Some YouTube creators unable to update or upload custom thumbnails on videos

YouTube is one of the largest multimedia content platforms with users crossing the 1 billion watch hours threshold every single day.

YouTube is far from perfect with users complaining about bugs such as autoplay function automatically turning on for some and drop and drop to change videos order not working on the web.

That said, many YouTube content creators are facing an issue where they are unable to change or update video thumbnails.

The issue arises when they try to set a custom thumbnail or choose from the 3 suggested by YouTube (1,2,3,4,5).

no option to upload custom thumbnail
Eventhough it says my account is verified, there is no option to upload a custom thumbnail.
Source

I have tried clearing my cache and everything, how come my video’s thumbnail will update for me in my video manager, but not on YouTube itself?
Source

I have been verified and I was able to do custom thumbnails. I accidently added a video that had music on it that was copyrighted. I deleted the video from my channel, but I do not have the ability to add custom thumbnails to any new videos now. I am not sure why. Anyway that I can get them back?
Source

In some cases, they are able to choose a thumbnail but when they press ‘save’, the changes don’t get saved.

This isn’t the first time YouTube content creators are reporting this issue. We came across an acknowledgment from last year on Twitter describing the same problem.

Unfortunately, there is no fresh acknowledgment of this issue at the moment.

But we hope they soon deploy a patch that fixes the problem for good. As always, we will be updating this space when we come across more information.

In the meantime, make sure you check out our YouTube bugs and issues tracker to see similar problems affecting users.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated YouTube section so be sure to follow them as well.

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