YouTube has probably released this new Publish button for a week or two and I have been using it for a few days, or not using it in another way to look at it. To save a draft, you simply let the page auto-saves, then close the tab when it says “Draft saved.”

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-E0qo7u2tpPxkrsk8kuwgxeEGN2p6aA9MhDdabUnXBCedgkF_CoEBXJv207Kwfe0BTsbFWxRze7s9BUNiXlSd4LuzTXdYkj5FtBDhVT6yIH9Xy-PZwcLTqQ0TcBhPAvJK5VcBN_dWu4/s640/YouTube%2520New%2520Publish%2520Feature%25202014-03-27--09%253A12%253A45.png

It definitely is a half-baked feature as of now (2013-03-27). How so? Because you can only auto-save from the uploading page. You can’t edit draft from your video manager, you won’t be allowed to save a draft, that means any saved drafts after you leave the uploading page can’t be edited without publishing as public, private, unlisted, or schedule.

There is more issues with draft, you can’t add them to playlists. If you add the newly uploaded video to a playlist in the uploading page, the auto-save will tell you this video isn’t saved. That means you can only add to a playlist after publish, same issue goes to scheduled video. In video editing page, the playlist drop-down list is disabled if set to schedule.

A quick summary about draft:

  • Can only be auto-save.
  • Cannot be edited after uploading page.
  • Adding to playlists stops draft from being saved.

The issue with playlist can be worked around or not, you can actually use video manager to add videos to playlists. However, that will only create another issue. Since the videos ain’t published, it will be listed as “[Private Video]” if you view the playlist. In other words, the information about a video in a playlist is revealed, but only the existence, you can tell there is a video in the playlist, but you don’t know what it is if it’s not (yet) published or is private.

In my opinion, YouTube needs to be more smarter on the playlist handling, because one might use scheduling and forget to add the video to related playlist after it’s published. If you are a channel owner who sees clear information is a key, then you will not even use schedule or add a video to playlist before publishing since that will create an awkward “Private Video” entry.

I really don’t understand the “design” of this draft system. I could sugar-coat it as a one-time draft or nearly-crash-proof design. But the truth is it’s flawed.