How to Add a Windows Movie Maker Video to YouTube

Last Updated: June 4, 2020

Windows Movie Maker is one of the most commonly used movie making software, especially because it is free and fairly easy to use. When transferring videos to YouTube, however, it can get a little unintuitive. It doesn't have to be hard, and following just a few easy steps can help you learn how to add a Windows Movie Maker video to YouTube.

Steps

1
Open your movie file in Windows Movie Maker.
2
Click the "Publish Movie" button or "Save Movie" button (in Windows XP).

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3
Click "Save To This Computer" and save it to the location that you want.
4
Go to "More Settings" on the next screen and pick the last option (for a .wmv file at 1 megabyte per second).
5
Finish the operation by hitting "Publish" and then "Finish" when the operation is complete.
6
Close Windows Movie maker and go to Youtube.com. Sign in to your account.
7
Click on the "Upload" button in the top right of your YouTube home page.
8
Click on "Upload Video" and browse to where you saved your movie. Select it.
9
Confirm your selection and fill out the various fields: description, title and any others.
10
Upload your video and watch it to make sure it works.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I find settings on Windows Movie Maker?

Community Answer

Go to "File," then click "Options." Then you will be at the settings page. From there, you can change anything that you need to change.
Question

When I try to upload a video, it fails to upload, and I get a "Gone No Longer Available" message. What does this mean?

Community Answer

Sadly, Movie Maker was a part of the Windows 2012 essentials. It's no longer supported. A manual way to upload your content is to save them as a MP4/Video Format, then head to YouTube and press upload. Find your file and upload it.
Question

Are publish and finish dialogues supposed to pop up?

Community Answer

Yes, because the finish and publish dialogues are supposed to notify you of when your video finishes processing. If you're receiving error messages, that's not supposed to appear unless you're trying to directly upload to YouTube.