# Argh! YouTube Stopped Running Ads on My Channel!



## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 17, 2022)

All these years building a channel and YouTube stopped running ads. They did this because I haven't given them my tax info. Let me explain why it's impossible for me to do that:

YouTube pays out through your Adsense Account. You can only have one account. There are two types, Business and Personal. Mine was set up as a Business acccount in 2010, when I had a business. It closed in 2011. To provide tax info for my account requires documents I don't have. Using the old ones would be fraud and I won't do that. To get new ones would involve setting up an LLC or something, which is nuts and out of the question.

As Google doesn't have any system for changing your account, the solution is simple: cancel the Business Account and set up a Personal Account. But Google won't let me cancel the Business Account because my Adsense payments are on hold.

Why are my payments on hold? Because I don't have the docs for my Business account! 

There is "customer service" for YouTube Channel people, but it is only chat--which seems to be a machine spouting out information anybody could get by googling for ten seconds. Chat service from other companies seem to be a human being and have solved my problems, but I'm sure a lot of you have experienced being on a chat session for an hour and then the customer service person asks a question that makes clear they didn't understand anything you have written. "So your problem is you need to set up a personal account?" Noooooo! Can't you read???

This isn't a mistake I made. This is something that is a bug in their system. My problem is probably very unusual and rarely comes up. But if they let people change the type of their accounts, then there would be no problem. I could live with losing the money that is on hold. Or they could do what most other companies do--take something like 30% out. (I realize they need tax info to do this.) There are lots of ways I could fix this Kafkaesque situation without any intervention from them, if they were flexible and provided options.

Also, I don't remember ever seeing any message from them that warned that you have to give the tax information right away or they will stop running ads. I tried to do it on the first day, but when I couldn't, I left it for later. I didn't think it mattered until I was getting to anywhere close to $100 (the minimum for payout) in my account.

I wouldn't care much about this if they would keep running my ads. Let the money add up in my account until the day comes when they will pay me. Who cares? I wouldn't stress about that, but with the way it is, I don't want to put up more videos. I will continue making them and then put them up when this is resolved. If it isn't ever resolved, I guess I will put them up anyway at some point.

Luckily my wife knows somebody from Google through her job, and I am hoping I can get this resolved through him. But if he doesn't help, I won't ever give up. I will reach out to every single person I know in the entertainment business. All I need is one actual human being at Google who is willing to flip a switch and this will probably be solved in minutes.

Kind of a scary lesson about making YouTube videos.


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## ChrisSiuMusic (Sep 17, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> All these years building a channel and YouTube stopped running ads. They did this because I haven't given them my tax info. Let me explain why it's impossible for me to do that:
> 
> YouTube pays out through your Adsense Account. You can only have one account. There are two types, Business and Personal. Mine was set up as a Business acccount in 2010, when I had a business. It closed in 2011. To provide tax info for my account requires documents I don't have. Using the old ones would be fraud and I won't do that. To get new ones would involve setting up an LLC or something, which is nuts and out of the question.
> 
> ...


I'm confident this will be resolved Reid! I personally had Adsense troubles for years until I finally decided to tweet Youtube's team, and they hopped on it real quick. All the best!


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## Voider (Sep 17, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> As Google doesn't have any system for changing your account, the solution is simple: cancel the Business Account and set up a Personal Account. But Google won't let me cancel the Business Account because my Adsense payments are on hold.
> 
> Why are my payments on hold? Because I don't have the docs for my Business account!



Ahh I see I see, Schrödingers payment.

Have you tried to ̶r̶̶e̶̶s̶̶t̶̶a̶̶r̶̶t̶̶ ̶̶y̶̶o̶̶u̶̶r̶̶ ̶̶c̶̶o̶̶m̶̶p̶̶u̶̶t̶̶e̶̶r̶ transform your business account back to a personal account?

This might be a workaround to the bug that you can't delete your account.



