This forum is not the appropriate place to report privacy, policy, harassment, copyright, or other legal issues. Please consult and use the official resources in our Help Center for any Policy or Legal complaints.
We've heard from many of you that you've accidentally linked your YouTube Account to the wrong Google Account. For some of you in this situation, the Google Account to which you're currently linked isn't even a Google Account you own, and so you're unable to use the Google Account password to sign into your YouTube Account.
Good news! There's now a solution for you.
If you're linked to the wrong Google Account and would like to unlink, follow the steps below and you'll be able to unlink from the Google Account, and regain access to your YouTube Account again.
2. Enter your YouTube username and YouTube password
(as well as the verification code)
(Users who are already signed in don't need to enter their YouTube username / password combination).
3. Click the "Unlink my Accounts" button. This will now unlink your YouTube Account from the Google Account
4. You'll need to re-link your YouTube Account to another Google Account. Please make sure to link to a Google Account you own. You don't want to accidentally link to the wrong Account again!
You can link your YouTube Account to a Google Account by visiting this page:
Similarly, if you don't link your YouTube Account to another Google Account now, you'll be prompted to do so later on (next time you try to sign into YouTube).
You can also check out our Help Center. This article explains how to unlink and re-link:
We really hope this helps, and that you're able to sign into your YouTube Account again!
~ Liz
P.S. Promoted Video users, please note:
If you're currently running Promoted Videos campaigns, this unlink option isn't available to you while your campaigns are still running. Please see this Help Article to learn more:
I am still unable to unlink my Youtube account from Google even after following the new directions.
When I am logged into my Youtube account and try to click http://www.youtube.com/my_account_unlink , it tells me that my Youtube account is permanently linked to my Google Account ("Users who are already signed in don't need to enter their YouTube username / password combination" is completely untrue for me).
If
I log out of Youtube, I am directed to a page that tells me to enter my
username, password, and a captcha, but when I click "unlink my
accounts", I am told my password is incorrect (even though it is correct
and the same password I use to log into both the Youtube account I am trying to unlink and my Google account).
I am still unable to unlink my Youtube account from Google even after following the new directions.
When I am logged into my Youtube account and try to click http://www.youtube.com/my_account_unlink , it tells me that my Youtube account is permanently linked to my Google Account ("Users who are already signed in don't need to enter their YouTube username / password combination" is completely untrue for me).
If
I log out of Youtube, I am directed to a page that tells me to enter my
username, password, and a captcha, but when I click "unlink my
accounts", I am told my password is incorrect (even though it is correct
and the same password I use to log into both the Youtube account I am trying to unlink and my Google account).
One thing to note is that this WON'T work if you created your YouTube username was always attached from the beginning to a Google Account (e.g. every new YouTube username since May 2009). In that case, there's nothing to "unlink" from. This only applies to people who created their YouTube & Google Accounts separately, then linked them together at some point in the future.
mvanveen81 - tricky - your Google Account is your YouTube account since they were created at the same time. So being able to take your YouTube username and move it over to a completely different account has challenges. We'd like to offer that, and we're looking into it, but no promises or timelines at the moment.
droste: as Brian mentions, could you provide us with your YouTube username? Its a bit tough to troubleshoot without knowing the account specifics. Thanks! Hope to hear back from you soon.
CBarth: just followed-up with your solution, you'll receive a message from me with how you can access the account again.
Confirming what Brian brought up earlier to make sure that its clear for everyone.
This new unlinking option is only for users who have YouTube Accounts which were created before May 2009. These types of Accounts were stand-alone accounts with a YouTube username and a YouTube password. These Accounts were not originally associated with a Google Account.
Users with this type of older stand-alone YouTube Account were given the the option to link to a Google Account. For some folks, they linked to the wrong Google Account by mistake. We've provided the new unlink option for these types of older YouTube Accounts so that folks who accidentally linked to the wrong Google Account can still sign into their YouTube Account and re-link to their desired Google Account.
All YouTube Accounts created since May 2009 are by default linked YouTube-Google Accounts. That's why there's nothing to unlink from... Upon sign-up for your YouTube username, you actually also created a YouTube username and Google Account. This is default behavior for all new YouTube Accounts since May 2009.
Is it at all possible to have an email unlinked after an account deletion? I deleted the account linked to my primary gmail email for privacy reasons, and it's now becoming a complete pain every time I wish to look at something on youtube: Unless I remember to sign out of google first, almost every video becomes unviewable, and instead the message "Account permanently disabled" pops up. I'm aware that the account is disabled, but that shouldn't have impact on anything I view.
