YouTube: "insufficient permissions"

Insufficient permissions from YouTube means the token Postbean holds does not carry a permission the request needs. Google issues a token for exactly the scopes you approved at the time, and it does not gain new ones later.

The usual cause

The channel was connected before Postbean started asking for a permission it now uses. The clearest example is the first comment: leaving a comment on your own video needs a broader scope than uploading it. Channels connected before that scope was added upload fine and fail on the comment.

The fix

Reconnect the channel:

1. Open Connections (/panel/connections).
2. Click Reconnect on the YouTube channel.
3. On Google’s screen, approve every permission, including the ones you have not seen before.

The re-consent is the whole point — without it Google reissues the same limited token.

Other causes

• You revoked access in your Google account’s Third-party apps with account access. Reconnect.
• You approved a subset of the permissions. Google lets you untick some; each one you untick removes a feature.
• The wrong Google account. If you have several, the connection has to be made with the one that owns the channel.
• Custom thumbnail rejected. That is a separate requirement: YouTube only allows custom thumbnails on verified channels. Postbean uploads the video anyway and logs the thumbnail failure rather than failing the post — verify the channel in YouTube Studio under Settings → Channel → Feature eligibility.

Upload quota

YouTube’s free API quota allows roughly six uploads per day. Once it is exhausted, further uploads fail until it resets — that error says quota rather than permissions.