Brand Accounts

Last updated: December 16, 2022

Overview 

This page has information on how to manage ownership of a YouTube channel, including transferring ownership of a YouTube channel that has been created using a UW Google account owned by a Shared UW NetID or Personal UW NetID, to another Google account. 

Please be aware that UW-IT does not provide support for YouTube because it is a consumer service and is not covered under the Privacy and Data Security agreements between UW and Google. The information on this page is provided as a courtesy to the UW Google community and is accurate as of March 2022. Google makes frequent changes to their policies and procedures which may impact the accuracy of the information on this page. 

Important Details 

When a YouTube channel is created, it is associated with the Google account that created it e.g., a UW Google account, consumer Gmail account, etc.  Google does not provide a way to directly transfer ownership of a YouTube channel from one UW Google account to another; however, converting a YouTube channel to a Brand Account gives the owner of a YouTube channel the opportunity to grant any number of UW Google accounts and/or consumer Gmail accounts the ability to manage the YouTube channel. 

Once a YouTube channel is converted to a Brand Account, any Google account can be set as the Primary Owner of the Brand Account, and the original Google account can be removed. 

The process of converting a YouTube account into a Brand Account and managing permissions requires careful attention to detail as well as a need for advanced lead time. For security purposes, Google has instituted a seven (7) day wait period to minimize the risk of unauthorized accounts taking over a Brand Account. In the case of departure from the UW, it is important that the Brand Account conversion and transfer of ownership process is started early enough to ensure it is complete before the UW Google account and data expiration occurs. 

YouTube is a consumer service and is not covered by the Privacy and Data Security agreements between UW and Google. Additionally, UW-IT has no way of managing or recovering YouTube accounts or content.

Points of Awareness 

  • Many changes (adding a new email address to a Brand Account, updating permissions for existing email addresses, etc.) require a seven (7) day wait period for security purposes 
  • Only Google-enabled accounts can be added to manage a Brand Account (e.g., UW Google account, a personal Gmail account)
  • The Brand Account management page will not notify you if an email address is an invalid Google email address 
  • Ensure the Google account email address you add to the Brand Account is correct 
  • Any account designated as an Owner for a Brand Account can take over as Primary Owner after seven (7) days 

Brand Account Permissions 

  • Primary Owner (most privileged) 
  • Owner 
  • Manager 
  • Communications Manager (least privileged) 

If the Google account that is set as the Primary Owner is deactivated, an alternative Owner of the Brand Account automatically assumes Primary Owner privileges. For more information about Brand Account management, roles, and permissions, please see Google’s Change Who Manages Your Brand Account. 

Recommended Actions 

Before starting the conversion of your YouTube channel to a Brand Account, we recommend manually downloading a copy of the data for safekeeping. The Google and YouTube guides below provide details on how to preserve YouTube data: 

Transferring Steps 

Full step-by-step, detailed instructions on how to create a Brand Account and transfer a YouTube channel are available on Google’s Move your YouTube channel to another account. The steps outlined below offer more nuance and reassurance around this process especially as it pertains to the primary use case in UW Google. Please read both sources carefully before proceeding. 

Create Brand Accounts using a personal UW NetID or consumer @gmail.com account, not a Shared UW NetID. The use of a consumer @gmail.com account should strongly be considered because personal UW NetID Google accounts are deleted when the owner of the personal UW NetID departs the UW. As a reminder, all UW Google accounts & data (including YouTube accounts) for Shared UW NetIDs will be deleted on August 29, 2023.
  1. Log into YouTube Studio with the UW Google account that is associated with the YouTube channel you want to move and remove any additional users that have access to the channel (do not attempt to remove your UW Google account) 
  2. Create a Brand Account following the first set of instructions on Google’s Move your YouTube channel to another account 
  3. Note that this creates a new Google account – this account is NOT managed by UW-IT and we cannot perform any recovery, service, or other administrative work. It is a completely new, consumer account that will require you to contact Google customer support for help 
  4. We strongly recommend you choose a Brand Account name that is significantly different from the original YouTube channel name, as mixing up accounts can lead to confusion and unintentional data loss (UW-IT cannot recover data) 
  5. Continuing with the logged in Brand Account, add the alternative Google account you intend to manage the Brand Account with (this can be another UW Google account, a consumer Gmail account, etc.) as an Owner – see Google’s Change who manages your Brand Account for a walkthrough of this process 
  6. If prompted, do not move the Brand Account permissions to YouTube Studio 
  7. The newly added alternative Google account needs to go to their email inbox and accept the email invitation to become an Owner of the Brand Account 
  8. Log into the newly added alternative Google account and complete the action (use a separate browser to avoid confusion) 
  9. Log out of the Brand Account and log in with the YouTube channel’s originating UW Google account and go to https://www.youtube.com/account (make sure “your channel” is the one you want to move) and select “View advanced settings” 
  10. From “Move channel” select “Move channel to a brand account” 
  11. From “Choose an account to move this channel to” select the Brand Account you created to move this to and hit the “Replace” button 
  12. Agree to the terms, which notably say “Delete Channel” 
  13. Select “Move Channel” 
  14. Wait for approximately 10 minutes 
  15. Go back to YouTube Studio where it will ask you to create a new channel. Call it something other than the one you just moved to reduce confusion 
  16. Wait 7 days 
  17. Return to https://myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts and select your Brand Account 
  18. Under users select “Manage Permissions” 
  19. Change the role of desired accounts to “Primary owner” 
  20. Agree to Transfer 
  21. Go to your consumer account and confirm you are the Primary Owner 
  22. You are done