youtube private videos

About half way through the rocket mass heater kickstarter a bunch of people asked for the streaming. So I spent a bunch of time figuring out how I might be able to do that.

I came up with something in youtube. I mark the video as private and then I specify who is allowed to see it. That'll do!

And now there are gettig to be problems.

The biggest problem is that I give access to somebody and they still cannot see it. My choice is to give access to a youtube account or a google account. Or a basic email address (and I suppose google will want to bring that email into the google collective).

I'm baffled. The interface is ridiculously simple. I'll give access to ten people and three of those people cannot see the video. Youtube says the video is unavailable.

Youtube will also send people an email saying "you have access to see this video" but other people do not get that email.

I get the impression that youtube just hates some people and refuses to give them access. Maybe there is some configuration in their account somewhere?

I guess you've already seen this https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/157177?hl=en-GB but just thought I would point out anyway, in case it helps:

A private video can only be seen by you and up to 50 other people who you invite to view the video. The video won’t appear on your channel, search results or playlists.

When you set your video to "Private", you’ll see a field under the "Privacy Settings" drop-down menu where you can add the YouTube usernames or email addresses of the people you’d like to share the video with. Note that they’ll need to have a YouTube account in order to see the video.

Sharing differences if you use your Google+ identity on YouTube

Instead of sharing with YouTube usernames, you can share your videos with Google+ circles, so there’s no limit to the number of people you can share the video with. You can also share via email addresses.

So are you sharing it with your google+ identity?

For the people that cannot see it, I have tried both their youtube ID and their gmail ID.

When I specify who can see it, I specify either a youtube account or an email address.

I read something really old that said for this to work, you have to be "youtube friends". I wonder if that feature even still exists on youtube.

Jaikiran,

Tell me your youtube ID and I will add you.

I don't have a youtube id (at least I don't think I have created one). My gmail id is jaikiran dot pai at gmail dot com

Currently the video is shared with 33 people. But the purpose is to be a short term solution until I figure out longer term solutions. So these 33 (and maybe a few more) will have access here for years.

Jaikiran Pai wrote:I don't have a youtube id (at least I don't think I have created one). My gmail id is jaikiran dot pai at gmail dot com

I have now added you to the video.

Youtube should have sent you an email with all the particulars.

Just received the mail and am able to view that video. Is that the same video which others are having problem with?

Yes.

For those who haven't received any mail about the private video being available for them, can you ask them to login (either gmail id or youtube id) at http://www.youtube.com/account_notifications?feature=em-share_video_user to check what their email notification settings are. I've attached a screenshot which shows the available options. One of the options in there is relevant to receiving mails about private videos. They should have it checked on.

Okay - I have directed all three people experiencing the problem to this thread.

Here are two things for people to try:

1) the thing jaikiran suggested - make it so there is email permission

2) subscribe to my account

Hi Paul,

I have done a couple of things, but no luck so far.
I have checked the e-mail notification settings. They were as mentioned in the thread. I have updated my flashplayer for Safari.
I have tried another computer. Tried another browser. Suggested that you give permission to my email address that is used in my
youtube account instead of my username.
I hope someone comes up with another idea. next what I will do is set up another youtube account. I will send you my username and
we could see if it works when you give permission to that account?

Jef

Jef, did you receive the email from youtube telling you about the private video? Also, is it your gmail email account id?

Hi
I'm one of those that can't view the video (get this message on youtube "This video is unavailable."). I tried everything you said.
I didn't receive the mail notification from youtube. My id on youtube is my gmail account.
Can the problem be related to the location?

Ignacio

Jaikiran Pai wrote:Jef, did you receive the email from youtube telling you about the private video? Also, is it your gmail email account id?

Hello Jaikiran,

No, I never got the e-mail from youtube. I don't have gmail. I have a yahoo adress coupled to it. But it should make no difference I guess. I just
sent Paul a new youtube address, which I just created. And this one goes to my .mac address. Maybe that will work.

Jef

Ignacio Joannon wrote:
Can the problem be related to the location?

Ignacio

I'm viewing them fine from Portugal, so it's not just an 'out of the USA' thing.

The .mac address is now added

Yes! It works!

I got an email on my .mac address with an image and a link to the

"FIRE SCIENCE - Full DVD" running 1 hour and 37 minutes.

Thank you Paul. For others with the same problem. Maybe they should try to make a new youtube address as well.
Mine was really old and almost never used. When I created another youtube address, it seemed like it looked more modern
and with more features.... but that is just a guess. Anyway, it worked for me.

Jef

Jef,

You are now set up for the other three videos also.

Thank you Paul.

I have received the other 3 as well.
So, it looked like getting a new youtube account did the trick.

Now, I am quickly going to grab a few refreshments and start watching non-stop!

all the best,

Jef

just an update

tried "upgrading" youtubes with a couple of the accounts i sent to you in the email paul.

Also confirmed they had the email notifications on.

I have several gmail accounts that can be used i guess, until we find one that works.

I make a test: using a secondary account (with a different browser) I set a video privacy to "private" and share with my primary gmail account. I received the mail from youtube notifying about the video, and everything work fine. Then I delete the mail from the list and the video wasn't available anymore. Strangely, the second time I give access to the same email, it does not work. And don't receive the mail either. (It work fine now)

Ignacio Joannon wrote:Hi
I'm one of those that can't view the video (get this message on youtube "This video is unavailable."). I tried everything you said.
I didn't receive the mail notification from youtube. My id on youtube is my gmail account.
Can the problem be related to the location?

