YouTube Now Lets You Lock Your Account on a Shared TV

YouTube's TV app now lets you lock your account with a 4-digit code, so nobody else on the sofa can wander into your profile and scramble your recommendations.

The feature is called account lock, and TeamYouTube announced it on the YouTube Community forum this week.

Once it is on, your recommendations, subscriptions and search history stay private to you, even on a TV the whole household shares.

It is rolling out globally to most smart TVs, streaming devices and game consoles, so it may not have reached yours yet.

How to Turn On Account Lock

• Open the YouTube app on your TV and select your account in the left-hand menu.
• Select the Settings button directly under your account.
• Follow the on-screen prompts to turn on account lock and choose your 4-digit code.

The code belongs to that one TV, not to your Google Account. If you also watch on a second TV or a games console, set a code there too.

Unlock It From Your Phone Instead

Tapping in digits with a remote gets old quickly, so there is a shortcut. Select your locked account on the TV, open the YouTube app on your phone, and an unlock prompt is waiting for you.

With notifications turned on, it also arrives as a push notification, which is quicker still. On a phone or tablet with no Play Store, the official YouTube app for Android installs as a direct APK.

Forgot the Code?

Select Forgot code? on the lock screen and sign in with your Google Account. That switches account lock off on that TV, and you can set it up again with a new code.

Typing a full password with a remote is the painful part. On a Google TV or Android TV set, the Google TV app turns your phone into the remote, keyboard included.

What Account Lock Does Not Do

• It does not stop anyone watching. Watch as guest works on every device, with recommendations based only on signed-out viewing on that TV.
• It does not beat your Google password. Anyone who knows it can use Forgot code? to switch the lock off.
• It does not sign you out. A locked account on a TV you have left behind is still a signed-in account.

That last one matters for a TV you sold, left in a rented flat or used in a hotel. Open google.com/devices, pick the TV from the list and sign out of it remotely.

What About Family Profiles?

The Who's Watching screen shows everyone in your Google Family Group, but as signed-out profiles. Each person has to sign in with their own password before their profile opens.

Accounts with no password still sign in automatically. If you would rather family profiles did not appear at all, select a signed-out profile on that TV to find the opt-out.

If the shared TV has you thinking about the shared family PC as well, our Windows 10 and 11 privacy settings guide covers the switches worth flipping there.

Quick questions

Set the code once, and your recommendations stay yours.

Get the YouTube app for Android so the unlock prompt has somewhere to land, or tell us whether account lock has reached your TV yet.