YOUTUBE CHAPTERS CHECK · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER · NOTHING UPLOADED
Why aren't my YouTube chapters showing up?
Paste your chapter list and get every problem with its line number: no 0:00 start, fewer than three timestamps, chapters under 10 seconds, times out of order, impossible times like 11:75, blank titles. Then copy a corrected list, or convert Premiere, DaVinci or Audacity markers to a description block, a podcast chapters.json, ffmpeg chapters or WebVTT.
The text is read in this browser tab and never leaves your device. This checks your list against YouTube's published chapter rules, not against your video. Independent of every platform named.
1. Your chapter list
A description snippet, a marker export (Premiere CSV, Audacity labels) or any "time title" list.
Choose a file or paste the list, then click Check chapters.
Result
Cleaned chapter list
The rules, and what they leave out
YouTube's chapter rules: the list starts at 0:00, has at least three timestamps in ascending order, and every chapter lasts at least 10 seconds.
Times: M:SS, H:MM:SS, fractions, and HH:MM:SS:FF frame timecodes; minutes and seconds stop at 59.
Titles: one per chapter; very long titles are warned about.
Fixed automatically: times put in order, one time format throughout, exact repeats dropped, an optional 0:00 chapter added, an optional shift for a cut intro.
Never guessed: which title to keep when two chapters share a time, how to merge a chapter that is too short, what to call the opening seconds unless you type a title.
Not checked: that the video actually matches the times, that YouTube will display the chapters, automatic chapters, or title quality. Read from memory of YouTube's help page on chapters; confirm against the current page.
Common questions
Why won't my YouTube chapters show up?
YouTube builds chapters only when the description's list starts at 0:00, has at least three timestamps in ascending order, and every chapter is at least 10 seconds long. This tool checks each of those and names the line that breaks the rule. It cannot see your video, so after saving, look for the chapter markers on the progress bar.
How do I turn Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve markers into YouTube chapters?
Export the markers as a CSV or text list, paste it here, and set the frame rate to match your sequence. HH:MM:SS:FF timecodes are converted to seconds; Audacity label tracks (seconds, tab, label) are read as well. The result is a description-ready list.
What if I cut the start of the video after writing the chapters?
Enter the number of seconds you removed in the shift box. Every time is moved earlier by that amount before the checks, and a chapter that would fall before 0:00 is reported and left out of the cleaned list.
Does it write the chapters for me from the video?
No. It does not watch or transcribe the video, so it cannot invent chapter titles. It checks and converts a list you already have.
What are the other formats for?
chapters.json is the Podcasting 2.0 chapters file podcast apps read, FFmetadata lets ffmpeg write chapters into an MP4, and WebVTT is a chapters track for an HTML video. The last two need the video length.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The page works in your browser and a test in the code asserts there are no network calls.