How to Add and Edit Captions on your YouTube Videos

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

In this post, I'm going to show you how to easily add captions to your YouTube videos.

Confession: the first time I uploaded a YouTube video to my channel, I didn't really know that you could edit your captions YouTube. YouTube auto-generates your captions and this is really embarrassing... but one day I was watching one of my own videos and I didn't have the sound on but I had the captions on.

I have one video that has over 10,000 views and I started watching it and I was like oh my gosh… where I was saying, “hey there it's Lindsey.” It had auto-corrected and it said, “Hey there, I'm stinky!!” and I was like what? are you kidding me? this is like my highest performing video on YouTube and it says, I'm stinky?!?!? 😳oh my gosh… it was horrible… it's horrible.

I quickly learned how to edit my captions and here’s how you can too!

WATCH THE VIDEO or continue reading below.


How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube

Step 1: Go to the video you want to edit and hit edit video.

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

Step 2: Where it says subtitles and CC click on that.

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

Step 3: Then you can edit your captions it's usually good to just hit add new.

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

Then you can come in here and you can play your video and you can type in your captions.

If you've already have your captions in there you can edit them by clicking edit and then when it doesn't grey out anymore then you can come in here and edit your captions.

Make sure that your name is correct and everything else is too.

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

It's super simple to do it this way.

Now I always make sure that it says hey there it's Lindsey and it doesn't say hey there I'm stinky!! 😂

If you are like me and you've ever had a really embarrassing autocorrect for your YouTube videos let me know in the comments below what your embarrassing autocorrect was so I can get a kick out of it!

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

Now another way to do this is through using my favorite tool to use for captions is called Rev. The website is rev.com.

One thing that is really cool about this is that after you've uploaded your video to YouTube instead of you having to rewatch it and type and edit all your captions and go through the steps above…. you can send your video directly to Rev, someone will watch, transcribe it and send you the .SRT file so then you could upload it to YouTube.

As of November 2018, they have this awesome feature where they can upload your captions directly to YouTube for you. Be sure to check “Automatically deliver files back to YouTube” before checking out.

It’s AMAZING!

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial rev.com

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Another thing to keep in mind when you have captions is that not everyone who is watching your videos can hear you:

  • they might have hearing loss

  • or they might be deaf

  • or you know they might just be at work and can't you know watch your video with sound


You want to make sure that when you are creating your videos that you include captions so that you know no matter who's watching your video can still watch it by having your closed captions down there.

I know it might sound really silly but it really means a lot to people watching your videos to have captions there. I can't tell you how many times I have come across videos and they don't have closed captions and I won't even watch them. Sometimes you're just sitting there and you don't want to turn your sound on… so just kind of keep that in mind the next time you create your videos and be sure to add your captions.

How to Edit or Add Subtitles on YouTube #youtubecaptions #youtubetutorial

Hopefully that was helpful for you, if I come across anything else that is helpful I'll definitely add it here but I really do appreciate you reading this post.

If this was helpful, I’d love for you to share it on Pinterest.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below or join the conversation over on YouTube here.

Hopefully I am NOT stinky and you will remember me as Lindsey! 😘

What is the worst autocorrection you've had on your captions? Let me know below!


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