Oh Google, how I hate thee. Let me count the ways... Just kidding. I don't hate Google, but I have been extremely unhappy with the way they run things lately. You all probably know by now about how Google is forcing YouTube users to attach a Google Plus account if they want to be able to leave comments on videos. Personally, I am all for integration! The idea of putting my Google Plus account to use made me very happy to know that I'd be able to broaden my audience to those people who choose to use Google Plus rather than Facebook for example. :3 The one thing I am not all for is when integration ends up f*cking things up. XD
These problems started months ago when I attached my Google Plus account to my YouTube account. At the time, I just so happened to be logged in on one of my alternate Gmail accounts [embersketchbook(at)gmail(dot)com (which no longer exists by the way because of this mess...)] so when my G+ connected to YouTube, my email address of both YouTube and Google Plus, my entire Google Account, changed from my main email address to this "embersketchbook" one. At the time, I never thought anything of it because I didn't think Google was stupid enough to simply switch my email address out for the other one. But as a month went by, I started to notice my main inbox being a lot more empty than it usually is, and then it hit me that I haven't been receiving any email on my main account at all from YouTube.
Since I knew that my "new" email address was the "embersketchbook" one, an inbox I rarely ever checked because I only created it for an alternate art-post Twitter account, I decided to check my Gmail. And BAM! All my YouTube correspondence was there in that inbox... along with all my Google Plus correspondence. So, I thought, "Hey, why don't I just change my email address on my Google Account back to my main one and get rid of this Gmail one?" Sounded simple enough, right? Wrong. For some reason, Google decided to make the attached Gmail Account the primary email address which cannot be replaced unless you actually delete the Gmail account entirely...
Ok, let me point out some things for clarity: Google used to have separate logins and account information for each service they provide/own. YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, and even Google Plus, used to have a separate "Google Account" login. I guess sometime last year, Google decided to integrate everything and use your "Google Account" as the one login to rule them all. Unfortunately for me, I happened to be logged into the wrong Google Account (embersketchbook) and so my YouTube and Google Plus got snagged into being ruled by embersketchbook(at)gmail(dot)com.
On to what happened next... I remedied the "wrong email address" part (after much annoying, self-debating) by deleting the Gmail account all together, which was not as simple as it sounds since I had to go through tech support to do so to be completely sure that my YouTube channel wouldn't be blown away. Since the Gmail account was removed, my YouTube channel reverted back to a "plain" channel without a Google Plus account attached to it. I could have just left it that way, but I enjoy commenting on videos and replying to the comments on my own vids, so I had to re-connect my YouTube to a Google Plus. I was very clear with the support person, asking him/her if I can reconnect my YouTube to the G+ that was removed due to fixing the email address and I was instructed to go to this link: http://youtube.com/gaia_link to reconnect my YT to G+..... And what happened next made me livid. I received an error: "This Google Plus account already has a YouTube channel attached to it."
My Google Plus account that the support people disconnected from my YouTube account in order to fix my email address had made a new YouTube channel all by itself. -_- Now this posed a new problem! My "Google Account" login for YouTube was the same exact email address as the one for my Google Plus! So, whenever I tried to log on to YouTube, I was now taken to the dashboard of this new empty, channel and not my "old", full of videos channel. You can imagine how frustrated I had gotten at this point, and my correspondence with tech support was no walk in the park. This whole fiasco was happening over the time span of almost two weeks... And I left out all the dumb freaking details about juggling Google Accounts over 3 different email addresses as workarounds to connecting and disconnecting accounts... ~_~
Long story short, the answer workaround to all my problems was to allow my YouTube to create a new Google Plus account. Since my old Google Account also governed this blog, I simply invited my new self as an admin and handed it over deleting my old admin self... Thank the heavens Blogger allows the transferring of entire blogs to new admins because if this experience with Blogger wasn't seamless, this blog would have just died on that old account, I may have sworn off Blogger all together, or I would have had to start completely over on this new account.
TL;DR Google sucks at account integration. But everything is in working order for me again, so YAY!
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I refuse to integrate G+ just to comment on videos. They made such a mess of my Youtube account and everything else.. I said the hell with it, just no.
ReplyDeleteSooner or later they'll get .. the more they force us into things, the more we'll look for answers elsewhere.
It is unfortunate that Google is forcing this integration while the process is still so incredibly buggy. And I agree that it is just plain stupid that they're forcing it at all when not everyone wants to have one big integrated "Google Account"!
DeletePersonally I used to like having my hotmail email, connected to my YT.
ReplyDeleteNow, i have to have all this fancy sheet, and it's just damn annoying, thing is i don't want a google+ account anyway, as they sell your data to the companys who put ads on your pages, so they target you.
That's how google makes money, thank god for ad block.