Signing Into YouTube In 2013

You cannot sign in using your YouTube username (the bit after com/user/ in the URL) as before.  Now you must use the email address your YouTube channel uses via its Google account.

a)  If you are not sure what Google account using what email address your YouTube channel is associated with (and also if you have a non-linked legacy pre-May 2009 YouTube as that will prompt a linkage interface for you) then use the YouTube username and password as before and you will be told what Google account's email address you should be using:

b)  If you you do not remember your password, or are told that the username and/or password is/are wrong when trying a), then you need to use the "Need help? option instead as shown in the diagram.  This will give you your reset options depending on what you have set up for yourself.

The +Writing Is On The Wall

Unfortunately it is not easy being a YouTuber since about mid-2011 as Google have upped the ante about YouTube and Google integration making it impossible to use YouTube solus since 11th of January 2011 and now introducing us to a further complication to our YouTube life by the introduction of Google+ for YouTube in early 2012.

We first got Google+ Profiles as standard for our new YouTube channels where previously at least we only had to have a Google account (and eventually a GMail by default).  They were the un-linkable kind IF you knew how (view the video on How to Create A YouTube Channel Without A Google+ Profile (CURRENT 2013) here).

Then we got Google+ Page opportunities and it began to get complex, if only because of the options +Pages introduces into the equations.  Google+ Pages are "slave" Google accounts, almost products in their own right.  They are a Facebook page-like facility for public representations of bands, organisations and other branding opportunities and not mere This Is Who I Am At Google like their +Profile counterparts.  But though incredibly complicated to get your head around if you don't quite follow how Google works in regard to YouTube Google saw fit to make the linkage irreversible after 14 days.  I guess because the changing of a name to a brand and the ability to constantly change the +Page only opened doors for the nefarious types, giving them the ability to change their YouTube "name" at will.

To go into a bit more detail here- I don't have an issue with the 14 day cooling off thing.  I don't even have a problem with the fact that permanent doesn't have to mean permanent (Google will, under certain circumstances, unlink even a +Page for you) but I do take issue with the lack of clear explanation of what is what.  To me information is king.  Why oh why can they not just let us KNOW?

After that we had a few hiccups with the like of video responses being removed, all the while the "suggestions" to link to Google+ in some form escalated...

And then it really hit home- if you want to comment to someone who has Google+ (either by design or by default/mistake) you too must have Google+.  In fact I have not been able to escape the need to get +TLFUed!  I got mine when I wanted to post images to the YouTube help forum and have some sort of link to information about me and the links which help us.  So- for me this means that that which I would rather not have, I grudgingly use and still seek to understand for our communal good.

Will we all need to have Google+ if we wish to use YouTube one day?  Without a doubt.  And it will not be long now, I can tell you.

Will I bail or will I go down with a whimper?  The truth?  I don't actually know.  I prefer my account experiences less integrated and more compartmentalised.  Call me old-fashioned.  :)  I might see you around or I might decide to concentrate more time on my website.

May the +Force be with you, not yet.

The Lady from UNCLE

If you are reading this then you may have stumbled across my writings about matters YouTube channels and Google Account management, and are wondering who this verbose and quite mad person is.

What:

OK- I come from a long line of problem solvers and have performed this task for Electronic Arts/Maxis and Aspyr before becoming involved with YouTube.  I actually stumbled across the YouTube Help Forum some years back looking to report (or for a solution to) a bug which was hindering musicians' full use of YouTube and stayed because I realised I had the answer, not YouTube/Google.

In the end Google must have relented and decided that if they could not beat me they might as well join me, and invited me to be a top contributor.  :P  Na-  I clearly baffled them with my BS and they thought it prudent to harness my madness.

So in 2010 I joined the team and made it my mission in virtual life to solve problems with YouTube channels and how their Google Accounts work with/against them.  I have specialised in Google Account recovery and management over the years and am pleased to report that it is still very much 9:1 in the users' favour!  I also engage on policy issues and try to help users get the best out of their appeals, because I feel that it is an area in which users can do with at least some support in getting through to the right teams and there is precious little available on that level.


How:

I am not a Do This, Do That type of person, sorry.  I post at length and in detail with the aim to educate the user to help themselves and understand what they did and why it impacted them as it did.

There are many less long-winded users who probably know as much as I (yes, I appear to be bragging but really, if you think on it, it is sad really, that someone with my education, training and life experience should know so much about something so, so, erm... "virtual") but I always find that explaining the whys and wherefores to users ensures that they do not repeat the same mistake time and time again.  Because-  who knows if the brief instructions followed will still be around/apply the next time around!


Why:

I help others because it suits me.  Candidly seen-  I need the mental exercise of problem-solving because being kept busy keeps me sane in my insanity.  I am not hyper-active, but my mind is.  Always.  I am a classic Gemini.


Who:

That said- I am not given to being used as a punching bag and prefer users to not take their frustrations out on me.  I am not to blame for the problem after all.  Shooting the messenger is bad practice and I am only human.  I will respond in kind and move on quickly.  Which is something to bear in mind if you want continued beneficial (to you) engagement from me.

In my other life I am a designer, a photographer, an editor, a teacher, a company director, a producer, a parent, a welder, a student of law (note-  I am not a lawyer), and a collector of marbles (in joke- sorry).

I am not a secret agent as some allege, so please don't bother reporting me to the FBI, CIA, MI5 or the Home Office.  It's been done already (yes, someone really did report me to their "friend" in the agency) so they know that U.N.C.L.E. is not real and that I am not one of them.  I mean- you can, but you will only make a fool of yourself.

My insignia is my own work.  It features a griffin holding the scale of justice (I am a bit obsessive about right and wrong), a claymore (another symbol of justice), and Alice in Wonderland looking at the all-seeing eye on top of a pyramid (I am also a scholar of Egyptology) which some believe means I am Illuminati.  I am not that either.

In fact I am exactly what I say I am- a free agent (kind of a play on words- I am self-employed, free to please myself).  The Roman numerals have significance, as does the Latin.  The truth will indeed set you free.

If there is anything else you'd like to know- just ask.  I don't generally bite.  :D