YouTube Shorts Creator Problems, in Their Own Words
I read through creator complaints on Reddit, forums and YouTube explainer videos to see what Shorts creators struggle with most. Five problems kept coming up: Shorts that suddenly get zero views, hours lost to clipping, Shorts hurting long-form growth, shifting monetization rules, and bans with no warning.
Each section below explains one problem, then shows what creators actually said and a product idea that could help. If you are a creator, use it to see you are not alone. If you are a founder, use it to pick a problem worth building for.
Why did my Shorts suddenly stop getting views?Pain Index 80
Small creators see Shorts that used to pull hundreds or thousands of views drop to almost nothing overnight. It happens across devices and re-uploads, with no strike and no warning. For people trying to grow, it hits both income and motivation.
YouTube gives no actionable explanation. Creators guess, re-upload, or wait it out. None of that tells them what actually changed or how to fix it.
“My channel has around 20 Shorts uploaded. A few Shorts reached 500–1500 views, but several recent uploads have received 0 views and what appears to be 0 distribution even after 24+ hours.”
Read the post on reddit ↗
“It just happened to me too I was on that 1k mark and now today the video didn’t even move for some reason”
Read the post on google ↗
- Pulls impressions, swipe-away rate, retention for a dead Short
- Compares against your own historical baseline automatically
- Names exact metric and moment that killed distribution
How do I turn long videos into Shorts faster?Pain Index 70
Finding the right moment, cutting it, reframing it vertically, captioning it and uploading it again takes hours per video. Even dedicated creators burn out on this grind.
There are many AI clipping tools already. But creators still describe the workflow as slow, and some tools cap how much you can use each month.
“the entire process that used to take creators 4-6 hours per video now happens in 5 minutes ZERO manual work ZERO video editing skills needed ZERO content creation required just feed it a podcast URL and you are done”
Read the post on twitter ↗
“The hardest part of repurposing long-form content has always been the extra workflow. Find the moment. Cut it. Reframe it. Caption it. Export it. Upload it again.”
Read the post on twitter ↗
- Scans transcript for clippable moments and builds outline
- Click any section to auto-reframe vertical with captions
- No credit ceiling unlike Opus Clip's monthly limits
Are Shorts hurting my long-form channel?Pain Index 60
Creators who post both formats say YouTube pushes their Shorts while long-form views stall. Subscribers gained from Shorts rarely watch anything else. Some feel Shorts ruined a channel they built over years.
Shorts also push creators toward faster pacing and vertical framing they dislike. And there is no clear way to see whether YouTube now treats the channel as Shorts-only.
“95% of people seem to want that quick 5 second flick through of disposable content, nobody wants to sit around to watch a 30 minute video that contains 30 seconds of relevant knowledge.”
Read the post on google ↗
“It forces you to jack up your pacing to be extremely fast (and filled with tons of cuts / movement) to cater to the super hyper turbo ADHD viewing habits of those who watch it, to make your content vertical which is almost always worse than horizontal”
Read the post on google ↗
- Charts Shorts vs long-form traffic split over 90 days
- Flags exact week YouTube tipped toward Shorts-first
- Answers the specific reclassification question nobody else tracks
Will I stay eligible for Shorts monetization?Pain Index 60
YouTube keeps raising and restructuring the thresholds for watch hours, qualified views and Creator Pool eligibility. Creators worry about falling below the line, and some face outright rejections.
The rules change faster than people can follow. Most creators learn about changes from third-party explainer videos, not from tools that track their own numbers.
“YouTube is doubling the viewership requirements new creators must meet to earn ad and Premium revenue From February 1, creators will need 8,000 watch hours over 12 months or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days”
Read the post on twitter ↗
“YouTube is changing who can earn money from the Shorts Creator Pool. Starting February 1, 2027, creators must average 10M qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days to be eligible.”
Read the post on twitter ↗
- Plots rolling 90-day qualified views against eligibility thresholds
- Shows days until you fall out or qualify
- Flags which uploads actually count as qualified views
Why was my YouTube channel banned with no warning?Pain Index 50
Creators describe losing channels instantly and permanently for unclear reasons, such as a few call-to-action Shorts, borderline kids' content or AI usage. Faceless and AI-assisted creators feel this anxiety most because they do not know where the line is.
Meanwhile, they see obvious bad actors stay up for years. Appeals offer no clear path back, so creators often learn they broke a rule only after the channel is gone.
“YouTube will silence, oppress, ban, strike, and do other heinous acts to channels who speak out against the platform, but at the same time allow real predators to remain on the platform, for almost a decade at that.”
Read the post on reddit ↗
“THE CHANNEL HAD ZERO VIOLATIONS BEFORE THOSE 5 DAYS. THE VERY NEXT DAY AFTER THE EVENT ENDED, I WAS BANNED. NO WARNING. NO STRIKE. STRAIGHT TO A LIFETIME BAN. I never even got the chance to go back to regular content.”
Read the post on twitter ↗
- Checks title, description, and draft against policy text
- Flags CTA density, kids-content, and repetitive-content risk
- Gives plain-English risk score with exact policy clause
Questions people ask
What is Shorts view jail?
It is what creators call it when Shorts that used to get 500 to 10,000 or more views suddenly get 0 to 50. It happens with no strike, no warning and no fix offered by YouTube.
Do Shorts hurt long-form growth?
Many mixed-format creators report that YouTube pushes their Shorts while long-form views stagnate. Subscribers from Shorts often do not watch longer videos.
Why do YouTube channels get banned without a strike?
Creators report bans for reasons like a handful of call-to-action Shorts, borderline kids' content or AI usage. The appeals process gives no clear path back.
What to do with this
If you are a founder, start with view jail. It scored highest and creators have no way to diagnose it today. Talk to small Shorts creators who just had a Short die, show them a simple breakdown of what changed, and see if they come back for it. The monetization and policy problems are good next steps because the rules keep shifting and creators are already looking for answers.
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