At very least, I'd really like the email unlinked from the disabled account: At most I'd like any record of the email deleted from the system. It's a bit absurd that the system doesn't just automatically delete every aspect of a user after deletion anyway.
@YT-Brian I think I might have confused you a little there. It's not my google
account that's deleted, but rather, they youtube account. Sorry, I
should have clarified that. Unfortunately, even though the youtube
account is disabled, the email is still linked to the previous account,
which makes it a nightmare for viewing youtube whilst still logged into
that email.
My username is miseenabime, but I created my Youtube account after May 2009 while accidentally signed into the wrong Google Account that I now want to unlink from, so that's probably the reason I am unable to unlink.
Thank you Liz Youtube Support and YT-Brian for the clarification and your help! I hope the option to unlink for post-May 2009 accounts will become available in the future, as having to sign out of my google account every time I want to go on Youtube gets to be extremely tedious and frustrating.
I agree with the above; this whole linking business is extremely tedious and annoying. I really do hope I can unlink in the future, because I never use the YT account I got linked to, and I wanted to be hooked to the one I do use.
OK- this is good news (and I had so promised myself not to join in new threads, sigh...) indeed!
Seems to me that the only possible improvement would be to look at the option to CHANGE the Google account NAME in order to help those who who would like to "unlink" from a specific Google account.
HOWEVER- changing the Google account your post-May 2009 YouTube account is perma-linked to actually involves changing the NAME, not the actual physical account, of your Google account. Meaning, wait for it- that the OTHER Google products linked to the same Google account are also affected because they would be linked to which Google account? The newly named one, surely? IS that really going to work? What if the person who wants to move their YouTube account OFF that Google account's products actually WOULD like to keep their OTHER Google products linked to a Google account in the ORIGINAL name? Hmm... Complicaterer and complicaterer!
@SarahChristine- I understood your question. You will have to reopen your YouTube account in order to not see that message. When you CLOSE a YouTube account it is retained as a permanent record on your Google account, hence you are seeing it as being "disabled", not deleted. This is because you CAN reopen it (which has been a god send to many, including myself) and because Google are keeping track of who had what YouTube account linked where- presumably for accountability/security reasons. IF possible to unlink (and I am not 100% clear that it is- your account may be post May 2009 and it IS a GMail Google account linked YouTube account we are talking of) then this is only "doable" while that account is active.
I created my YouTube account just weeks ago and accidentally linked it to an existing Google account. What I'd like to do is create a new Google account, and have that linked to my YouTube account—as if I created a new Google account at the time I created my YouTube account. What I use the linked Google account for and what I am using YouTube for just don't belong together. It was an oversight on my part. Is there any way I could provide the information in a private message to one of the Google Employees on this thread to have this taken care of? I accept any risk of having the currently-linked Google account messed up a little bit. I'm sorry for not following the signup instructions more carefully.
@ernie123- if you don't mind CHANGING the NAME of the existing Google account (leaving all the other bits and bobs in place) then you can do that- you need to log into YouTube and simply opt to change the email address attached to the YouTube account.
As you have created a Google product- ie your YouTube account which is fully integrated (not just "linked" as the older style YouTube accounts are) into Google this is your only option.
Mind you- this is only possible where the Google account used is not a GMail Google account.
@Stefanie Damm - Unfortunately, it is a GMail Google account. The following message is displayed beneath my current email address in the YouTube settings: Your Google Account's primary email address is a Gmail address, and thus can't currently be changed.
Ah well... Then you truly do not have an option but to accept the Google account's continued "control" of your YouTube account. Only other option you have is to create a new Google account and a matching YouTube account. :)
@SarahChristine - my bad - I totally misread your question. What's your (former) YT username?
We didn't use to properly disassociate your YouTube account from your linked Google account when you deleted your YouTube account. Now we do. But I'm assuming you deleted your YT account a while ago, Sarah, so we'll try to clear things up if you send over your username.
@TobyMobias - that also means that you should be fine if you just delete the YT account that you linked to. You should be able to then link the YT account you actually use to the Google account you actually use.
@droste & @ernie123 - yeah, it'd be great to be able to re-link a post-May 2009 YouTube username to a different Google account. Nothing to announce yet but we're digging into what it would take to offer this.
