Anyhow, I retouched upon the miserable scenario I am about to embark upon once again this evening, when attempting to login to a personal business account I have finally opted to make use of. And in doing so, I was presented with the problem I have attempted to forget about in the pursuit the referenced client project, whose YouTube account I am actively development in a quite ingenius way, linking in a myriad of social media and RSS elements to formulate a trick motorsports and action sports marketing package.

THE LOW DOWN AND DIRTY G-MAN (GOOGLE GMAIL)

DIRTFORGE - Years ago I created a Gmail account, which I used to establish a YouTube account. I hadn't logged into the YouTube account since sometime in 2008 or early 2009. Then in September 2009 I was required to establish several YouTube accounts for several clients. I begin with the most pressing of the projects, roaming through the various social media sites creating accounts. I then made my way into YouTube where I created an account. During account creation, Google validation took note that I was logged into my business Google Gmail account and validated it through that email rather than the newly created client Gmail account I was not logged into.

Therefore, the client YouTube account was permanently attached to my personal business Google Gmail account. I found that the only way this could possibly be undone was if you delete the account and attempt to reconnect to it via the new client email address. In spite of several warnings that the YouTube account could possibly go into a state permanent forfeiture, I figured it was worth the risk to disassociate my personal business account from having permanent ownership of a client's YouTube account, which could easily evolve into a serious trust issue. Furthermore, if absolutely necessary, the only way they would be able to access their YouTube account would be for me to provide them access to my Gmail account, which is associated with a multitude of other Google assets, such as Google Docs, where I have a lot of other client-specific documents that are actively shared amid employees and often considered highly sensitive.

Needless to say, after my attempt of deleting the client YouTube account, I could not reclaim it with the client's Gmail account. I was again very nervous, realizing the continuity of the naming convention of the account user name to the global client brand name. In spite of the gamble of deleting the account in attempt to reclaim it with the client's own Gmail account, the appeal of retaining the user name was highly valued.

Fortunately, I was able to log into the account via my personal business account. While I have been building original videos and non-client produced video playlists into the account, I have safely secured a backup account for the client for when the site begins to be marketed and I will once again re-explain the situation.

Anyhow, aside from that issue, I am not unable to access my original personal business account, due to the cookie issues of having two YouTube accounts associated with the same email. I am only provided access to the client account. I have performed the lost password and user name ordeal in hopes of that resetting it but to no favorable result. Is there a simple way of switching between the two YouTube accounts?

The posted the above quoted text upon this Google YouTube help section. And because the issue again sparked my interest, I again navigated a few other places to see if any new fix was offered that actually worked. This time, I found much more chatter about the topic but still no working solution.

It is important to understand that while I deleted and then fortunately able to reclaim my client account once I had realized the suggested solution did not work, there are many who have never regained their account. Likewise troublesome is if you opt to delete your Google Gmail account, which will likewise eliminate all other accounts associated with it, even if you had previously created them and have them associated with other email accounts. BEWARE. Read the following quoted text also upon the linked page for a relevant horror story on the matter of Gmail account deletion.

 xTuttix1 - I'm going through the same dilema.  I deleted my google account thinking it would be no big deal but IT DELETED MY YOUTUBE ACCOUNT!!!!! WTF?????  I thought I would be able to get back in my YT with my username but I was locked out. Forever. And I can't get any help about this.  #FAIL @ GOOGLE

And now to touch on a subject I am more familiar with, we'll work toward the topic of client relations.

VideoToys - Please fix this stupid issue NOW! it's too easy to accidently end up associating your personal email with a company youtube account and not being able to link the youtube account to a different email. I don't want to give my personal email password out to my company and now its far to late to change all the work I've strived for before realizing that it's stuck on my personal account, on top of that my own personal youtube account created back in 2006 cannont link to my facebook account so this who "Your stuck with the email you happened to use because you were signed in with that google email when you set the account up" SUCKS! FIX IT GOOGLE! You have the money too. I dont have the money to go back and redo months of work.

And yet again on the contractor client relation front but this time with the added snafu of an Google Checkout account (credit card) involved should access be disseminated.

kp_uwa - Google automatically linked my gmail account to the new YouTube channel i set up for my company. I guess i am now another statistic and have to give up my personal email to the company. Additional problem here is that my credit card is linked through Google checkout and Google won't let me delete it.So now what do i do?

