YouTube TV is an amazing streaming service for watching live and local TV.
But did you know that they actually encourage and allow sharing of your account with up
to 5 other people?
It's such a great feature that I decided to create this complete guide on how to share
YouTube TV with friends and family.
But stick around till the end where I'll explain what to do when members living outside of
your Home Area get locked out by location restrictions.
You'll definitely need that information.
Ok, so to add a new member to your YouTube TV account, the main requirement is that the
person you're adding has to have a Gmail email address.
That's mandatory!
But it's also free to get a Gmail address if they don't already have one.
Now, sign into your YouTube TV account on Chrome or Firefox.
Here click on the icon image at the top right of the screen and then click on Settings.
On the popup menu click on Family Sharing.
Then click on Manage.
On this screen I can see my profile as well as one other person I've already added.
But if I want to share YouTube TV with another person I'll click on the button that says
Invite Family Member.
And here I can also see how many invitations are available.
On the next screen, I'll type in the Gmail email address of the person I want to share
my account with.
Now click on the confirmed email address or account that shows up in the search.
Then click Send.
When I exit out I can see the pending invitation and the expiration date when the invitation
will be automatically cancelled.
At this point, the person you sent the invitation to will get this email from Google.
The recipient just has to click or tap on the Accept Invitation button.
And then they'll be able to sign into YouTube TV on any computer, phone, smart TV or other
streaming device.
And that’s how you share your YouTube TV account with others.
Pretty simple process so far!
But, if I sent an invitation by mistake I can also cancel it.
I can do this by selecting the pending invitation in my dashboard.
And then I just have to click Cancel Invitation to retract it.
And if someone is already a member of my account, I can easily delete them.
To remove a person on my YouTube TV account, click on a confirmed member's icon.
Then click remove member.
Now that person will no longer be able to watch YouTube TV under my account.
The management of users is important because of the limited number that can be added.
And only the account holder can access these settings.
Ok, now that I have other users on my account, the cool thing is that every member will be
set up with their own DVR and viewing history.
For them, it's exactly like having their own account.
Nobody has to share passwords and no data is passed onto the other accounts.
As mentioned before, YouTube TV allows you to add 5 other people to your account, but
there are limitations.
Only a total of 3 devices can stream YouTube TV at any one time… including your own.
Also, shared members don't have to live in the same household.
But if one or more of your shared members live outside your home area, they'll lose
complete access within 3 months of activating their guest account.
This is known as a location lockout.
When that happens, I do have a workaround that will help them regain access again.
It's a temporary fix and you'll need the Gmail address and password from the shared account.
To restore access, you the account owner will need to be in your home area.
Then from your computer, go to tv.youtube.com and log into the shared user's account with
their Gmail and password.
Now just watch a couple of minutes of programming then sign out.
And that's all you have to do to reactivate a location restricted account.
That way the shared member won't have to travel back to the home area to restart their service.
Google's location check will happen every 3 months so this process will have to be repeated.
But here's one more thing to know.
You don't have to wait until an account has been locked out to do this location fix.
You can actually log into the shared member's account anytime within the 3 month period
to reset the location timer.
But they'll get a notification long before they're locked out.
And here are some final notes.
Invited members don't incur any fees.
Billing remains the responsibility of the account owner.
So if you have several family members sharing an account, YouTube TV is actually a great
value.
I'm currently sharing with 2 other people and have never run into a limit on too many
devices streaming at the same time.
Plus it helps that they're in different time zones.
But I've successfully helped maintain their access without losing service.
I hope this guide gives you understand of how YouTube TV sharing works.
And if it did please give me a thumbs up and hit the subscribe button to stay up to date
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