Can you break the connection between YouTube and your google mail account?

Factual Questions
1

Google owns YouTube. (i think)

I was trying to connect YouTube to watch through my TV.

As I was going through the directions, I had to set up a YouTube account. Instead of creating a dummy email address, I used one I use regularly (mistake, I know, but I wasn’t really thinking, and I didn’t want to go through the gyrations of creating a new email account at that moment.). I didn’t want to put in my email address and tried skipping the step, but it would NOT let me continue.

However, now each time I sign into my google mail, google signs me into YouTube. Each time I sign out, it has to also sign me out of YouTube.

Is there any way to break this connection?

What I want to do is reclaim my email address and not have google sign me into YouTube each and every time I log in to check my mail.

But I can’t toss this email account away.

Does Google/YouTube have me in their grasp forever WRT this email account?

2

I’m not sure what you mean by being signed into both simultaneously. For me, at least, I can log into GMail or I can log into YouTube, but it is two separate logins on two separate pages. As far as I see, they just happen to use the same email and password.

Now, I have multiple GMail accounts, including a business one with Google Apps. Maybe that’s changing my experience?

I also do most of my web browsing with plugins to keep as much of Google blocked as possible, but I use Chrome for GMail and YouTube so that I don’t have those plugins in the way.

3

Make another Google account, transfer your channel to it (if you have one), and then in YouTube, go to the upper right and “Add Account” the other account so you can switch to it.

Or just open YouTube in Incognito mode.

4

I hate google so I don’t have a youtube account.

5

I’ve done it the other way round (stay logged into Youtube but not Google). It required a lot of cookie juggling, but I suppose your constellation is possible also.

6

I will try what Reply has suggested.

What is happening now is unacceptable. Now, when I sign into my gmail account, it will sign into my youtube account, and then gives me the splash screen to log into my gmail account AGAIN.

i literally have to sign in twice. The login screen looks exactly the same.

If I use another gmail account, it works as you would expect.

When I sign out, the top bar says “signing out of youtube” then some flashing and then “signing out of google.”

It is beyond annoying.

7

When you sign into Gmail, what you are essentially doing is signing into Google services which includes YouTube, Google+, Google Drive, etc. If you sign out of one service, (ex., Gmail), it means you have signed out of every other services completely.

I’m not exactly sure what you’re ultimately trying to accomplish but if it’s this and only this:

Do the following. (I’m going to assume you’re using FF):
Log out of Google services. Then go to Tools>Options>Privacy tab in your browser and look for 3rd party cookie settings. Enter “www.youtube.com” and have it not save cookies from this site. Now, when you log in to Gmail, you will not be logged into YouTube automatically.

The only problem is, this is going to create a different set of problems the next time you try to log in to YouTube on the same browser… but it solves your quoted problem.

8

Moderator Note

Then you have nothing to contribute to the thread, so there was no reason for you to post. No warning issued, but let’s refrain from threadshitting in the future.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

9

Can you tell us what the URLs are for these logins? This just doesn’t sound like the behavior I’ve seen with any of my Google accounts.

Have you tried clearing out the browser cache and/or cookies? Maybe there’s something corrupted there which is confusing Google?

Do you get the same behavior on different computers or different web browsers?

10

Google doesn’t treat everybody the same. For me the final straw came several years ago. I was occasionally uploading videos of me performing classical guitar pieces so a distant teacher could critique them. They were all public domain by a composer long dead, so no question of copyright infringement – youtube right now shows 27,000 listings for “carcassi etude”, which are the pieces I was working through.

One day i logged on to youtube and got a screen demanding that I provide my real name and phone number and a convenient time for them to call to verify my phone number. They were going to connect all my uses of all google services. There were no other options … I looked, I really really looked, and all I found were some other people who were getting the same thing, most of whom were simply abandoning all things google. It seems when google gets an idea, they roll it out to a group of people and see what the reaction is. This one got such an immediate backlash that they stopped pushing it out, but left those of us who were hit with no options other than comply or quit.

I quit using all things google except for one old gmail account; I sometimes watch youtube videos but don’t sign in. I wasn’t even able to access my videos to delete them. I checked back a few times over the next year or so but always got the same “You must comply” screen.

Being selected for a google trial of a new idea for gathering tracking date on people appears to be permanent as far as I have been able to determine.

11

Please let me know what other info you might want.

This is in both Chrome and Safari.

Yes, I cleared all cookies, all history, all everything.

And now, it’s worse.

Now, no matter what gmail account I use, it logs me into youtube first.

When I try to log into my gmail, I go to google, and hit the gmail tab.

