Amara Support Center

Create and export subtitles from Amara to your YouTube channels:

• Connect YouTube channels to an Amara free user account

• Connect YouTube channels to a team (if you are an administrator). Team types: Amara Community, Amara Plus, Amara Pro, Amara Enterprise

• Automatically import subtitles from YouTube to Amara 

• Confirm subtitle export from Amara to YouTube

Note: This process is similar to the Vimeo integration with Amara. 

A YouTube account can only be connected to one place on Amara. You can connect your YouTube account to your Amara user account or one Amara team but not to multiple users or teams.

 Connect to your Amara User Account

To enable Amara users to create subtitles for videos on your YouTube channel, connect your channel to your Amara user account:

1. Click your username in the top right corner 

2. Select Account from dropdown menu

3. Click on the Integrations tab

4. Click “Connect to YouTube”

5. Review permissions

6. Log in and choose a YouTube channel to connect

Videos from your YouTube channel are not automatically uploaded to Amara when linking to an Amara free user account.  To add videos, go to the Amara Public Workspace and follow these instructions for an individual user to add a video to Amara.

Subtitles are exported from Amara to your YouTube channel after they are completed and published on Amara.  You must connect a YouTube channel to your Amara user account to automatically export subtitles to YouTube videos.

Changes made to subtitles on YouTube will not update on Amara. Use Amara to edit subtitles.

Submit a support ticket with your Amara username and video URL if you have trouble syncing your subtitles to your video hosting site.

Amara user accounts: Adding Videos

Amara free user accounts must manually add videos to Amara. You can go to the Amara Public Workspace and follow these instructions for an individual user to add a video to Amara.

Connect to your Amara Team

Connect YouTube channels to your Amara team. Team types: Amara Community, Amara Plus, Amara Pro, Amara Enterprise:

1. Go to your team page by selecting it from the menu under your account name, or the Team Workspace

2. Click the Settings header menu item

3. Select Integrations from the sidebar on the left

4. On the "Accounts" header, next to search box, click the [+] button and then on “Add YouTube account”

5. Select the channels to connect to your team

After your YouTube channel is connected to the team, Amara will 

import subtitles and video title, description, and thumbnail for all: 

• Existing public videos 

• New videos (added after you connect channel)

• Please note: Unlisted videos are not automatically imported to Amara. If videos are marked as unlisted on YouTube, our system cannot see them and therefore cannot import them. You can still add these unlisted videos manually by going to Videos > Add a video. You can add multiple video URLs to import videos in bulk.  

The integration settings are:

• Import videos automatically from YouTube to Amara

• Import subtitles automatically when you add a video from your YouTube channel to Amara

• Export subtitles when marked complete on Amara 

• Export title and description and/or translated title and description

To customize the settings above:

• Amara Plus, Pro and Enterprise: Customize in Settings > Integrations

• Amara Community: Customize in Settings > YouTube Channel > Edit

If you are an administrator of two or more teams, you can choose which teams to use for importing and exporting in Settings > Integrations > “Sync subtitles for videos from these teams.”

Changes made to subtitles on YouTube will not update on Amara. Use Amara to edit subtitles.

Amara teams: Adding Videos

To manually add a video hosted on YouTube to your team:

• Go to your team page > Videos tab

• Click Add Videos

• Enter the URL of the YouTube video

• Set video language

Public videos are easiest for Amara users to view and subtitle.

You can also browse the public videos on Amara and click the Add this video to one of your teams link in the left panel.

Checking for importing and exporting issues

Check your video’s privacy settings on YouTube. Allow embedding on videos you want to add to Amara.

Only completed subtitles will export to the connected host site. Click on the video, then the subtitle language, and check to see if the subtitle is marked as “Complete.”

You can review your subtitle export history YouTube on the Integrations page or on the Sync History tab for a set of subtitles.

1. Team Page > Settings Tab > Integrations page:

2. Team Page > Videos > select video > select subtitle language > Sync History tab

View Sync History for a set of subtitles on an old-style team or in the public video library:

Click video card > select language > click Sync History tab:

Submit a support ticket if you continue to have trouble syncing your subtitles.

Privacy and Special Considerations

YouTube video player:

• Videos are hosted on YouTube, so any updates made to the video content on YouTube will be reflected on Amara

• YouTube privacy settings for a video determines what it looks like in the video player where the video is embedded

For videos uploaded using an Amara free user account linked to a YouTube account or channel, or through the Subtitle a Video page:

• The video is added to the Amara public library

• Anyone on Amara will be able to see the video page with the video title, description, and any subtitles

• If the video is set to private on the original hosting site, other users will not be able to play it on Amara

• Currently, we do not support re-importing subtitle tracks from YouTube to Amara after the video is added to Amara.

•  YouTube auto-generated subtitles are not imported to Amara.

•  Subtitles imported from YouTube will appear on the Subtitle Details page as “imported with video” by “Amara Bot.”

• The description on YouTube will contain “Help us caption & translate this video!” with a link to the video page on Amara. 

For videos added to teams:

 Owners and administrators of an Amara team can change the visibility of their team and its videos in Team Settings.

• If the video visibility in a team is set to Private, only the team members (and members of chosen evaluation teams) are able to see the video, thumbnail, title, description, and subtitle text

• If the video visibility is not Private, anyone will be able to access the video and subtitle pages

Thank you for your contributions to support an inclusive and accessible media ecosystem!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please share your feedback!

To submit a quick ticket, click No in the Did you find it helpful link below.