a question, after you edited the video on the laptop, how do you load your video to your iPhone?

[@BoardGameHeaven]

It's an Android. I simply plug it into my pc 😅

[@BoardGameHeaven]

As of October 15th, you can now upload shorts (portrait) of up to 3 minutes!! So that's the same length as Instagram! That's one thing improved. NOTE: Those videos won't show up as shorts just yet, KZbin is rolling this out "soon", so we'll see how that works then. I hope they'll also fix the thumbnail setting along with it!

[@Mitchymma]

do you have to be verified? I just started my channel and only able to post shorts up to 1min long

[@BoardGameHeaven]

@@Mitchymma Apparently, they haven't rolled it out fully yet. But every portait-format video under 3 minutes you upload now, will be turned into a short "soon". I've gone ahead and uploaded a few. They are currently normal videos, but should be converted soon. They haven't given us a date sadly. A tad annoying. But no, you don't need to be verified, we just need to wait.

[@Mitchymma]

@BoardgameHeaven ahh ok makes sense. Thank you for this

[@BoardGameHeaven]

@@Mitchymma No worries. I'm very curious to see just how they switch them to shorts. Because my recent 2 minute portrait videos had to be uploaded as regular videos, which allowed me to upload a thumbnail as normal, and even set ending screen tiles to click. I wonder what'll happen with those. It'll be interesting to see. If they keep the thumbnail I uploaded, then perhaps we can finally simply upload them from then on. And hopefully also add in endscreen tiles. That'd be an improvement.

[@Mitchymma]

@BoardgameHeaven yea that'd be cool. I had no idea we can't even edit thumbnails on shorts till after I uploaded. You'd think they'd at least have that taken care of by now.

[@GettinStitchy]

I was hopeful this would work and it still doesn't work on either of my Android phones. In fact, I can't get either of them to even load the video asset! Kind of hard to pick a still when I can't load the video in their editor. *sigh*

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Odd. Do you have the latest version of the KZbin app?

[@GettinStitchy]

@@BoardGameHeaven Just checked and it is up to date and still doesn't work. I guess I can't have nice things. Lol

[@BoardGameHeaven]

@GettinStitchy just to be sure: you are using the youtube app, not the youtube STUDIO app, right? Maybe try clearing your phone's cache for the app?

[@joh4nlee]

my youtube app on my Android doesn't have pencil icon 😕😕

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Do you have the most recent version of the app? Try updating it.

[@josvanr]

No it doesnt have a pencil icon unfortunately

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Are you using Android or iOS? Latest update of the KZbin app? Are you doing exactly what I did? Because it does work.

[@josvanr]

@@BoardGameHeaven thnx for responding! I think it only works when first uploading the movie. Changing the thumbnail afterwards isn't possible..

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Yup, that's exactly the problem, and why I made this tutorial 😉

[@josvanr]

Hmmm😁 I must have gotten 2 tutorials mixed up. sorry... But anyway, thnx for the explainer.

[@BoardGameHeaven]

@@josvanr No worries. Everything you need to do is in the video ;)

[@iwagupro]

this is not the solution for the uploaded short video

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Yes it is, it works just the same if a short is already uploaded: Go to the KZbin app on your mobile Android device (*not* KZbin Studio!), edit the short, look for the pencil icon on the top left of your thumbnail, pick a frame, save. :)

[@r13_noenunzcw]

Thats why tiktok is user friendly than youtubeshorts.

[@RoastMasterUK]

doed this work for pc

[@BoardGameHeaven]

No. You can only do it as explained AFAIK.

[@purevibeskitchen]

This didn't work for me at all.

[@BoardGameHeaven]

That's very strange. Are you using Android? Following the steps in my video exactly?

[@purevibeskitchen]

@@BoardGameHeaven No. I use Apple products. When I use my PC it directs me to mobile. Then mobile does not give me option to change. I submitted feedback to KZbin.

[@BoardGameHeaven]

@@purevibeskitchen I see. Yeah Apple works differently unfortunately. Which is also odd.

[@therealmilowerx]

Why do I not have the pencil icon next to mt thumbnail? And why does KZbin force you to change it AFTER it's uploaded? That seems short sighted. Oh Let me upload this video that's so important to n=me with some stupid ass AI chosen thumbnail and premiere it that way and THEN go to change it to the correct one. Am I the only one who thinks this doesn't make sense? I guess I must be. 😞

[@BoardGameHeaven]

No, that's not how I did it, and that's why you're not seeing the pencil. That's just it: you CAN'T change it AFTER uploading. You edit the thumbnail **while** uploading your video, before finishing up. Watch my tutorial closely and follow it step by step. Good luck! :)

[@artFaart]

so there is no way to put it on pc ?? like wtf

[@BoardGameHeaven]

Not for shorts, no. It's bizarre.

[@travellingquiz1]

thank you

[@myjourneytothepriesthood]

Thank you ❤

[@kooskoekemoer]

Thank you!