this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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DeGoogle Yourself

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I was trying to change my primary YouTube/Google account while still holding onto my Movies & TV purchases.

  1. You can't change the email address associated with your YouTube account or Google Play Movies & TV purchases.
  2. You can't transfer your purchases to a new Google account.
  3. There is a way to create a Google Play family account, but it's so buried and un-obvious that it takes search engine research to accidentally discover that this is an option.
  4. Once you create your family account, apparently some purchases can't be shared due to how they were paid for years ago.
  5. When you try to share many stated-as-"eligible" purchases with the family by using the toggle, it errors, and a refresh shows that it never shared. I used Firefox, Edge, no VPN, and no adblocker. Tons of attempts. Nothing. No fix.
  6. Google has no proper support channel.
  7. If you try to remove the family account and host it under the Google account that owns all the purchases in hopes that they will now work, you will discover that none of the accounts can join a family plan again for 12 fucking months.

Lesson: Don't ever buy your shit through Google Play. Put your pirate hat on.

top 28 comments
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[–] xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org 95 points 2 years ago

In general: Do not buy any media that you can't download.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 61 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

just pirate stuff its so much easier:

  • you download stuff
  • its in your storage
  • no accounts & bullshit
[–] willeypete23@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Add VLC and set up a media server and it's just as convenient as streaming for at home use.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I have a media server set up, but Stremio is pretty easy for normies.

[–] yoz@aussie.zone 2 points 2 years ago

Lol so easy and convenient.

[–] dukethorion@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

That's great and all but some apps require GPStore and check for license upon every start.

Ex: Radarscope

Don't suggest FOSS weather map apps, they all suck in comparison.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 54 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You don't own anything if it's hosted in the cloud. Download and archive.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Working on it. After we move, I'm buying larger SSDs for my NAS.

[–] jeremy_sylvis@midwest.social 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If you're interested in cost-effectiveness, hold out for the deals on SaveMyServer. I ended up with a 48TB Dell R720xd for like $500 delivered. 36TB usable in a RAID5 is nothing to sneeze at, plus it's an amazing chassis for, say, GPU accelerated transcode.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I am not tech-savvy enough to know about any of this ^^;

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don’t run Raid, but the idea is that you can setup a computer specially for storing your content.

For streaming Ssd will be very expensive. You can get a huge mechanical hdd for similar costs.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I don't need to keep a ton of movies and shows, but I do need to double-back-up my work. I lost two HDDs in the past and I now always back up "online". At first it was Google, but now I have a NAS with a primary SSD and a backup SSD. I will never buy a HDD again.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The thing with hdds is that when they fail, if you check regularly, you can recover a lot of your data if not all the data from it.

When an ssd fails, it’s all gone instantly.

I still rely on hdd for long term storage.

Additionally hdds are better for backups that are not regularly connected. The ssd can lose charge over time and data can be lost.

With that being said, I also have important work data and it is duplicated on multiple types of drives in multiple places.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Maybe. But since I store all my work on my NAS and none of it on my PC and laptop anymore, I prefer the speeds of SSD and the automatic backup from storage SSD to second SSD that I do. My desktop and laptop SSDs are only used for the OS, software, and installed games now.

[–] scarilog@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

If you can afford it, go for it, but having HDD fail isn't a great reason to never buy HDDs again (SSDs fail too).

RAID is a way of pooling multiple HDDs so that even if one fails, you can still access your data.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Im also trying to stick with SSDs, but many of them died. Backup is needed for both

[–] jeremy_sylvis@midwest.social 4 points 2 years ago

Everyone starts somewhere. This was the start for many of us. The myriad self-hosted information resources are very helpful.

[–] Elliott@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Cool tip. Would love to score something like that. Wanna get past a simple nas with no hardware encoding.

[–] technom@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

You don’t own anything if it’s hosted in the cloud.

Unless you own the cloud. Self hosting should be made as ubiquitous as linux distros.

[–] UnculturedSwine@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago

I used to work for a major TV/Internet provider that offered video on demand movies and TV shows. I had several instances where a family would move to a new location but the account wouldn't transfer and instead it was set up as a new account. Hundreds of dollars spent on VoD titles would be lost and I couldn't do anything for them because the company I worked for didn't provide a way to restore those titles. If I purchase a digital copy of a movie, show, book, etc. I don't feel a single shred of guilt pirating it to keep a downloaded version for myself and neither should anyone else.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 30 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They're not letting me watch tv shows I paid for. I'm from the UK and I have a huge catalogue. I bought some new shows and movies and they blocked them. Said some BS about region. Said they understand and they can't/won't do nothing.

Let's not forget all the 4K movies I bought only play in 480. Yey.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Yeck, sorry for your loss. I bought a lot of TV show on Google Play; and while they're not lost, they are inconvenient to access.

[–] Nahvi@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You seem to have missed the real lesson. Google is not a good company. They will screw you if they can. Avoid them when possible.

[–] orphiebaby@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I was purchasing from them a bunch of years ago.

[–] Nahvi@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Fair enough. I was more commenting on your Lesson summary down at the bottom, so I didn't consider that you had mentioned it was long ago.

[–] technom@programming.dev 6 points 2 years ago

Stay away from google play if you can - forget buying from them. From logging you in without consent to requiring credit card for unlocking geo-locked app, Google play is a very scummy, anti-privacy malware.