@ernie123 - re: "What I use the linked Google account for and what I am using YouTube for just don't belong together." - one thing to keep in mind for now is that your YouTube stuff isn't automatically visible to your Google friends / contacts / etc or anything just because your accounts are linked. We know sometimes you still want to keep two completely different "identities" completely separate but unless you choose features in your YT account like "Allow anyone with my email address to be able to find my YouTube channel", then there's a pretty solid public wall between the two.
@YT-Brian - Yeah, I deleted the account a while ago. The username was either sarahteer or sewwychristine. I'm not sure which, it's been a while. Either way, it's associated with the email sarahteer@gmail.com.
You state: "We didn't use to properly disassociate your YouTube account from your
linked Google account when you deleted your YouTube account. Now we do." in your reply to SarahChristine.
Are you saying that it IS now possible to remove the evidence of an old YouTube account from a Google account, and create a new one (meaning a new YouTube account) with the same Google account?
So-what happens in the case of someone wanting, in future, to resurrect an old YouTube account which is now "properly disassociated"? Are they still able to do so?
Just that I don't wish to give incorrect/outdated advice, you see. :)
It wont work for me, i keep getting the password incorrect error I'd reset my password, but youtube wont send out the password reset email. I havent changed my password or anything since i made the account
This also didn't work for me. I recently registered a YouTube account
with the wrong gmail address (blond moment, I know). When I try to
unlink them using the instructions above, I get:
"Your account is permanently linked to a Google Account"
and no "unlink" button. :(
The account section of YouTube also wont allow me to change the email
address, saying:
"Your Google Account's primary email address is a Gmail address, and
thus
can't currently be changed.
"
This also did not work for me It tells me that my account is permanently linked
When I signed up it asked me for my email address and for some reason assumed it was a google account It isn't even a google address it's a yahoo address
Now since yahoo is crap and I finally made a gmail account for this alias, I'd like to get rid of the stupid old yahoo address but... the same techs who wrote the routines that thought a yahoo address was a google account don't seem to want to let me change
>:-U
Can someone please resolve this problem?
(Also, when I log into youtube, it logs me out of gmail and puts my old yahoo address in the top bar of google instead)
@StefanieDamm - "Are you saying that it IS now possible to remove the evidence of an old YouTube account from a Google account, and create a new one (meaning a new YouTube account) with the same Google account?"
Yes, exactly - if you add a new YouTube username to your Google account, and later delete that YouTube username, it'll disappear entirely from your Google Account, as though it was never there.
"So-what happens in the case of someone wanting, in future, to resurrect an old YouTube account which is now "properly disassociated"? Are they still able to do so?"
If you delete your YouTube account, it's gone - no going back. :) Same today as it was two years ago.
@GreenOtter & freeNode5 - yeah, this won't work for you. This won't work if your YouTube username was always attached from the beginning to a Google Account (e.g. every new YouTube username since May 2009). In that case, there's nothing to "unlink" from. The unlinking ability only applies to people who created their YouTube & Google Accounts separately, then linked them together at some point in the future.
freeNode5 - one important clarification (and a common misconception): A Google Account is not necessarily a Gmail account. You can create a Google Account with any email address, just like how you can create a Twitter or a Facebook account with any email address. Of course, you can choose to use Gmail as the email address for your Google Account too.
@YT-Brian- "If you delete your YouTube account, it's gone - no going back. :) Same
today as it was two years ago."
and does this reversion to an old method also mean that there are plans to permit the recycling of usernames which are perma-deleted? Because there is the fact that there ARE so many redundant names which are still being held over by the very fact that they once existed. :)
"Of course, you can choose to use Gmail as the email address for
your Google Account too."
Erm- I thought that all GMail email addresses WERE Google accounts as it is not possible to create a GMail email address without its Google account controller? I mean- not like using a Yahoo email address to create a Google account from scratch, is it? Just in case people are confused about this detail...?
Guys I tried unlinking moments ago, but it says "Your account is permanently linked to a Google Account" Any help would be appreciated. Also I tried it while I'm signed out and it says wrong password even though I'm 100% sure of the pass and I used it to sign in again
My youtube account was created on 30 October 2007. So, I guess no problems. (Check my channel it says the same thing http://www.youtube.com/user/3minEms)
My youtube account, MarkPorterREALTOR, will not link or unlink and I cannot log in to Youtube. Thursday I have to demonstrate the use of Youtube with this account to a large audience of REALTORS. Please help! E-mail addresses are MarkATMarkPorterLive.com and MarkATMarkPorter.Net.
Feed
Linked to the wrong Google Account? Learn how to unlink here.
