How To Save and Export Twitch Streams

Bojan Jovanovic

Updated: May 6, 2023

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Twitch is undoubtedly one of the best places for creating livestreamed entertainment. This platform is for gamers, artists, performers, and even people who just want to chat with the audience while splashing in a hot tub. But, sometimes, you’d like to come back to those moments to analyze your gameplay or simply highlight the fun moments you had while streaming.

That’s why we’ll show you how to save Twitch streams for rewatching and safekeeping. We’ll also show you how to archive and export your videos on demand (VODs) so you can edit them later.

Setting up Twitch to Save Your Streams

Twitch is, first and foremost, a live content platform. Most of the audience comes there for live reactions and “hype” moments in video games, to be entertained while interacting with the streamer in real time. Pre-recorded video content simply can’t offer such an experience.

As a streamer, though, you’ll want to save Twitch streams so your audience can rewatch them if they missed you going live and edit and upload them to other platforms like YouTube and TikTok as a form of self-promotion.

The problem? Twitch doesn’t save your broadcasts by default. You have to enable that feature manually. Here’s how to do it in a few simple steps:

• Visit Twitch.tv in your browser and log in to your account.
• Open the Creator Dashboard by clicking on your avatar in the upper-right corner and selecting this option from the drop-down menu.
• In the left-hand menu, click Settings and then Stream.
• Check the Store Past Broadcasts option to tell Twitch to save streams. Also, check the Always Publish VODs so you won’t have to manually publish each video.

With this setting enabled, Twitch will automatically keep your streams in the Past Broadcasts section for 14 days. This period extends to 60 days if you’re a Twitch partner, a Twitch Turbo user, or a Primer service subscriber.

How To Save Twitch Streams as Highlights

Twitch won’t keep your past broadcasts forever. To make that happen, you’ll need to turn your saved streams into highlights. Twitch highlights never expire and can be edited to cut out unwanted parts of the stream.

For this, we’ll need to head back to the Creator Dashboard. In the menu, look for the Content section and select Video Producer. There, from the drop-down menu, select Past Broadcasts. This page contains a list of all your recent streams that have been automatically saved as VODs.

To permanently save streams on Twitch, click on the Highlight button next to the stream you’d like to keep. You’ll now be able to edit the stream in the Twitch Highlighter tool:

On the upper-left side, you can set the name of the highlight and the category/game you want it to show up in on Twitch. The main section is the preview with controls, so you can quickly scrub through the video and locate the moments you want to save as a new video. Below is the timeline; the yellow marker shows what Twitch will hold as your highlight.

So, before you turn a Twitch stream into VOD, you need to put the markers down on where to cut the footage. You can drag the left and right ends of the marker or click anywhere in the timeline and select that point as a starting or ending point using the drop-down menu. The same menu allows you to add more segments and reduce the downtime in your highlights.

Clicking on Add New Highlight creates a new clip in the list that starts at the previous clip’s endpoint. All the previously mentioned editing tools apply to it. This way, you can cut multiple parts of your stream into separate highlights if you wish.

Finally, clicking on Publish Highlights will start saving the Twitch stream as a separate clip. Name your clips, add descriptions and tags, or even upload a thumbnail.

Once satisfied with what you’ve done, click Save and Next. Twitch will start processing your clip and, subsequently, your highlights will be available to watch.

Downloading and Exporting Streams to YouTube

Another way to keep your streams from the sands of time (and Twitch’s automated deletion) is to either download them or export them to YouTube. This is especially useful when you’re just starting your streaming career, as you’d want people to find you on other platforms and quickly get a grasp on what your streams are like.

Now that you know how to save streams on Twitch, it’s time to learn how to download them. 

From the Video Producer, look for the highlights or past streams you wish to export or download. Click on the three dots and select Download from the drop-down menu. The text will turn into “Preparing…” and it will take a while before Twitch readies your download. Once the processing is finished, you’ll be able to download the stream in its original resolution.

The other method is to use YouTube export. From the same drop-down menu, select Export. On the following screen, you’ll be prompted to set the video’s title and description and choose whether it should be immediately published on YouTube. Of course, you can set everything up later, and if you haven’t connected your accounts with Twitch, it will prompt you to do so.

Click on Start Export. Twitch will send you an email notification once it’s done exporting the video.

Final Thoughts

Saving Twitch streams is, as you can see, a fairly straightforward process and a great way to make compilations without having to constantly record everything. Your path to internet stardom awaits now that you know how to do it. Happy streaming!