How to Restore YouTube Subscriptions from a Backup
Subscriptions gone after a cleanup, a hack or a new account? If you saved a list of them, you can get every channel back without re-subscribing one by one.
Updated 8 October 2026 · 8 min readYou open YouTube and the sidebar is nearly empty, or a dozen channels you swear you followed are missing. Maybe a bulk unsubscribe went too far, maybe a hacked account was cleaned out, maybe you are signed in to a fresh account that never had a list. Whatever the cause, the frustrating part is the same: YouTube gives you no history to look through and no button to reverse it.
The way back is a file. This guide explains what counts as a usable file, how to restore from it by hand or in one pass, how Google Takeout fits in, and what your options are if you never saved anything.
Can you restore YouTube subscriptions?
Yes, but only from a record you made before the subscriptions were lost. YouTube does not keep a list of channels you used to follow, and nothing on its side can bring them back for you. What does exist is the ability for an app you authorise to subscribe your account to a channel, which is how a restore works: read the saved list, work out which channels are missing, subscribe to those.
Restoring is not the same as backing up or transferring. A backup is the file you create in advance. A transfer copies one live account to another. A restore is the step in between, turning a saved file back into real subscriptions on an account you are signed in to.
Why you might need to restore your subscriptions
- A cleanup that went too far. You unsubscribed from hundreds of channels in one sweep and some favourites went with them.
- A compromised account. After recovering access, the list had been wiped or changed.
- A new account. It starts empty, and you want your old list on it.
- An app or extension gone wrong. A third-party tool unsubscribed from more than you meant.
Not sure anything is actually gone?
What you need before restoring your subscriptions
A list of channels saved before the change, and access to the account you want to restore onto. Two file types work directly:
| Source | How you got it | Works? |
|---|---|---|
| MyFreshTools backup | CSV or JSON from Subscription Backup | Yes |
| Google Takeout | subscriptions.csv inside a YouTube Takeout archive | Yes |
| A list of links you wrote | Notes, a spreadsheet, a chat | Use Bulk Subscribe instead |
| Nothing saved | None | No automatic way back |
Have links instead of an export file?
Restoring by hand
Open the file in a spreadsheet, click each channel URL and press Subscribe. Before each one, check whether you already follow the channel so you do not waste a click. For 20 channels that is a coffee break. For 300 it is an evening, and it is easy to skip a row or lose your place. Deleted channels show an error page one at a time, with no summary of what failed.
How to restore YouTube subscriptions
Step 1: Prepare your subscription backup
Find the CSV or JSON you saved, or the Takeout archive. The file needs a channel column (an ID, URL or title); a file that is not a subscriptions export is rejected with a clear error. The limit is 2 MB, which comfortably covers thousands of rows.
Step 2: Upload your CSV or JSON file
Sign in to MyFreshTools, connect the YouTube account you want to restore onto (it can be the original or a new one) and allow it to manage subscriptions, since adding them is a write action. Then drop in the file.
Step 3: Preview the channels
Before anything changes, you see how the file compares with your account right now. Previewing is free.
| Group | Meaning | Charged? |
|---|---|---|
| Can subscribe | In the file, exists, you don’t follow it now | Yes, when added |
| Already subscribed | You still follow it | No |
| Unavailable | Deleted, terminated or private channel | No |
| Invalid / duplicates | Rows without a usable channel, or repeated channels | No |
Step 4: Restore your subscriptions
Confirm the exact count (“You are about to subscribe to 38 channels”), with the credit estimate beside it. Channels are then added one at a time with live progress. Nothing is unsubscribed at any point.
Big lists take more than one day
Step 5: Verify the restored subscriptions
Download the CSV report: it lists every channel and its result. Then open your subscriptions on YouTube and spot-check a few channels, especially any the report marked as failed, which can be retried. Per-channel settings such as the notification bell are not part of a subscription list, so set those again where you want them.
How to restore YouTube subscriptions from Google Takeout
Google Takeout lets you export your YouTube data, including a subscriptions.csv, but there is no matching import in YouTube. That file is still a perfectly good restore source. For the file layout and troubleshooting, see the full Takeout walkthrough.
Open Google Takeout
Select only YouTube
Download and upload
Note that a Takeout export reflects your account on the day you created it. Exporting after the subscriptions are gone gives you the shortened list, so an older archive, perhaps sitting in your email or Drive, is the one you want. If you can still sign in and your list is intact, a proper subscription backup takes about a minute and avoids the wait.