Ignacio

Paul, I just have sent you an email with my new Google/Youtube account.

Please, send me once again the links

Joao

I think this is where we are right now:

1: offering streaming this way sucks. I need to find a better way.

2: first things to try: make sure you are logged in to youtube. Search your spam for the emails that give you access to the videos.

3: I think about 1 account out of 3 on youtube has "gone stupid" (has some sort of bug that won't let you see the streaming). It seems the best solution is to create a brand new youtube account and then we try that.

Joao Weiss wrote:Paul, I just have sent you an email with my new Google/Youtube account.

Please, send me once again the links

Joao

Done. Report back here how it went.

Thanks God!!!
Now it works, I received your message Paul and the link to
"Fire Science - full DVD"

It's playing pretty well at youtube!!!

Thanks for all your efforts, trying to solve this issue. Also thanks to all the other permies that helped!

God bless you all!
Joao

Joao Weiss wrote:Thanks God!!!
Now it works, I received your message Paul and the link to
"Fire Science - full DVD"

It's playing pretty well at youtube!!!

Thanks for all your efforts, trying to solve this issue. Also thanks to all the other permies that helped!

God bless you all!
Joao

I have now done the same for the other three videos.

paul wheaton wrote:

Joao Weiss wrote:Thanks God!!!
Now it works, I received your message Paul and the link to
"Fire Science - full DVD"

It's playing pretty well at youtube!!!

Thanks for all your efforts, trying to solve this issue. Also thanks to all the other permies that helped!

God bless you all!
Joao

I have now done the same for the other three videos.

I've received all the four links Paul.
I'll probably (I hope) watch these videos during next week, I'll keep you informed if all goes fine!

Hope these links could be available for as long as possible.

Thanks once again,
Joao

Here is a helpful video about the various listings.



I have found that unlisted works best, because with Private, NOT only is it limited to 50 people those people MUST have YouTube accounts..if they don't they can't see it.

Unlisted, means that anyone even ones without a YT channel can see them..you just have to make sure you are sharing with people you can trust, cause if they share the link, anyone with the link can see it.

There are better streaming options..if you have an AmazonS3 account, I can help you set it up on the WordPress site and lock it with a password.

So this trick of creating a new account seems to work most of the time. But we've had a couple of people where it didn't work.

At this point I've put far too much time into trying to solve this problem with youtube. I need you all to try to figure some stuff out too.

I am working on fulfilling this through a whole different means. Doing this through youtube is free. The other venues will cost. I would very much like to get the youtube stuff to work, but this is just getting silly.

paul wheaton wrote:So this trick of creating a new account seems to work most of the time. But we've had a couple of people where it didn't work.

At this point I've put far too much time into trying to solve this problem with youtube. I need you all to try to figure some stuff out too.

I am working on fulfilling this through a whole different means. Doing this through youtube is free. The other venues will cost. I would very much like to get the youtube stuff to work, but this is just getting silly.

Yep, I agree.. I have found I just use Unlisted, as it works 100% of the time..you just have to make sure people don't share the link..you can also take the video down when you are done with the review copies.. but Private is a really a hit or miss issue..and I stopped messing with it a long time ago for pretty much the exact same reasons you have come up against.. when I send people videos..I use unlisted..and that works fine...life is too short.

I have a solution...you can embed the code on a locked down page on a site..and there is code you an use in the embed code that will turn on and off certain perameters. So I would create the videos as unlisted and then embed them on a page of my own..then perform the following code changes to further secure the videos from prying eyes.

Place this before the <embed tag starts:
<param name="allowNetworking" value="internal"></param>

Place this inside of the <embed tag:
allowNetworking="internal"

You can also add ?modestbranding=1 after the videoID string to remove the YT brand totally. 2Years ago YT started allowing developers to remove their brand tag.
This means that people can NOT right click on the video to get the link to the video. BUT the title is still there..since YT won't let you take off both the brand and the Title..

Really for true privacy..you need to use AmazonS3 and stream your own videos..YT is a channel and a brand..

Here are the reference stories for these two code hacks
Disabling The Link On YouTube's Embedded Video Playerwebpage

Want to Remove YouTube's Logo on Embedded Videos? Here's How

Hey, I'm one of the ones whose old and new youtube accounts didn't work. I was wondering, does the Permies.com authentication system allow you to limit access to content via user account?

If so, maybe you could hide the videos on youtube somewhere, post them on a thread and have the thread restricted. Not sure how that would affect your bandwidth though.

Anyway, just a thought. I'm gonna keep poking around my account on youtube to see if I can't figure something else out.

Permies can do that - sorta.

I spent about six hours yesterday trying to come up with a "plan B". I have two contenders left.

Thanks for all the effort, no rush on my side.

I havent been able to get the first 2 accounts i sent to work.

I assume the other one (miago) hasnt been tried (published to) yet. But i have another gmail account i can use as well if it doesnt.


Im not sure vimeo limits but that is one option i guess.

I just found in youtube where you can verify your account and I did that, maybe it makes a difference. Instead of wasting anymore of Paul's time maybe we can identify a correlation, people who got the shared videos correctly, was your account verified? Those of us who haven't? In Youtube, navigate to Settings and then View Additional Features

Thanks to Dirk for helping me figure out if vimeo will work. It does!

I spent about six hours uploading a video yesterday. Today I will pop into town and quickly upload the other three.

I need folks to "follow" me at vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user19984809

Hi
after trying two old ones, my new YT account is working.
Thanks

now following you on Vimeo