Convert youtube brand account to personal account - YouTube Community


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 17, 2022)

ChrisSiuMusic said:


> I'm confident this will be resolved Reid! I personally had Adsense troubles for years until I finally decided to tweet Youtube's team, and they hopped on it real quick. All the best!


Thanks Chris. I tweeted and tagged @youtube yesterday and they did respond quickly. 

They sent me a iink to the page you get when you Google "How to Close Your Adsense Account." That's where I began this process. It's not difficult. There are only two steps before you click "cancel my account" But then I get this:






But maybe they will respond again and they will be able to help me.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 17, 2022)

Voider said:


> Ahh I see I see, Schrödingers payment.
> 
> Have you tried to ̶r̶̶e̶̶s̶̶t̶̶a̶̶r̶̶t̶̶ ̶̶y̶̶o̶̶u̶̶r̶̶ ̶̶c̶̶o̶̶m̶̶p̶̶u̶̶t̶̶e̶̶r̶ transform your business account back to a personal account?


YouTube does not allow changing the type of account. I would have no problem if they did.


Voider said:


> This might be a workaround to the bug that you can't delete your account.
> 
> 
> 
> Convert youtube brand account to personal account - YouTube Community


This is a YouTube forum thread of bunch of people saying they have a similar problem. One solution is suggested, but it is something that doesn't work. Then YouTube closed the thread without offering a solution. If they hadn't closed it, I would have written my experience too. Probably many people would have. It's not unusual to have a business that closes. I never had any doubt that this is a policy that is causing trouble for a LOT of people.

If there was a workaround, then YouTube could have printed it rather than closing the thread.

But I live in hope that the YouTube people on Twitter will help. They helped Chris, after all.


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## Voider (Sep 17, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> This is a YouTube forum thread of bunch of people saying they have a similar problem. One solution is suggested, but it is something that doesn't work. Then YouTube closed the thread without offering a solution. If they hadn't closed it, I would have written my experience too. Probably many people would have. It's not unusual to have a business that closes. I never had any doubt that this is a policy that is causing trouble for a LOT of people.
> 
> If there was a workaround, then YouTube could have printed it rather than closing the thread.



But it's also part of the official google documentation:

Move your Brand Account to a different Google Account:​
On YouTube, sign in as the owner of the Brand Account.
In the top right, click your profile picture




Settings



.
Under "Account," select *Add or remove manager(s)*.
Click *Manage permissions*.
*Note: *You may be asked to enter your password and re-authenticate. Learn more about re-authenticating your account.

Choose *Invite new users*



.
Enter the email address of the Google Account you would like to move your channel to.
Below their name, choose their role:
*Owners* can take the most actions, and they control who manages the account. An account must have one *primary owner*.

Select *Invite*



*Done*.
Accept the email invite sent to the newly added Google Account.
After seven days, sign in via the new Google Account and return to *Manage Permissions*.
From the Down arrow, change the role of the signed-in account to *primary owner*.
Click *Transfer* in the box that pops up.






Move your YouTube channel to another account - YouTube Help


You can move your channel and its videos over from one account to another. Note that if your account is a supervised account or a work or sch



support.google.com


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 17, 2022)

Voider said:


> But it's also part of the official google documentation:
> 
> Move your Brand Account to a different Google Account:​
> On YouTube, sign in as the owner of the Brand Account.
> ...


I appreciate you trying to help, but this doesn't have anything to do with my issue.

I don't have a Brand Account, as I don't have a brand.

_ A Brand Account is an account that is specifically for your brand. This account is different from your personal Google Account. If a channel is linked to a Brand Account, multiple people can manage it from their Google Accounts._

So... for example, if I had TIGER THE FROG INC. as a brand, it could have its own channel, and multiple people could manage it. But I don't have or want a Brand Account, so I have nothing to move.

This has nothing to with my problem which is my inability to provide tax info on my personal YouTube Channel to YouTube/Adsense.

