Peggy Ks Tips and Tricks

What happened to my Settings, Playlists, Channel and Video Manager?Note: as of March 2019 this "old desktop experience" is still partially available, but is gradually being replaced by a newer layout. The account navigation links all still work. 

Last week YouTube made a significant change to navigation. Clicking your channel avatar used to display an extensive menu at the top of the page, but now all you will find is more simplified menu that lets you select Creator Studio, settings or switch channel identities. Several options - such as your Video Manager - are now several clicks away.
How to navigate YouTubeNew Navigation basics: selecting a channel identity, Creator Studio and settingsCreator Studio: Video Manager, Comments, Analytics, channel settings and creator toolsYour YouTube Account SettingsMy Channel - view and configure your channel layoutView and manage Playlists, Likes, Watch Later list and HistoryView and manage Subscriptions

NEW for February 2019: Get directions for backing up your Brand Account YouTube channel here. 
Do you have a backup copy of your YouTube videos?  If your videos are important to you, I highly recommend you keep an archived backup on your own hard drive, DVDs or other storage location. Fortunately Google Takeout lets you download almost all your content stored by Google - including your YouTube videos - quickly and easily.


Why do you need a backup? YouTube does not guarantee your videos will be accessible forever. Even if you keep the access details for YouTube account up to date, and keep your Google account secure from hackers your videos can be lost if:
you inadvertently delete your videos. Video deletions on YouTube are permanent!you inadvertently delete your YouTube channel or Google account. YouTube channel deletions and Google account deletions are also permanent!your video is removed because of a copyright claim or community guidelines violationvery occasionally there can be a gl…

Google will be shutting down Google+ for consumer accounts on April 2, 2019. 

All personal Google+ Profiles and Google+ Pages will be deleted, along with Google+ posts, photos and videos uploaded to Google+. Any photos in Google Photos will remain there. This will NOT shut down your other Google products like Gmail, Google Drive or YouTube. Google+ features on Blogger  and YouTube will be will be removed in February 2019. Back up your Google+ photos and Google+ Page data before April 2nd!

Here is the bottom line, as of November 2018:
Your Google+ Profile is required for:
Google+ posting and commentingPosting comments on Blogger (or other sites) with Google+ comments enabledIf you use Google+ comments on your Blogger blog, managing those comments Using apps in the old Hangouts video calls interface and in Hangouts on Air (note: most of these apps were retired April 25, 2017)Managing who can contact you via Hangouts with Google+ CirclesIf you delete your Google+ Profile:
All Google+ posts, …

Update March 2019: All Google+ Pages will be deleted when consumer Google+ shuts down on April 2, 2019. That will not affect YouTube channels, Google My Business listings or Brand Accounts.
Update October 2017: Google My Business no longer creates a Brand Account along with a business listing, which means no way to connect Google+ or YouTube to a new listing.
Update May 2017: Google My Business no longer automatically creates a Google+ Page along with a business listing.
Update January 2017: Google+ Brand Pages are no longer supported on the Google My Business dashboard. 
Update August 2016: Google My Business Insights no longer include Google+ Page information, and the Google My Business app no longer supports Google+ Pages.
Update April 18, 2015: Google My Business gets a new icon 
Update September 2015: Google My Business logo updated with new "G"
Update October 2015: new Google My Business Pages dashboard launches
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Google has just launched Google My Business (GMB), a brand …

Note: Google will be shutting down Google+ for consumer accounts on April 2, 2019. All Google+ Pages will be deleted at that time. Be sure to back up your Google+ Page data before then. Brand Accounts will not be deleted and you can continue to sign in directly if you have that set up.

Note: As of September 2016, it is no longer possible to set a password for direct sign-in to a Google+ Page or its Brand Account. If you have an existing Brand Account with a password set, you will continue to be able to sign in.

The alternative is to use a Blogger Profile for your Blogger Account.

If you have a YouTube channel, gamer tag, business or brand, you may want to blog using that identity, rather than your Google+ Profile's common name. If your Blogger account is connected with your Google+ account, you can associate you blog with a Google+ Page. But even after you've connected your Page, your Google+ Profile name will still be the author of your blog posts.

So what can you do if you don…

Google will be shutting down Google+ for consumer accounts on April 2, 2019. All Google+ Pages will be deleted at that time. Back up your Google+ Page data before then.
Update November 2015: with the move to the new Google+, "Local" Pages no longer have any special business-related features. All Google+ Pages look the same.

Google+ Pages come in two main flavors: there are Google+ Pages for brands, organizations, bands, and online businesses and there are Google+ Local Pages that represent a business offline location.  Local Pages can appear on Google Maps and let customers post reviews.

So what can you do if you created the wrong type of Page for your business? Or you inadvertently ended up with both a Local page and a non-Local page?

While it is not possible to merge Google+ Pages, you can now convert a Google+ brand Page into a Google+ Local Page. 

Tired of selecting or switching YouTube channel identities every time you sign in? 
Now you can select any of your YouTube channels - either connected to your Google+ Profile or a Google+ Page you manage - to be the default when you sign in. After setting a default channel, the next time you sign into YouTube you won't have to select a channel identity to use.

There are two ways to set the default channel:
Select a channel when you sign into YouTube along with the option "Don't ask me again"Set a channel as the default in the channel's advanced settings (www.youtube.com/account_advanced) Note that this replaces the option to select a channel for "Signing into older apps" previously found on your Google+ Profile-connected YouTube channel's advanced settings page.