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Why are video thumbnails not displaying on YouTube?

If a YouTube channel is not verified, custom thumbnails will not work.

How to verify a channel​

Via phone number (the fastest way):

Go here: https://www.youtube.com/verify

How to check if a channel is verified​

The easiest way:

  1. Go to YouTube Studio https://studio.youtube.com
    https://studio.youtube.com/
  2. Open Settings.
  3. Go to Channel → Feature eligibility.

There will be 3 levels:

  • Standard features — basic;
  • Intermediate features — intermediate;
  • Advanced features — advanced.

If the channel is not verified, only the first level will be available.

https://studio.youtube.com/

Thumbnail display specifics​

However, even though the thumbnail is linked to the video via the API and is correctly returned in the video data, it may not appear in the YouTube interface itself. At the moment, this appears to be a feature or display limitation on YouTube's side rather than an issue with the thumbnail upload process via the API.