How Publishing Works
The one-page mental model: the two places you publish from, what happens after you press the button, and why you can close the tab.
Two Places, One Publisher
You can publish from two places, and both use the exact same form underneath.
The Publish tab in the Studio is for "send the clip I just made". It is Publish on the Studio rail, and it publishes your latest render or an MP4 from your computer.
The Automation workspace (/automation) is for running your whole posting operation: connecting accounts, managing brands, uploading videos to a library, scheduling, Autopilot and the posting queue. Social accounts are only ever connected there. Anything you connect in Automation shows up in the Studio Publish tab straight away.
Publishing, scheduling and connecting accounts all need an automation plan (Lite, Growth, Scale and Max). No Studio plan includes automation on its own. See Automation Plans and Publishing Limits.
| Where | Best for | Video source |
|---|---|---|
| Studio, Publish tab | Posting a clip right after you make it | Latest Studio render, or a local MP4 |
| Automation, Publish tab | Posting or scheduling any video, any time | Your uploaded video library |
| Automation, Autopilot tab | Posting on a repeating rhythm without you (Growth and above) | The Autopilot video pool |
Your Browser Uploads, Our Servers Publish
When you press publish, two things happen in order. First, your browser uploads the video straight to our cloud storage. Second, our servers take the job and do the actual posting to YouTube, TikTok and the rest.
Only the upload needs your browser. Once you see the confirmation, the job is on our servers, so you can close the tab, switch projects or shut the laptop, and the post still goes out. "Publish now" is simply a job set to run immediately: it goes out within about a minute.
Tip
- The confirmation reads "Publishing to [platforms] now: this runs on our servers. Track it in the Automation queue." That is your cue that it is safe to close the tab.
- Every post, from the Studio, the composer or Autopilot, appears in the Queue tab of Automation, so that is where to check what happened.
Publish Now or Schedule
Every publish form has a "When" switch with two options: "Publish now" and "Schedule". Choosing Schedule shows a "Publish time" picker, pre-filled with one hour from now. The time you pick is in your device's local time and must be at least one minute in the future.
Scheduling still uploads the video right away. The date only decides when it posts. How far ahead you can schedule, and how many scheduled posts you can hold at once, depends on your automation plan.
Upload Size Limits
There are two upload paths with different limits, and two platforms accept less than the rest.
| Upload | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Studio Publish tab (latest render or local file) | 200 MB per publish | If a file is larger, your browser first tries to shrink it to fit (on browsers that support it). If it still does not fit, you get a message before the upload starts. |
| Automation video library ("Upload MP4") | 500 MB per video | MP4 (.mp4) only. |
| Autopilot video pool ("Add video") | 500 MB per video | MP4 (.mp4) only. |
| Snapchat | 50 MB | Checked when you publish. Deselect Snapchat or use a smaller file. |
| 100 MB | Checked when you publish. Deselect Pinterest or use a smaller file. |
Technical parameters
- Only MP4 files are accepted for publishing.
- Uploaded videos count toward your cloud storage. Your total storage is your Studio plan's amount (for example 25 GB on Creator) plus what your automation plan adds.
More from BallEngine
Guides, plans and answers for making your videos.