Once I am able to close my current business Adsense account, all will hopefully be well.

it should take me a minute or two to set up a new Personal Account, if there are no unexpected hangups. Once that exists, it's simple to redirect my YouTube account to the new personal account. I have no worries about that step. At that point, providing tax info means making jpgs of my _personal _tax docs and sending them. That seems uncomplicated, but we'll see.

There are other issues with monetizing. After I make $100, they will mail me a PIN. I need that. But I can't get to $100 because they have stopped showing ads. So if I am able to provide tax info that YouTube exists, there is also the issue with whether they will then put ads up on my Channel again. We'll see.

Also, according to Adsense, a PIN may be necessary to close the account.


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## Voider (Sep 17, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> If I had TIGER THE FROG INC. as a brand, it could have its own channel, and multiple people could manage it. All the people in top management at TIGER THE FROG INC., I suppose.
> 
> But I don't have or want a Brand Account, so I have nothing to move.


Ah, I thought brand account is the same as business account, and since you said you couldn't delete your account to make a new personal account I thought moving a brand (business) account to a personal account and making the private account the owner after 7 days as described at the end, would convert your business to a personal account and the problem would've been solved.

But if brand and business accounts are something different, and if they don't actually convert in the end, that's pointless yeah.

Well then I can just join Chris,
_"You will make it! Good luck"_


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 17, 2022)

Voider said:


> (Why don't you have that?!  )
> 
> Ah, I thought brand account is the same as business account, and since you said you couldn't delete your account to make a new private account I thought moving a brand (business) account to a private account and making the private account the owner after 7 days as described at the end, would merge them and the problem would've been solved.
> 
> ...


Thank you @Voider I will keep at this until I find a solution. 

I admit that part of this is my fault because I wasn't paying attention to my YouTube Channel. 
First, because I had a lingering case of Covid, and second, because I was helping a dying friend.
I think you can understand why YouTube went on the back burner. 

If I had been studying the monetizing analytics, I would have noticed that no money seemed to be coming in. And then, at least I would have started addressing this problem some time ago.

The whole thing has stunned me really. When I finally did go to my analytics many times, I knew something was very wrong, but I didn't see any notice that they had stopped placing ads. It was hidden. I had to dig around and do some clicking to discover it.

Why did they hide this? What could be more important? We shut you down with no warning.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 17, 2022)

Update: I received another email from YouTube Customer Service. The good news is I do get the feeling that this writer is a real person who has actually read my problem and understands it. She also said that they can't begin running ads again until this is resolved. That was a big cheer-up for me because I now have somebody to write if I get my tax info verified and the ads still don't run.

No help yet with my problem, but I am more hopeful today than yesterday.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 20, 2022)

The next email came from a third customer service rep. This rep doesn't seem to know the first thing about Adsense--that you can have only one account. All you have to do is google "Adsense" and you can learn this pretty quick. But not this customer service rep. Maybe a bot? AI? 

She also said that I would lose all the money I've earned when I close my Business account. This is new. Nobody has said this before.

What's upsetting is that the person from the previous email is no longer on my case, so I won't have anybody to contact later about what she told me. 

I suspect the idea is that you get an email from a different person every day and therefore none of them are responsible for any of the information they give you or that the previous customer service people gave you. And it's impossible to build on the conversation, find an understanding, and make progress.

I can accept the idea that they don't help me. I am prepared for this taking a long time to solve. My wife had a problem with her Gmail--oh man, that took a long time to sort out! But starting from zero every day with a new person who won't help...yikes!


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## LatinXCombo (Sep 20, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> The next email came from a third customer service rep. This rep doesn't seem to know the first thing about Adsense--that you can have only one account. All you have to do is google "Adsense" and you can learn this pretty quick. But not this customer service rep. Maybe a bot? AI?


Potato/Po-TAH-to.



