How to turn off Shorts remixing in YouTube Studio

To stop other creators from remixing your videos, open YouTube Studio and toggle the Shorts remixing setting off. A second setting, "Allow people to sample this content", is the opt-in your own videos need before YouTube's "Edit into a Short" works on them. They are related but not the same switch.

This post reads two YouTube help pages (remixed content, and Shorts from your own videos), both read 2026-10-02. I did not log in to a Studio account, so the exact menu path is not described here; the help pages name the settings but I am not going to invent the clicks.

What does the Shorts remixing setting control?

The remix help page says creators can opt out by going to YouTube Studio and toggling the Shorts remixing setting. Remix covers Cut, Green screen, Collab and Template, and audio sampling, so the setting is about other people reusing what you published.

The page also notes that some videos are unavailable for remixing anyway, depending on privacy settings or who has claimed copyright ownership. Turning the setting off is therefore not the only reason a video can be missing from the remix picker.

What does "Allow people to sample this content" control?

The page about creating Shorts from your own videos lists it as a requirement. Your video must be public, original, free of third-party claims, and opted in through that setting. If it is off, the Remix > Edit into a Short route is not available for that video.

So there is a tension to decide on. Leaving sampling on lets you cut your own long videos into Shorts with a link back. It also leaves the door open to sampling, depending on how the remix setting is set.

Which setting should I pick?

The pages do not give a recommendation, so this is a decision table of what each choice trades away.

If your channel is mostly long-form and you want your own Shorts to link back, keep sampling on for the videos you will clip. If you publish content you do not want reused, turn remixing off and cut your Shorts from files instead.

Can I still make Shorts from my own video with both settings off?

Yes, if you work from the file instead of the YouTube flow. A cut you make elsewhere and upload is an ordinary upload, so it does not depend on the sampling opt-in. You give up the automatic link back that the in-app flow adds.

This is where a file route is simple. Video trim cuts a range from a clip you imported into your workspace and returns a new MP4. Sume never writes to your YouTube channel, so it cannot flip either setting for you, and it does not check them.

A cut from minute 3 for 45 seconds:

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: file-cut-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/long.mp4",
    "start": 180,
    "duration": 45,
    "mode": "sync"
  }'

Is there anything to double-check after changing the settings?

Reload the video's watch page signed in as a different account, or ask a collaborator to look for the Remix option. The help pages do not publish a delay between toggling a setting and it taking effect, so verify rather than assume.

For the question of whether clips of your own long video count as original now, see Clip your own long video into Shorts.

What do the help pages not tell me?

They do not say how quickly a changed setting takes effect, whether turning remixing off removes remixes that already exist, or whether the two settings interact. The remix page does say what happens when a source is deleted or restricted: remixed audio is muted, set to Unlisted and scheduled for deletion in 30 days, and video remixes are deleted. Whether an opt-out is treated as a restriction for that purpose is not stated, so ask YouTube support before relying on it for existing remixes.