Kids and cars

Published by marco on

Updated by marco on

If anyone’s wondering why they can’t find me on Google+ anymore, it’s because recent changes led to my YouTube account no longer functioning as I wanted it to.

Essentially, my situation was like this:

I have an ancient YouTube account associated with my only gmail address
Until recently, this YouTube account was not associated with Google+
A while back, I created a Google+ account for the same gmail address
Until recently, this Google+ account was not associated with YouTube

Several months ago, Google started asking me whether I wouldn’t rather just merge all of my online identities, but since I hardly use Google+ and because I didn’t feel like trawling through preferences to make sure my YouTube history wasn’t suddenly posted to all circles, I turned them down. I thought it better to keep a wall between the two because, in my mind, there was no association.

Eventually, Google stopped harassing me about it.

I recently discovered that my YouTube page had sprouted its own stunted Google+ page and that my Google+ page had acquired its own YouTube page.

I now had two YouTube accounts and two Google+ pages associated with the same email address. And the default account for that address was the primary Google+ account, which actually has Google+ content but which is associated with an empty YouTube account.

This is what would lead to an issue for me. When I logged in to YouTube, it would ask me as which user I wanted to use YouTube. I could then choose the correct account. In some places–the NetNewsWire browser, for example—the default would switch and all videos I added to my queue would end up in the (now nearly) empty YouTube account.

Is there a way to merge two YouTube accounts? Nope. How about two Google+ accounts? Nope. Can you change association for accounts? You know, so the useless Google+ account could be associated with the useless YouTube account, leaving me alone forever? Nope.

Fine. Then I’ll choose the lesser of two evils and delete the Google+ page (and hopefully it’s associated stunted wart of a YouTube page that’s getting on my last nerve).

“I’m leaving because recent changes have led to two Google+ pages/accounts linked to the same email. Each of these has it’s own YouTube page.

“Google asked for feedback on why I deleted my Google+ page. Here’s what I only semi-coherently wrote:

“* My actual Google+ page, not used very much, had it’s own YouTube page
* My actual YouTube page, used heavily, sprouted its own Google+ page
* The new YouTube page kept ending up as the default one instead of my heavily used one
* My YouTube experience went downhill as I ended up with all of my “Watch Later” videos in a random account (but usually the wrong one).
* I searched, but found no useful assistance
* So I deleted my Google+ page (the lesser of two evils) in the hopes that it would take the undesired YouTube page with it”