How to organize YouTube subscriptions into folders
Follow a few hundred channels and the YouTube Subscriptions feed becomes one long, mixed-up stream. The cooking video you wanted is buried under gaming clips and Shorts. YouTube has no way to group channels, but you can still get there.
What YouTube gives you
In the YouTube app, the Subscriptions tab shows every new upload from every channel you follow, newest first. Tap All to see your channel list, sorted by most relevant, new activity or A to Z. You can open one channel at a time, but there’s no way to put channels into groups and see new videos from only that group.
Playlists don’t solve it either. They hold videos, not channels, so you’d have to add every new video by hand.
Plan your folders
Before you sort, decide on a few groups. Fewer is better: five to eight folders cover most people.
- Start from how you watch: things you watch while cooking, things you watch to learn, things the kids watch, things you watch every day.
- Let a channel live in more than one folder if it fits two.
- Keep one folder for channels you never want to miss.
- Don’t sort old, dead channels at all. Clean them up first: see how to clean up your YouTube subscriptions.
Sort your channels with SubLib
SubLib turns your YouTube subscriptions into folders. Sign in with your Google account (read-only access), and your channels appear. Tap Suggest folders to sort them in one go, using the topics YouTube already gave each channel, then fix anything by hand. Give each folder your own color or cover photo and drag to reorder them.
Each folder then gets its own feed of new videos, and one library shows everything new with a “play this now” pick at the top. Hide Shorts, show only 10+ minute videos, or save a video for later. Videos open in the official YouTube app.
Keep it tidy
When you subscribe to a new channel, add it to a folder the same day. Every few months, check for channels that have stopped uploading or that you’ve stopped watching, and let them go.
Questions
Does YouTube have folders for subscriptions?
No. YouTube lets you sort your channel list, but not group channels into folders with their own feeds.
Can SubLib change my YouTube account?
No. SubLib asks for read-only access. It never posts, likes, comments, subscribes or unsubscribes for you, and your folders are stored only on your phone.
Is SubLib free?
Yes. The free version gives you 3 folders and your first 50 subscriptions. SubLib Pro is one payment and unlocks unlimited folders and all your subscriptions. It’s in closed testing on Google Play right now, and you can join the beta from its page.