Peggy Ks Tips & Tricks

What happened to my Settings, Playlists, Channel and Video Manager?
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

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 glitch in the processing of your video that corrupts it, so the video is still there but it look…

This article has gotten quite long and messy as options have changed over the years.  On October 8, 2018, Google announced that Google+ for consumers would be shutting down by August 2019.  Before then, any requirement for a Google+ profile will presumably be removed from other Google products and services. 

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+ Circles
If you delete your Google+ Profile:
All Google+ posts, comments and +1s will be permanently deletedAll Google+-based comments on Blogger blogs will be deletedYouTube comments should be retained (but if you shared them to Google+, those s…

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 new interface for Google+ Pages.  Despite the name, Google My Business isn't just for businesses. It's also for Google+ Pages that represent brands, organizations, bands, YouTube sh…

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't want your personal Google+ Profile name associated with your blog? How can you blog pseudonymously or anonymously?

You have a couple of options:

1. Use a "limited" Blogger Profile

2. Add your Google+ Page as a blog author and write posts as your Page.
     (Note: this …

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.