Can you restore deleted YouTube subscriptions?
Two different things get called “deleted”. If you unsubscribed from a channel that still exists, you can subscribe again at any time, and a restore does exactly that in bulk. If the channel itself was deleted or terminated, no restore can bring it back. Those channels are flagged as unavailable in the preview and left out, so you never pay for them.
What a restore cannot bring back is the original subscribed date, since a re-created subscription is a new one, or any per-channel notification setting.
What if you don’t have a subscription backup?
Then there is nothing for a tool to read, and anyone promising an automatic recovery is guessing. You can still rebuild a good part of the list:
- Look for an older export. Search your email and cloud storage for a past Takeout archive or a subscriptions CSV.
- Check another account. If a second account follows the same channels and can sign in, copy from it with Subscription Transfer.
- Use your watch history. If it is switched on, the channels you watched recently are a reasonable starting list to follow again.
- Collect links. Gather channel links or @handles from bookmarks or chats and paste them into Bulk Subscribe.
How MyFreshTools helps
What the tool does
Subscription Restore reads a backup, compares it with your current subscriptions, and subscribes you to the missing channels in a paced queue, only ever adding and never removing. The run can be paused and resumed, failed channels can be retried, and a CSV report records every result.
Who it’s for
- Anyone who unsubscribed from too much and kept a backup.
- People rebuilding a list on a new or recovered account.
- Anyone holding a Takeout subscriptions.csv with nowhere to put it.
Requirements and limits
- A free MyFreshTools account, with free credits at signup and no card.
- Permission to manage subscriptions on the connected account.
- The preview is free. 1 credit per 2 channels actually added; skipped, unavailable and failed channels are not charged.
- Up to 500 new subscriptions per day, shared with Bulk Subscribe. Files up to 2 MB, CSV or JSON.
- It cannot recover a list you never saved, or read an account you cannot sign in to.
How to avoid losing your subscription list again
Save a fresh copy before any change that could lose the list: a big cleanup, switching accounts, closing an old email address. Keep it somewhere you will find it, with the date in the file name. If you add channels steadily, an export every few months is plenty. Our guide to backing up your subscriptions covers CSV, JSON and ZIP options, and mass unsubscribing is far safer when a backup exists first.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “No channel column” error | The file isn’t a subscriptions export. | Use a Subscription Backup file or Takeout’s subscriptions.csv. |
| Everything shows as already subscribed | Nothing was lost on this account, or the wrong account is connected. | Check which account you connected. |
| Run paused at the daily limit | 500 new subscriptions reached for today. | Resume tomorrow; progress is saved. |
| Some channels unavailable | They were deleted or made private since the backup. | They can’t be restored; they’re listed in the report. |
| Few channels in the Takeout file | It was exported after the subscriptions were lost. | Look for an older archive. |
Frequently asked questions
Yes, if you have a list of the channels from before they disappeared. YouTube keeps no history of removed subscriptions, so the restore comes from a file you saved: a subscription backup or a Google Takeout export.
Yes. The subscriptions.csv inside a YouTube Takeout archive has Channel Id, Channel Url and Channel Title columns, and Subscription Restore reads it as-is. YouTube itself has no import button for the file.
Not through YouTube. An app you authorise can create the subscriptions listed in the file instead, which is what Subscription Restore does, after showing you a preview.
There is no recycle bin, and neither YouTube nor MyFreshTools can read a list that no longer exists. You can rebuild from an older Takeout archive, another account that follows the same channels, or your watch history, but not automatically.
First rule out the simple causes: a different account is signed in, or you are on a new device. If the subscriptions really are gone from the right account, restore them from a backup. The article on missing subscriptions covers the diagnosis.
No. A restore only adds subscriptions. Channels you follow now that aren’t in the file are left exactly as they are.
Yes. Whichever account you connect gets subscribed, so the same file can rebuild your list on a new account. If the old account still works, Subscription Transfer can copy it directly with no file.
They show up as unavailable in the preview. They can’t be subscribed to, so they’re skipped and never charged.
The takeaway
YouTube cannot undo a lost subscription, but a saved file can. With a backup or an older Takeout export, restoring is an upload, a preview and one confirmation.