Reid Rosefelt said:


> She also said that I would lose all the money I've earned when I close my Business account. This is new. Nobody has said this before.


Of course. That makes sense in a "refer to section 13 subsection (A)(1)(w) in the terms of service, which clearly state that if you close your account we don't have to pay you anything currently due" sort of way.




Reid Rosefelt said:


> What's upsetting is that the person from the previous email is no longer on my case, so I won't have anybody to contact later about what she told me.
> 
> I suspect the idea is that you get an email from a different person every day and therefore none of them are responsible for any of the information they give you or that the previous customer service people gave you. And it's impossible to build on the conversation, find an understanding, and make progress.



Makes sense. That's how I'd do it if I were a billion dollar monopoly.



Reid Rosefelt said:


> I can accept the idea that they don't help me. I am prepared for this taking a long time to solve. My wife had a problem with her Gmail--oh man, that took a long time to sort out! But starting from zero every day with a new person who won't help...yikes!


It sounds to me that the fundamental problem is that you have an Adsense account in the name of a business that no longer exists, which is getting money funnelled to it from a YouTube account that is for a different entity (i.e., your personal account.) Is that it?

And then at some point the tech aristocrats at YouTube did an audit and your Adsense account got caught up in the net?


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 20, 2022)

LatinXCombo said:


> It sounds to me that the fundamental problem is that you have an Adsense account in the name of a business that no longer exists, which is getting money funnelled to it from a YouTube account that is for a different entity (i.e., your personal account.) Is that it?


No, the account is for me personally with my gmail address. But it's a business account because the plan back in 2010 was that my website would eventually make money through adsense. My company closed before that could happen, but the Adsense account lived on...


LatinXCombo said:


> And then at some point the tech aristocrats at YouTube did an audit and your Adsense account got caught up in the net?


Because I hadn't verified the account with business tax documents (impossible for me to do as i now have no business), they stopped running ads on my account. 

They'll never run them again until I do this thing that's impossible for me to do.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 29, 2022)

The latest news is that they informed me that my case was closed. They're not going to even correspond with me anymore. 

I am reaching out to people who work at YouTube/Adsense/Google, but I am losing hope about this ever being solved. 😭


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## Ambrose Luxor (Sep 29, 2022)

Is there some way we could crowd-help this along -- not in a mobster threatening way -- but more like a gentle tide guiding a better resolution?


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## Ambrose Luxor (Sep 29, 2022)

Or maybe a change of venue would keep the money flowing without too much of an administrative burden?


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## MarcusD (Sep 30, 2022)

Maybe consider uploading videos to Rumble too while endeavouring to resolve this.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 30, 2022)

Ambrose Luxor said:


> Is there some way we could crowd-help this along -- not in a mobster threatening way -- but more like a gentle tide guiding a better resolution?





Ambrose Luxor said:


> Or maybe a change of venue would keep the money flowing without too much of an administrative burden?





MarcusD said:


> Maybe consider uploading videos to Rumble too while endeavouring to resolve this.


Thank you for your kind words of support. It means a lot. But I'm a YouTuber. If they don't pay me, I'll just keep making YouTube videos just like I did before they paid me. I only made $48 before they stopped anyway. 

All I need is to find ONE kind person at YouTube/Adsense and I believe my problem could be solved in minutes. I just need to find somebody who knows somebody. That's the solution.

So what I'm going to do is make a brief YouTube video explaining my problem in a way that is hopefully entertaining. I'll post it here when it's done. So if anybody wants to help, they could share this video online.


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## LatinXCombo (Sep 30, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> No, the account is for me personally with my gmail address. But it's a business account because the plan back in 2010 was that my website would eventually make money through adsense. My company closed before that could happen, but the Adsense account lived on...



I see -- and that subtlety is lost on the Machine, so they're assuming what I said was correct.


Reid Rosefelt said:


> Because I hadn't verified the account with business tax documents (impossible for me to do as i now have no business), they stopped running ads on my account.
> 
> They'll never run them again until I do this thing that's impossible for me to do.


