Connect or disconnect your YouTube account

Updated 9 September 2026

You do not need to connect a YouTube account to capture videos. Capturing works by pasting a link; kyn reads the public transcript. The optional YouTube connection exists for one thing: posting comments to YouTube from kyn, along with the subscription choices attached to them.

What connecting enables

With YouTube connected you can cross-post a note as a YouTube comment under the video it came from, choose whether to subscribe to the channel when you comment, and optionally append a source link back to the timestamped moment. kyn asks Google for the minimum YouTube permission this flow needs and uses it only for these actions.

How to connect

1. Open Settings and find the YouTube section, under Comments and subscriptions.
2. Choose Connect YouTube. A Google window opens; pick the account you comment with and approve the permission.
3. Keep the window open for a moment. When it says YouTube connected, you can return to kyn and it closes itself.

If the window ends with "YouTube did not connect", return to kyn and try connecting again; a half-finished Google step is the usual cause.

Fixing connection errors

• "Connect YouTube before posting a public comment": the action needs the connection; connect as above.
• "Reconnect YouTube so kyn can post comments for you": Google expired the connection. Disconnect and connect again.
• "YouTube quota is temporarily exhausted" or "You are posting too quickly": wait a little and try again; nothing is lost.
• "YouTube did not allow this action for your account": YouTube declined it, usually a channel or video restriction on their side rather than anything in kyn.

Disconnecting

Choose Disconnect in the same Settings section, any time. We remove the stored connection tokens immediately. Comments already posted to YouTube stay on YouTube, as they belong to your Google account there; records of what you did in kyn remain subject to the retention periods in the Privacy Policy.