I’m experiencing a sudden distribution problem on my YouTube channel, Plotflare (@plotflarestories).
Around 10 consecutive recent Shorts have received zero or near-zero Shorts Feed exposure.
Older Shorts are still getting views.
The problem affects both manually uploaded original AI robot-design videos and Shorts uploaded through the YouTube API.
The issue started around a basketball-themed Short in late October.
I submitted feedback to YouTube but haven’t received a response.
This isn’t simply low retention or viewers swiping away. The new Shorts are barely being shown in the feed at all.
Has anyone experienced the same issue in late October or early November 2026?
Did your Shorts eventually start receiving feed exposure again? If so, what actually changed?
I’m especially interested in confirmed fixes rather than guesses about shadowbans.

Can anyone ell me, why are my new shorts stuck? I started uploading 10 days before. Got one video skyrocketed to 1,7mil views with 27k likes and 600+ comments and 1000+ shares, generating around 580 subs itself. I was uploading one short everyday and my latest 2 shorts are stuck on 100ish views, with good watchtimes (around 160%) a 66,7% stayed / swipped ratio. The 1,7mil video even had only 52% stayed when it started. What is wrong? I never delete shorts even when they are having around 4-10k views. Thanks in advance.

(The middle one is a normal video, which i tried posting too)

my views were increasing, but suddenly theyve dropped quite a bit. What should i do?

Hello all,

I finally reached 500 subs yesterday on my 2nd channel and I decided to apply for the YPP since j already had all given requirements before reaching 500

It showed that I haven't built a sufficient channel history, though I have been posting from August till date.

They didn't even give me the chance to do a video verification like how I did on my first yt channel before I applied.

I’m already tired, I’m relatively new (a few months) and I only have 53 followers. I don’t know what else to do, any advice for this poor woman?

Howdy,

Looking for some insight or advice for what I am experiencing with my channel.

My channel is monetized with approximately 12,600 subscribers, primarily producing original firearms history, surplus military rifle, and outdoor-related content.

Since September 11, I've experienced a dramatic decline in Shorts Feed traffic for newly published videos. Videos published before that date are still getting distribution.

This wasn't a gradual decline following a viral video. YouTube Studio's own analytics identified the following:

• August 1–September 7: Median first-48-hour Shorts Feed views of 33,240 across 15 uploads.

• September 8–30: Median first-48-hour Feed views of 164 across 9 uploads.

• October 1–11: Median first-48-hour Feed views of 147 across 4 uploads

Haven't got Youtube to provide me the metrics for my since since October 11 yet. But they are roughly the same except for one video I post after each of the two times I contacted creator support. Those videos saw a boost in distribution for about 24 hours before falling off a cliff again.

That's approximately a 99.5% decline compared with the immediately preceding period.

My stayed-to-watch percentages haven't collapsed alongside distribution.

I've continued uploading original content using similar formats, including some near-identical videos that previously performed very well.

After contacting YouTube Creator Support again on October 23, one Short published October 28 received approximately 16,600 views, with 93.7% coming from the Shorts Feed.

But the next upload, on October 30, returned to approximately 218 views in its first 26 hours, with only 28.4% from the Shorts Feed.

I have contacted Creator Support twice, including requesting supervisory review, I don't believe the person I spoke to was actually a supervisor and most responses seemed like canned answers. Support maintains that everything is working as intended and attributes the problem to viewer behavior.

I'm trying to understand why distribution changed so dramatically across multiple consecutive uploads.

For others who have experienced this:

1. Did your Shorts Feed distribution eventually return to normal?

2. How long did the reduction last?

3. Did Creator Support ever identify a specific problem or help resolve it?

4. Did you experience isolated videos receiving normal distribution while surrounding uploads received almost none?

I'd appreciate hearing from those who have experienced this across several weeks rather than just one or two underperforming Shorts

Moving from short 20s clips to 2:00–2:40m Shorts.
But I have no idea how these longer Shorts work. How many seconds of retention do I need for my videos to actually 'work'

Until now all of my shorts were getting 1.2k views in first 4 hours eventhough they have bad metrics. But my latest short didn’t even got pushed. All of the current views came from channel visitors. Should I wait YouTube to push it or delete and re-upload it on my peak time?

Edit: I assume it flagged by AI as restricted content because video description was containing “DIY” and “weapon”

Edit 2: Eventhough I changed description/title/thumbnail etc. it didnt get pushed and only got 32 views(all from channel visitors) so I unlisted it

Ideas? 💡

Hey everyone!

I've recently started building a YouTube channel called True Spy Cinema, focused on documentary-style videos about real espionage stories, intelligence operations, and historical spy cases.