Yeah. I suspect this is gonna be a write-off, not because you're in the wrong, but because it isn't worth it for the people who did the wrong to fix it, and it wouldn't be worth it for you to pursue litigation on your own. (Unless someone has a class action going, but even then that could take years.) 

Are you at least able to bank money on videos going forward?


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## MarcusD (Sep 30, 2022)

LatinXCombo said:


> Are you at least able to bank money on videos going forward?


Not sure they will if demonetized. Anything earnt can't be easily withdrawn. You have to have at least $60 accumulated in your AdSense account before getting paid any earnings.

If you haven't earnt at least $60 in a month, you won't get paid until the account meets the threshold. Money can just sit there until the threshold is met. I'm not sure there's an easy way to request payment either, for any scenario, like closing the account.








Reid Rosefelt said:


> Thank you for your kind words of support. It means a lot. But I'm a YouTuber. If they don't pay me, I'll just keep making YouTube videos just like I did before they paid me.


Rumble will pay you too, and there's no minimum requirement to start monetizing. Any videos you make for YouTube, just put them on Rumble too. Extra revenue stream + extra audience reach. Started looking into doing this too.

Quoted from here:



> Rumble pays you 60% of the Net Earnings collected from 3rd parties and 90% YouTube net revenue.
> 
> You do not need thousands of subscribers or expensive equipment. You don’t have to make professional video productions and you don’t have to worry about the promotion.


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## kgdrum (Sep 30, 2022)

@Reid Rosefelt

What about resurrecting the company so you can get paid? The income is minimal how much would it add to your tax return if you do this for a year?
In the meantime what would prevent you from creating a new YouTube account not attached to this dormant company send out links to your subscribers and remind people on various forums of the transitional move?
I suspect you’d retain enough of your subscription base for it to be a bit inconvenient but virtually painless.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 30, 2022)

LatinXCombo said:


> Are you at least able to bank money on videos going forward?


No. Not unless this "Catch-22" problem is solved. They stopped putting ads up in July*. You would think they could keep adding up my share of the ad earnings--and just not give it to me--but that's not the case. 

I can fix this if I can close my Business Account. If I do that I will lose all the money I made before they stopped running ads. I'm okay with that.

*By stopping running ads I mean that YouTube still runs ads but they take all the $$. 

@MarcusD I have explored Rumble and don't think it's a good fit for my content. But I'll set up an account and put up my Madonna videos and see how they do. I've got nothing to lose. 

But right now my focus is on making this new video, and exploring other workarounds.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 24, 2022)

It's unlikely that I will ever get my channel back, but I've made this video anyway. If any of you know somebody at YouTube or Google or Adsense, please pass it on to them. You can also help by liking or commenting on the video (which will improve its chances for being seen on YouTube), or better yet, sharing it.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 26, 2022)

The hilarious thing is that I put this up less than two days ago and it already has 3000 views. I'd be overjoyed to get 100 views on a video this soon. A lot of my videos have 300 views after many years. 

As Bob Dylan wrote, "There's no success like failure."


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## doctoremmet (Oct 26, 2022)

Your next video should be one of those “I made a mistake” or “Why I’m leaving YT” videos. Every succesful influencer has those. Make sure the thumbail has a picture of you on it alongside a crying emoji


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## LatinXCombo (Oct 26, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> The hilarious thing is that I put this up less than two days ago and it already has 3000 views. I'd be overjoyed to get 100 views on a video this soon. A lot of my videos have 300 views after many years.
> 
> As Bob Dylan wrote, "There's no success like failure."


You should set up a tip jar connected to Venmo or some such.


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## PeterN (Oct 26, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Your next video should be one of those “I made a mistake” or “Why I’m leaving YT” videos. Every succesful influencer has those. Make sure the thumbail has a picture of you on it alongside a crying emoji


The cool guys get banned on YT. We dont whine about it.