On the top of my brower, I see

accounts.google.com

I put my google account name, then my password, and then the top of the browser changes briefly, and says

accounts.youtube.com

And then it bounces back to

accounts.google.com

Before finally,

mail.google.com (then I see e-mail)

When I sign out of gmail, I see all of these url’s at the top of my browser in reverse. In both logging in and logging out, about 50% of the time, I have to sign in or out twice.

I went to youtube and did some digging around. I found the email address that I accidentally connected, and removed it. I then cleared my cache, cookies, and history.

Now, somehow, google decided to hook in my main google gmail account into youtube, and I have NO IDEA how or why that happened. I definitely never made that particular connection, because I am trying to kill the connection between a secondary account.

I have never set up a youtube account with my main gmail account, but somehow, Google made the connection.

I think I am in google hell.

F*€kers.

12

Missed this.

I will try this when I get home.

I don’t have a google+ account, nor do I want one. Google wants EVERYTHING, including my phone number, so they can help me in case I forget my password. :dubious: yeah, sure. They are just data mining, and it is getting out of hand.

All I want to do is have a gmail account.

Maybe what google is telling me is that I will have to turn over all of my information so it can track everything I do while using their services… I guess that is their right, and I am tied to gmail pretty tightly now, but I can adjust if I have to.

I don’t want them tracking every video I watch so they can send me targeted ads. I know that’s what they are doing (well, one of the things).

And I know this because I had a problem with my riding mower, did a search on youtube, watched a couple of how-to videos, and now I am getting bombarded with targeted ads for riding mowers. This has happened within the last week or so, when I inadvertently linked a secondary gmail account to youtube. My mistake, but damn, do I have to pay for it with my sanity?

13

Sorry, what is FF?

14

Firefox.

15

Firefox browser.

16

Ok.

I need some help here.

I want to find that 3rd party cookie settings option, that Saturn Dreams mentioned.

I am on my iPad, and use either safari or chrome.

I looked in both browsers, and I couldn’t find anything like that. Settings for all kinds of things, clearing cookies, history, etc. but no 3rd party cookie setting…

I suspect there is a reason for this.

Google owns chrome, so perhaps they don’t want to give me that control?

And Safari, who knows? Maybe I just have missed it.

17

Sorry, but this is no longer possible. That’s the point. Google has amalgamated all of its services into one log in and you cannot pick and choose which services to keep and discard. You don’t have to use any services you are not interested in of course, but there is no “Gmail” account or “YouTube” account; they are all “Google” accounts, now.

Ah, you’re trying to do this on iOS. I just checked Safari on my iPad and you cannot block site-specific cookies like you can on FF, only all of them, or from 3rd parties. Go to Settings>Safari>Block cookies and check “Always” Blocking 3rd party cookies only might work but I’m not sure. It depends on how cookies from Google are handled. Also, it would be a good idea to flush all your cookies before you do this, or at least from the sites where you don’t want to be automatically logged in.

I use Chrome only on Android and it’s the same philosophy here as well.

18

My answer? Don’t use any google web-based services signed in.

“But GMail!”, you say.

You don’t have to use GMail over the web interface. A mail app which can access GMail’s IMAP protocol interface will allow you to log into GMail through that protocol, and through that separate app, without logging into anything over GMail’s web services – which is where the service amalgamation takes effect.

Frankly, webmail is an abomination to me, and GMail’s webmail twice so. YMMV, of course, but I use Thunderbird on my PC and Google’s own GMail app on my android phone. And therefore, I’m not logged into Google over any browser session, ever.

Youtube and google searches are delightfully anonymous (for Google-limited values of “anonymous”).

ETA: the official GMail app at the Apple App Store.

19

I’m still confused. You’re upset that it’s just redirecting through a youtube url in the process of logging in? That should take well under 1 second, and really not even be noticeable unless you’re staring at the address bar as it loads. I’m not clear on why this causes a problem. I do understand if you just are against the accounts being tied together on principle - that’s totally fine. But I’m not understanding if there’s some actual technical or functional problem here. It’s normally effectively invisible.

Also, unless you’re on a shared computer, why are you logging out every time you’re done checking your email? In general your life will be easier if you just stay logged in (if it’s a household shared computer, consider creating separate computer accounts for each person)…

20

People are telling you – you can not unlink them. Once you agree to their terms, you only have one google account for all the different services they provide. Every google search you make, every time you look at a map or navigate by GPS using google map, every document you create, every file you upload, every youtube video you watch, every gmail you send or receive, everything you do while logged in to any google service is all recorded under one account.

The only way around it would be to create a google account which you only use for youtube, another account which you only use for maps, another account for gmail, etc. If you have been selected for the “You must provide your real name and verifiable phone number” thing, even making separate accounts for each google service you use may not be possible.

It’s been mentioned that you can use something like Thunderbird to access gmail without logging in to google. That is how I do it.

Allowing google to gather and sell your personal data is the price you pay for their services you choose to use.