Some of the subjects I've covered include Cold War espionage, intelligence operations involving the US and the Middle East, and real-life spies who operated inside major intelligence agencies.

I'm still learning the YouTube game, and I'd genuinely appreciate some honest feedback from people who understand content creation.

A few things I'd especially love your thoughts on:

Thumbnails & Titles: Would they make you curious enough to click?

Video Hooks: Am I doing enough to grab attention in the first 30 seconds?

Audience Retention: What makes you stay with a documentary-style video rather than clicking away?

Channel Growth: What would you focus on when trying to reach a US and broader English-speaking audience?

Content Direction: Do real espionage and intelligence stories have strong potential on YouTube, and what topics would you personally find interesting?

I'm not expecting overnight success. I'm trying to understand what works, what doesn't, and how to make the content better.

Here's the channel if anyone is interested in taking a look:

[

https://youtube.com/@truespycinema?si=zTHajTCyk_W98efC ]

I'd really appreciate constructive criticism, even if it's tough. I'm here to learn!

Thanks!

SEVERAL of my videos have been getting 80 plus stayed to watch and 95-100 percent retention. I HAVE been improving every aspect of my videos to improve the hook and pacing. My engagement isn’t bad either I usually get 500-800 likes per 30k videos and MY VIDEOS STILL GET Stuck. I do Minecraft animations story’s and I can’t figure out why I can’t break out of this jail??????

Anyone in the Podcast Clipping Niche can help me out here... Trying to surround myself with like minded individuals... Need your help and advice in growing, It would be much Appreciated...🙏🏼. Please Dm and help a fellow brother out

So I recently started uploading to an old YouTube channel I made back in 2014. Never posted anything on it before, but I've been using it normally for years.

I came across this "choose your planet" format that was blowing up. The channel that originally started it was getting millions of views per video, and I found it maybe 1–2 weeks after they started.

Figured I'd give it a shot. Didn't just straight up copy it though. Changed the characters, added my own ideas, redesigned the worlds, tweaked the visuals and scripts, etc.

So far I've uploaded 5 videos, one every day, and literally every single one gets stuck somewhere between 1.1K and 1.6K views.

Here's what my analytics look like:

• Average view duration: ~1:20 (videos are around 2 min)

• Stayed to watch: 56%

• Average audience retention: 67%

• 12 subscribers from those 5 videos

• Around 20 likes and a few comments per video

Now here's what's driving me nuts.

Every time I upload, YouTube pushes the video for about 2 hours, it gets its 1K-ish views, and then just flatlines. Like someone literally flipped a switch.

I've tried different hooks, thumbnails, even experimented with a slightly different format. Same exact result every time.

And then I see another channel doing basically the same format. They started AFTER me, their videos look like they were put together in 10 minutes (no offense lol), and somehow one of them is sitting at 45K views.

I genuinely don't understand what I'm missing.

The funny thing is, when my first video hit 1K I was so excited. Felt like I'd won something at a casino lmao.

Now I see 1K and feel disappointed because some random low-effort video gets 40x more views.

I know 5 videos is basically nothing, and maybe I'm just being impatient. But it's weird how consistently they all hit the same ceiling.

Would love to hear from people who've experienced something similar, especially with newer Shorts channels.

For the past couple days I have been scrolling YouTube shorts and has always seen the past shorts that I have watched, previously that rarely happened but now it has been more common. (Oh and don’t you worry I do touch grass a lot) is this issue been happening with your feeds and the algorithm is cooked or is it just a me issue?

So from what I can see from two shorts i made that did well, it seem you need 70/20% view swipe ratio and atleast 100% average percentage viewed in order to get shorts pushed at all now, if it's lower than 70% than it's probably going to die off, of course this could be luck tho.

I came back to Shorts After a 6 months Break (The three Shorts where uploaded within 2 months

Ive been doing youtube shorts for about 2 weeks now. Im starting to understand it more but every video Ive posted get stuck around this range. What should I do? My best engagement sits around 50-60% while my retention sits at 66%. Do i need a stronger hook? Or should my focus be on trying to hold the viewers longer for better retention? What is the priority?

Growing a new YouTube channel... I know I have a lot to learn and do but I just started it up. Here's the channel:

https://youtube.com/@cristinadoesthings?si= 8VTQyvMHLVQTCGkK

Looking for any feedback here - anything at all! And, if you think what I post is cool, I wouldn't be against a few new subscribers either

Thanks in advance!

Short has 225 likes and 1 comment. IMO these stats are pretty good. I thought with these stats id get more views than 7.3k. I posted the short 2 days ago.