How to use it
- Paste your timestamps Or add them one at a time. Any common format works.
- See what’s wrong Every problem is explained in plain words.
- Fix and copy One click fixes it. Paste the result into your description.
Add the video’s length if you know it: then the last chapter gets checked too. Lines without a time (like “Thanks for watching!”) are pointed out, since they won’t become chapters.
YouTube’s rules for chapters
YouTube turns the timestamps in your description into chapters only when they follow a few simple rules.
- 1The first one starts at 0:00
- 2Three chapters or more
- 3Each lasts 10 seconds or longer
- 4In time order, in the description
Times can be written as 0:00 or 00:00, and with hours past the first hour, like 1:02:03. Put one chapter on each line: the time, then a short title people would want to tap. Chapters you write yourself take the place of any automatic ones.
Why aren’t my chapters showing?
Go down this list. Almost every time, one of these is the reason:
- The first time is 0:00, not 0:01 or 0:05
- There are at least three timestamps
- Every chapter lasts at least 10 seconds
- The times go up from top to bottom
- They’re in the description, and you pressed Save
- Times use colons (1:05), not dots (1.05)
Every chapter holds a short
Chapters mark where each topic starts. That’s also where the moments worth a short tend to sit: a story, a strong opinion, a clear tip. Most chapters hold at least one part that works on its own, so a list of chapters is already a list of shorts to make.
Free · Tool Subtitle converter Have subtitles for the video? Convert them to SRT, VTT or plain text, and fix their timing.For the whole process, from chapters to finished shorts, read how to turn a long video into shorts.
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