YouTube accounts and channel access¶

Which Google account can connect a YouTube channel to IRIS, and what to do when the channel you want isn't on offer. Written for whoever is about to click Connect YouTube, and for the person who owns the channel and has to grant them access.

This is the part of YouTube setup that most often goes wrong, and it goes wrong in a way that looks like a bug in METIS rather than a permissions problem: someone who uploads to the channel by hand every week clicks Connect, and the channel simply isn't there.

For the Google Cloud project and the Connect click-path, see YouTube setup. This page is only about accounts and permissions.

The one rule¶

Only an Owner of a channel can authorise API access to it. People given YouTube Studio "channel permissions" of Manager, Editor, Viewer and so on can upload and edit on the YouTube website, but their access is invisible to OAuth and the YouTube Data API — which is exactly what IRIS uses. Being able to upload a video by hand in YouTube Studio does not mean you can connect that channel here.

Everything else on this page follows from that one sentence. If you remember nothing else: the person clicking Connect must own the channel, not merely have been invited to help run it.

There is also no way around it with a key or a service account. YouTube does not accept service accounts for channel uploads at all — only credentials a real owner authorised in a browser. That is why there is a Connect button rather than a field to paste a secret into.

Which kind of channel do you have?¶

YouTube has two shapes of channel, and they behave differently here.

	Personal channel	Brand Account / organisation channel
Tied to	One Google login, 1:1	No login of its own — Google accounts are granted roles on it
Typically named	After a person	After an organisation or show
Signing in "as the channel"	Same as signing into that Google account	Not possible — there is no password for it
At Connect time	Often no picker appears	A picker appears, listing the personal channel and the Brand Account

To check which you have: sign in at youtube.com and open the account menu. If Switch account lists more than one channel, at least one of them is a Brand Account.

Case A — a personal channel¶

The channel is tied 1:1 to a single Google login: a channel named after a person, on that person's own Google account. This is the simple case.

Sign in to that Google account during the Connect flow.
If that account has only the one channel, Google connects it directly — no picker appears, because there is nothing to choose between. This is normal, not a failure.
Confirm the channel name shown next to Connected afterwards.

Case B — a Brand Account / organisation channel¶

A Brand Account is an organisation-shaped identity that owns a channel but is not itself a login — there is no email and password for "The Coherence Company". Ordinary Google accounts are granted roles on it instead. The channel exists even though nobody logs in as the channel.

The person doing the Connect must be signed in to a Google account that is an Owner of the channel — not merely a Studio-invited Manager or Editor. See the one rule.
During consent an account picker appears. Choose the organisation channel, not the personal one — an account that owns a Brand Account sees both listed, and the personal one is often first.
Confirm the channel name shown next to Connected afterwards. If it shows the personal channel, the wrong entry was picked, or the account lacks Owner access — click Reconnect and try again.

IRIS deliberately asks Google for a fresh account picker every time (prompt=consent select_account). Without that, someone who manages a Brand Account channel gets silently defaulted to their personal channel with no way to choose. If you see no picker at all on an account that definitely has several channels, something is wrong — don't assume the right one was chosen.

Granting Owner access¶

If the organisation channel doesn't appear in the picker, or connecting "succeeds" but lands on the personal channel, the signed-in account almost certainly has only Studio-level (Manager/Editor) access, which the API cannot see. An existing owner has to grant genuine Owner access first.

Two different systems, depending on the channel's vintage — use whichever the channel actually has:

Channel still on a legacy Brand Account — an existing owner adds the account as an owner at myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts → the Brand Account → Manage permissions.
Channel migrated to YouTube Studio Channel Permissions — an existing owner assigns the Owner role at YouTube Studio → Settings → Permissions. Google has been migrating channels off Brand-Account roles onto this system since 2024, and newer channels only have this path.

Then click Connect YouTube again. Owner access can take a little while to propagate — if the channel still isn't offered straight away, wait a few minutes and retry before assuming it failed.

A channel can have more than one owner, so granting Owner access to the person doing the setup doesn't cost the original owner anything. That is usually the cleanest fix: grant ownership to the account that will run the connection, rather than passing a password around.

Always confirm which channel you connected¶

On a successful connect, IRIS resolves and stores the channel's name and shows it next to Connected in the step editor and on the conversation's step inspector.

That display is the source of truth for where uploads will go. It is the only way to tell a correct connection from a plausible-looking wrong one — a personal channel authorised by mistake connects perfectly happily, and nothing looks wrong until an episode lands on the wrong channel. Check it every time, and especially after any Reconnect.

Why this is so confusing¶

Three separate systems that grew up in different eras all pretend to be one:

The underlying ownership of the channel or Brand Account.
YouTube Studio access — the Manager/Editor invitations.
The OAuth/API identity Google resolves for a connecting app.

Studio permissions were layered on later, and the older API identity model does not honour them. That is the whole reason someone can upload a video by hand yet be unable to connect the same channel to IRIS — and why the failure is silent rather than an error message saying "you are only an Editor". The only permission that satisfies the API is genuine Owner access.

Troubleshooting¶

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
The organisation channel doesn't appear in the picker	The signed-in account only has Studio Manager/Editor access, which the API cannot see	Have an existing owner grant genuine Owner access, then reconnect
No account picker appeared at all	That Google account has exactly one channel — there was nothing to choose	Normal. Confirm the channel name shown afterwards
Connected, but the wrong channel name is shown	The personal channel was picked instead of the organisation one, or the account lacks Owner access	Click Reconnect and pick carefully
Connecting "succeeds" but always lands on the personal channel	Studio-level access only — Google falls back to the channel the account genuinely owns	Grant Owner access on the organisation channel, then reconnect
Granted Owner access, channel still not offered	Propagation delay	Wait a few minutes and click Connect YouTube again
Google "did not return a refresh token"	A stale prior authorisation on that Google account	Revoke the app at myaccount.google.com/permissions, then Connect again
Uploads worked, then stopped about a week later	Not an account problem — the Google Cloud app is still in Testing mode, which expires tokens after 7 days	Ask a METIS admin to publish the app to Production
Error: connection expired or revoked	Access was revoked, or the owner changed their Google password	Reconnect on the journey step

YouTube setup — the Google Cloud project, the OAuth client, and the Connect click-path.
YouTube publishing — what the upload, sync and promote steps actually do.