YouTube- "This account cannot be used on AppleTV..." quick fix

The "Temporarily disconnect from Google+" solution worked for me, thanks jdevolld!

This problem came on me out of the blue yesterday. All had been working well for two years or so with two ATV's. For another reason I logged into the You Tube site on my iMac yesterday, and was asked if I wanted to cancel a dormant You Tube account I established years ago. Foolishly I clicked Yes (once again proving the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it").

Even though this account was not the one used to log in to my two ATV's, suddenly I was no longer able to log in to either one, as described above, using either my regular account login or the Gmail address. I've gone through the unlink from Google+ and establishing My Channel rigmarole, but no joy. I am reluctant to start the 2-step verification procedure because it should just be an option, and I'm afraid it will complicate everything else I do with Google (Gmail, etc.)

Why did this happen, and does anyone have a solution other than converting my Google account to two-step verification?

WOW! ! !

It's working for me too...

I would appreciate knowing which of the actions mentioned above is the one that is working for you. Thanks.

below pasted helped me and NOW FINALLY I am able to loged in.

Thanks

1. Go to your YouTube homepage.

2. Top right where you see your username, open the drop-down and click "MY CHANNEL"

3. If you've already set up your channel, you're ahead of the game. If not- set it up! (takes mybe 5 clicks. easy. no obligations to post stuff.)

*I didn't bother to try and login on appletv after doing only this, but you're welcome to try- might work. might not. If it works- post it here and save everyone else some time!

Thanks for the response. For the benefit of other readers, these three steps didn't work for me. Looks like I will have to go the longer two-step verification route if I want it to work on either of my two Apple TV's which used to work with You Tube until last week (see above). Once this is done, does it affect other Google setups like Gmail?

Creating an application password for my AppleTV (I use 2-step authentication) AND disconnecting my existing channel from Google+ did the trick.

I could login with my gmail address+ one time application password. Finally!

YESS!!! I finally got mine to work. I'll give some background:

I use Google Apps for my personal domain (I signed up when it could be for personal use; now it is only for businesses) so my website's email addresses are custom email addresses hosted by Google that I can manage for my wife and daughter (once she's old enough).

When I was first setting everything up for the account I was reluctant to have my real name on Google+ and Youtube so I chose to create a custom Channel name.

When I got my AppleTV in December I logged in with the email address and it automatically used the one Youtube Channel that I had enabled on the account... no problems.

Recently I opted to go ahead and use Youtube as my real name instead of the Handle I originally setup, but I didn't realize that doing so creates a whole other Channel with its own subscriptions, playlists, etc. I had created a playlist of Sesame Street clips that my 11 month old daughter loves to watch and realized that the AppleTV was using the original channel that I had made.

So I decided that I was going to delete the extra channel that I had originally created and just use the newer one that is the main one for the account. I did so then created a new Sesame Street playlist on the new channel then went to login to AppleTV and got the "This account cannot be used on AppleTV"

I went through every guide I could find on fixing this. My channel was already enabled, so that wasn't it. I enabled 2 step verification, tried logging in then using the app specific password... all to no avail. Spent hours and hours trying to fix this and it was really ******* me off. It's a newer email address so I can't seperate it from Google+..... nothing worked. All the while I had a hunch it had something to do with how Youtube allows you to have multiple Channels within one account.

I finally went in to 'Youtube Settings' at the top double checking whether I could separate Google+ from it and noticed under my email that there was an 'Advanced' option. Went in to that and saw the section for 'Signing in to Older Apps' set the drop down to 'Use my Current Account' and unchecked 'Show Channel Selector' and VOILA, logged in to Youtube on the AppleTV first try and there was my new Sesame Street playlist Hopefully this will help someone else having this problem.

Youtube Settings -> Advanced (under your email address and photo) -> Signing in to Older Apps -> Select the channel you want to use and uncheck 'Show Channel selector'

I'm at a loss. It was working fine for about an hour, then I watched a video and chose the 'Options' for that video and good booted back out with "This account cannot be used on AppleTV" and it wouldn't let me log back in. What the **** is up with this?

Spent a few minutes managing subscriptions and configuring my main personal channel and the additional channel and it seems to be working properly now.

I also had success with steps 1-3 only... Creating a new channel linked to my account did the trick!

The other day I had the idea of deleting my Youtube channel, since someone subscribed to it, and I don't post any videos of my own, so I didn't think I needed it. Well, turns out you do, if you want to create playlists or comment on videos you watch, which I occasionally do.

But it also knocked me out of my Apple TV and iPod Touch sign ins, so apparently an active channel is needed by Google to sign into those devices as well. I'm glad I didn't have to go through that 2-step verification process... 😝

This is the thread that pointed me in the right direction to getting this fixed - thanks everyone!

Thanks for this tip. I'm happy again!

frankmariano99 wrote:

The "Temporarily disconnect from Google+" solution worked for me, thanks jdevolld!

This worked for me too! I upgraded from ATV 5.3 to ATV 6 and got logged out. Sometime between the time I originally signed my Apple TV in and now I linked my YouTube account to Google+. Removed the link and all is well.

I have disconnected the google+ account, set up a channel, done everything listed, yet i'm still getting the same error. Please help before I pull all my hair out.

This is the only one that worked for me after trying nearly every single thing for hours and hours. That darn check box!

Thanks for sharing