This list of issues continue throughout related threads. The post counts continues to grow. And to not get your hopes up when someone offers one of many solutions, consider the next excerpt from this thread.

lgbttv - I'm not sure why YouTube claims that your account is "permanently disabled" unless you violated their rules.  If you had voluntarily disabled your account, you can re-open it, although you will lose all your videos.  If you're able to re-open your YouTube account, here is THE SECRET TO UNLINK it from Google.

None of the offered solutions worked for me -- EXCEPT THIS.  The trick is to get the "Unlink Google Account" to appear.   Here are the solutions that failed, followed by the solution that finally worked.

1) Temporarily deleting my account was unacceptable because it meant losing all my videos.
2) Going to "Manage Account" and then "Unlink my Google Account" didn't work because there was no "Unlink" option.
3) http://www.youtube.com/my_account_unlink did not work either.  YouTube simply said that my YouTube and Google Accounts were "permanently" linked

Of note, I DID NOT create my YouTube account through Google, nor is the account new (it was created 5/6/09 -- before all this auto-linkage insanity happened).  I do remember voluntarily linking the two accounts though, thinking it would be easier for me.  Boy was I wrong; it was a complete nightmare.  Anyway...

Here is my solution ....

First, re-enable your YouTube account:
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/request.py?contact_type=reopenaccount

1) Logout of the re-enabled YouTube account
2) Login again, BUT DON'T TYPE IN YOUR PASSWORD.  Just put in your username (leave off the "@gmail.com" if applicable).
3) Click on the link on the bottom that says you can't access your account
4) You'll be taken to a screen to reset your password
5) Use the LEFT option and follow the instructions
6) An email will be sent to your Gmail account
7) Click on the link to Reset your password
8) A new window/tab will open.  You can now either just use your old password or type in a new one.  I simply re-used my old password as the new password.
9) You will now be logged into your account again with one major difference (see #12).....
10) Now go to your account name on the Upper right --- click Account (or get to the Account screen any way you can)
11) Now click Manage Account on the lower left
12) VOILA!  THE "UNLINK MY GOOGLE ACCOUNT" OPTION MAGICALLY RE-APPEARS!!!
13) Simply click on the Unlink option and now your accounts will be unlinked!!!

In other words, YouTube's claim that my two accounts were "permanently linked" was a lie.  Good luck, guys.   And you better do this fast before YouTube discovers the loophole!

Just don't get your hopes up. It seems Google is forever tweaking the system and the issues involved with unlinking the accounts as I had attempted to do back in September 2009 will not fair so well for you as it had me. The next comment by a person who seems well versed in what one had referred to as the Google Vortex Of Doom sums up the volitility of the various attempts to fix by way of boasful laymen suggestions.

JDoors - Well, when I go to my Google account and choose the option to delete it, it says:Delete Account ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Close account and delete all services and info associated with itPretty clear.

For some background on the Google transition into the future and its connectivity with multiple Google Gmail accounts, there are numerous lowkey Google blogs touching upon the subject but not necessarily upon the snafu that has emerged and partially referenced here. Here's a relatively minor refernece from the Google YouTube Blog on Blogger.

James Phillips / YouTube Software Engineer - Starting today, signing up for YouTube means signing up for a Google Account that gives you access to YouTube, as well as other Google services such as iGoogle, Reader and Docs. If you already have a Google Account, you can choose to link your new YouTube Account to it, which means one less password to remember.

You can still sign up for YouTube with any email address and you'll still need to confirm whatever email address you enter. You'll also still pick a unique YouTube username that identifies you to the YouTube community.

So why are we doing this? We feel that by jointly connecting accounts, you can take greater advantage of our services both on YouTube and on Google, especially as we start to roll out new features in the future that will be powered by Google technology.

For those of you who already have a YouTube Account, don't worry, you'll still be able to enjoy YouTube with just a YouTube Account. But some of the new features we roll out down the road may require a Google Account. In these cases, we'll be there to help you link your YouTube Account to a Google Account if you want to check the features out.

Cheers,
James Phillips
Software Engineer
The YouTube Team

Therefore, heed the warnings and be weary of how you tread in the Googleverse. While the substantial resources that exists amid the array of Google assets, tossing all your eggs in one basket without any backup is absolutely insane, especially when that basket has essentially monopolized industries both laterally and vertically. Sure, enlist YouTube for what its worth, but do not do so without having your original content stored locally. And do not do so without having that very content simultenously published on other video sharing sites such as Vimeo and Vidler. And most of all, be very certain you make your very own domain name the hub by which your brand exists, and back that up with triple redundancy on a daily basis. The self sufficiency of independence is a rough but necessary road for those who fervantly opt to remain free.