Personally, Ive put up another channel via work email, but they've figured that out too. Its so shadowbanned and giving fake counts, to the point its hilarious. But they are banning so many intelligent people lately, so its great to be in the societal force that is revolutionary, and aim to bring them down (at least from their monopoly position).


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## LatinXCombo (Oct 26, 2022)

PeterN said:


> The cool guys get banned on YT. We dont whine about it.
> 
> Personally, Ive put up another channel via work email, but they've figured that out too. Its so shadowbanned and giving fake counts, to the point its hilarious. But they are banning so many intelligent people lately, so its great to be in the societal force that is revolutionary, and aim to bring them down (at least from their monopoly position).


Link to the account or it didn't happen.


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## PeterN (Oct 26, 2022)

LatinXCombo said:


> Link to the account or it didn't happen.


How can I link it when its not even up anymore. Can't even login, due to "community standards" or whatever it was. But they let me keep gmail, heard they can pull that off too.

F. them and all this Meta etc. I was living in high mountains without any of this sh.t, so this is no big deal. Never had Facebook either. Or Twitter. Or Spotify. You guys can bow to them.

heh!

sorry for disturbing.


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## wahey73 (Oct 26, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> The hilarious thing is that I put this up less than two days ago and it already has 3000 views.


You underestimate the power of a good thumbnail. You just made the perfect one as it looks 
As Doc Emmet wrote, next time place even the crying emoji and your video will fly through the roof.
Jokes apart, really sorry to hear that YT stopped your ads


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## PeterN (Dec 2, 2022)

LatinXCombo said:


> Link to the account or it didn't happen.



Got my Youtube channel back. I guess they closed it before US elections. Now it can be back again.

There's your evidence. No reason for them to ban me except "wrong opinions" in YouTube comment section. We know how this is played by now, there's no need for Elon to say it loud. Anyway, I thought its an honour to be banned. Made an appeal today and got it back in 20 minutes.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Dec 2, 2022)

I didn't get banned. I could keep working with this channel without getting paid. It wouldn't change much because I've never made one cent. But I did do the channel for so long with the hope of at least getting ten bucks now and then. Something. 

I'm currently planning a new channel that is connected to my wife's YouTube and Social Security number. It involves a lot of research. I'll put a link here when I start putting videos up.


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## LatinXCombo (Dec 2, 2022)

PeterN said:


> Got my Youtube channel back. I guess they closed it before US elections. Now it can be back again.
> 
> There's your evidence. No reason for them to ban me except "wrong opinions" in YouTube comment section. We know how this is played by now, there's no need for Elon to say it loud. Anyway, I thought its an honour to be banned. Made an appeal today and got it back in 20 minutes.


Good. 

But c'mon, give us the link so we can watch all your de-monetized wrongthink videos!


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## PeterN (Dec 2, 2022)

LatinXCombo said:


> Good.
> 
> But c'mon, give us the link so we can watch all your de-monetized wrongthink videos!



Fixing the music first.

And, this is not my thread, so I won't steal it. Its only music, so that's not why it was banned. It was banned because of provoking in comment section, and maybe also prior to US election.

Here's how I got banned.

I was commenting on WION news channel (India news) - in their comment section - that our media in West is so bad, that we here in West must follow Indian news channel. Someone appeared, and replied, that "you dont need to follow Indian news", and that "West has many good news channels". Like, "there are conservative news, there are liberal, ....."...."there's a lot to choose from". You could smell it was not the ordinary person. Whoever it was. Maybe Obama 

We changed a line or two, and I was wondering why it sounds like a statesman in comment section, which is usually full of quite cheap comments.

So I replied that if you guys are here already, then Im switching to Vietnamese news. And "there's nothing you can do about it - absolutely NOTHING - we dont watch your crap anymore".

One hour later all was banned. Good humour. Whoever it was deserves respect.


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