YouTube Early Upload
Push your scheduled YouTube video to YouTube as private the moment you schedule it, instead of waiting until publish time. YouTube then publishes it automatically at your chosen time, and in the meantime the video sits in YouTube Studio so you can finish anything that ShortSync (or the YouTube API) can't do for you.
Enable it in Settings → Advanced Features → YouTube Early Upload. This makes the early upload checkbox visible in the scheduling step, where you can turn it on or off per video.
Why use it?
Some YouTube features can only be configured from inside YouTube Studio (or the YouTube mobile app), not through the API ShortSync uses to post on your behalf. Early Upload buys you a window where the video is already in your channel as a private draft, so you can:
- Set a featured / related video. The YouTube API doesn't expose this, so the only way to attach a featured video is to open the upload in YouTube Studio and pick one. With Early Upload it's already sitting there waiting.
- Change the thumbnail from the YouTube mobile app. Useful when your best thumbnail lives on your phone and you don't want to round-trip the file through your desktop.
- Review and resolve copyright claims before the video goes public, so you can swap audio or dispute the claim without anyone seeing the unfixed version.
- Anything else you'd normally do in Studio (end screens, cards, chapters tweaks, monetization checks) without racing the clock on publish day.
Per-Video Toggle
When scheduling a video with YouTube selected, you'll see the YouTube Early Upload checkbox. Check it to upload that video to YouTube immediately as private. YouTube will automatically publish it at the scheduled time.
You can enable or disable this on a per-video basis, so use it for the videos where you actually want to touch YouTube Studio first and leave it off for the rest.

Enable early upload per video in the scheduling step
In Your Video Library
Videos uploaded early show "On YouTube" status with a link straight to YouTube Studio, so you can jump in and set the featured video, swap the thumbnail, or handle any copyright claims before publish time.

View your scheduled YouTube upload in the video library