YouTube Shorts Not Embedding in Discord? Here's the Fix
We've all been there. You find the perfect YouTube Short—maybe it's a clutch gaming moment, a hilarious meme, or that viral clip everyone's talking about. You paste the link in Discord, hit enter, and... nothing. Just an ugly URL sitting there. No preview. No embed. No fun.
If your YouTube Shorts aren't showing up properly in Discord, you're dealing with one of the most annoying quirks of video sharing. But don't worry—there's actually a pretty simple fix.
Why Does This Even Happen?
Here's the thing: YouTube Shorts use a weird URL format. Instead of the normal `youtube.com/watch?v=` links that Discord handles just fine, Shorts use `youtube.com/shorts/`. Discord's embed system just doesn't play nice with it.
You might also run into issues if:
- You copied the link from the YouTube mobile app (those links are formatted differently)
- Discord's having one of its days where embeds just decide not to work
- Your server has some permission settings that are blocking embeds
The Usual Fixes (That Kinda Work)
Most people try swapping `/shorts/` with `/watch?v=` in the URL. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't. And honestly, who wants to manually edit every single link before sharing it?
You could also try clearing your Discord cache, checking server permissions, or just... waiting and hoping it loads eventually. Not exactly ideal when you're trying to share something in the moment.
A Better Way to Share Shorts
A lot of Discord communities have just given up on embeds entirely and switched to bots that download and reupload videos directly. One that handles this really well is Clyppy.
Drop a YouTube Shorts link into the bot's /embed command, and instead of waiting for Discord to maybe embed it, the bot grabs the video and posts it directly. It actually plays in Discord—no clicking out, no broken embeds, no hassle.
Works With More Than Just YouTube
The nice thing is it's not just for Shorts. Same bot handles:
- Twitch clips
- Kick clips
- Medal.tv clips
- Twitter/X videos
So if your server shares content from a bunch of different places, you don't need five different bots or workarounds.
Getting It Set Up
Pretty straightforward:
1. Add Clyppy to your server
2. Make sure it has permissions to send messages and attach files
3. That's literally it—just start dropping links
No configuration screens to mess with. No commands to memorize. It just works.
Why Bother With Direct Uploads?
Real talk—videos that play directly in Discord get way more engagement than external links. People are lazy (in a good way). If they have to click out to YouTube to watch something, half of them just won't. But if it's right there in chat? Everyone watches it.
Plus you don't have to deal with:
- Embeds randomly breaking
- Mobile users having a terrible experience
- That awkward moment when your "must-see clip" shows up as just a link
Bottom Line
YouTube Shorts embedding in Discord is broken and has been for a while. You can keep fighting with URL formats and hoping embeds work, or you can just use a bot that handles it automatically.
Add Clyppy to your server and stop thinking about embed issues altogether.