> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.ayrshare.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# YouTube Thumbnail Not Applied (Unverified Channel)

> Your YouTube video posts successfully but the custom thumbnail is missing. The most common cause is an unverified YouTube channel.

When you post a YouTube video with a custom `thumbNail`, the video may publish successfully while the thumbnail fails to apply. In this case the post's top-level `status` stays `"success"` (the video is live), but the YouTube result carries a `warnings` array describing the thumbnail failure:

```json theme={"system"}
{
  "status": "success",
  "id": "<videoId>",
  "thumbnail": {
    "action": "post",
    "status": "error",
    "code": 307,
    "message": "Your YouTube channel must be verified to set a custom thumbnail. Verify your channel at https://www.youtube.com/verify (phone verification). If your channel is already verified, try unlinking and re-linking your YouTube account to restore permissions.",
    "details": "<upstream message>"
  },
  "warnings": [
    {
      "feature": "thumbnail",
      "code": 307,
      "message": "Your YouTube channel must be verified to set a custom thumbnail. Verify your channel at https://www.youtube.com/verify (phone verification). If your channel is already verified, try unlinking and re-linking your YouTube account to restore permissions.",
      "details": "<upstream message>"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Symptom

Your YouTube video appears on the channel, but the custom thumbnail you supplied is missing — YouTube uses an auto-generated frame instead. The API response returns `status: "success"` with a thumbnail `warnings` entry (`feature: "thumbnail"`, `code: 307`).

## Most Common Cause: Unverified Channel

The dominant cause of a YouTube thumbnail `403` failure is an **unverified YouTube channel**. YouTube requires channel (phone) verification before it will accept a custom thumbnail upload.

### Fix: Verify Your Channel

1. Go to [https://www.youtube.com/verify](https://www.youtube.com/verify) and complete **phone verification** for the channel.
2. Alternatively, in [YouTube Studio](https://studio.youtube.com/) go to *Settings → Channel*, select *Feature Eligibility*, and enable *Features that require phone verification*.
3. YouTube may take up to 24 hours to enable custom thumbnails after verification. "Enabled" phone verification does not guarantee YouTube will allow thumbnail uploads — YouTube ultimately determines eligibility.
4. Confirm you can manually upload a thumbnail in YouTube Studio. If you cannot do it manually, the API cannot either.

## Secondary Cause: OAuth Permissions

If your channel is **already verified** and thumbnails still fail with a `403`, the linked YouTube account may be missing the required permissions. Try **unlinking and re-linking** your YouTube account in [Social Accounts](https://app.ayrshare.com/social-accounts) and grant all requested permissions during re-linking.

For Brand / Content Owner accounts (often used for business or organization channels), make sure the linked account has the necessary permissions — we recommend "Owner" rights.

## Pre-Publish Thumbnail Requirements

Ayrshare validates the `thumbNail` before publishing where possible. To avoid a `307` thumbnail failure, ensure the thumbnail meets these requirements:

<ul class="custom-bullets">
  <li>**Format:** PNG or JPG/JPEG. The file extension must end in <code>png</code>, <code>jpg</code>, or <code>jpeg</code>.</li>
  <li>**Size:** 2MB or less.</li>
  <li>**Reachable URL:** The <code>thumbNail</code> URL must be publicly reachable so Ayrshare can fetch it.</li>
</ul>

A thumbnail problem never fails the post. If a thumbnail is definitively invalid (wrong extension, confirmed over 2MB, or unreachable), Ayrshare skips it before the video is uploaded, still publishes the video, and reports the reason in `warnings`. If the failure can only be determined after the video is uploaded, the video stays live and the failure is surfaced via the same `warnings` array described above. Either way the video publishes and `status` stays `"success"`.

## Related

* [YouTube Post API — Thumbnails](/apis/post/social-networks/youtube#youtube-thumbnails)
* [YouTube media guidelines](/media-guidelines/youtube#thumbnails)
* [Error codes — Code 307](/errors/errors-ayrshare#youtube-thumbnail-errors-code-307)