Choose who can watch
Make a video public or private, manage its playback IDs, and stop links you already shared.
Decide whether anyone with a link can play a video, or only viewers your own site lets in with a signed link. You set this when you upload a video and can change it at any time.
Public and private
| Access | Who can play the video |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone with its watch page link, embed code or stream URL. |
| Private | Only viewers with a signed URL: a link that carries an expiry and a signature. Opening the watch page without one shows "This video needs a signed link". |
To give viewers a private video, see Share a private video.
Change one video
In the Make this video private? or Make this video public? box, click Make private or Make public.
When it saves, you see "The video is private now" or "The video is public now". If saving fails, the reason shows in the same box and nothing changes.
Change several videos
On the Videos page, select the videos (work with several videos).
In the bar that appears, click Make private or Make public. The bar shows Make private when at least one selected video is public, and Make public when at least one is private.
The Studio reports how many changed, for example "3 videos are now private". To change a single video from the list, open its actions menu and choose Make private or Make public.
What changes for viewers
When you make a video private:
- Players without a signed URL stop working within a minute. This covers the watch page link, the embed code and the stream URL, including players that are already playing.
- Signed URLs created before the change stop working. Create new ones after the change.
- A player that already streams the video straight from Sia keeps playing until its Sia links expire (why).
When you make a video public, anyone with its watch page link, embed code or stream URL can play it. Signed URLs created before the change stop working on playback IDs set to Signed URL required, so create new ones for those.
Playback IDs
A playback ID is a second ID for the same video. Share or embed with it, and delete it later to stop those links without touching the video or its other IDs. The video ID itself keeps working either way.
Playback IDs are on the Playback IDs tab of a ready video. The table shows each ID's Name, Playback ID, Access, Stream URL and Created date. Access is Open or Signed URL.
Create a playback ID
Optionally enter a Name (up to 100 characters), for example the site where you use it.
Under Who can play, pick Anyone with the URL or Signed URL required, then click Create.
Signed URL required protects only that playback ID's own links. The Studio says so: "Players need a signed URL from your server. The video's files on Sia stay public unless the video itself is private." To keep the whole video behind signed URLs, make the video private.
On a private video, the form starts on Signed URL required, and every playback ID needs a signed URL, whatever you pick.
Use or delete a playback ID
Each row has copy buttons for the ID and its stream URL. Its actions menu has Copy embed code, Copy stream URL and Delete. When the ID needs a signed URL, the row also has Copy signed URL, which copies a stream URL that works for 1 hour.
To use the ID in any code sample, pick it in Play by on the Share tab.
Stop links you already shared
- Delete the playback ID the links use. Its stream URL, watch page and embed code stop working for anyone who opens them after you delete it. The video and its other playback IDs keep working. Deleting cannot be undone.
- Revoke signed URLs to stop the signed URLs you already gave out without changing who can watch (see Revoke signed URLs).
- Make the video private to stop every link without a signature, and every signed URL created before the change (see What changes for viewers).
- Delete the video to stop every link for good. See Delete videos.
Revoke signed URLs
The Signed URLs card on a ready video's page cancels every signed URL created for it so far. It shows on a private video, and on a public video that has a playback ID set to Signed URL required.
When it is done, you see "Signed URLs revoked". If it fails, the reason shows in the same box and nothing changes. Revoking cannot be undone, but signed URLs created after it work as usual.
On a private video:
- Every signed URL created before stops working within a minute, including those of its playback IDs. A player that plays one through your server stops once it has played what it already loaded.
- A player that streams the video straight from Sia keeps playing until its Sia links expire, at most an hour (why).
- The preview on the video's page starts again with a new signed URL.
On a public video, the signed URLs of its Signed URL required playback IDs stop working at once, so a player needs a new one to start. Players that are already playing are not cut off, because the video's files are public. The watch page link, the embed code and the stream URL of the video and of its open playback IDs keep working.
Your server can do the same with the revoke endpoint (Revoke signed URLs).