YTTV location verification

[ncted]

I had planned to move my parents to one of the lower-cost YTTV plans, but it seems I might have to switch them to a different service altogether. Their YTTV account is under my dad's name. For the first time ever, YTTV has asked him to verify his location, which apparently requires using the mobile app. Well, the problem is that my dad doesn't have a smartphone. All he has is an Intel Mac laptop, and that doesn't count. He is not very tech savvy at all.

Currently, they cannot watch TV. I spent 2 hours on the phone with my dad last night trying to help him fix it with no success. I cannot travel the 11 hours to do anything in person because I am still recovering from back surgery. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

If we can't get it fixed soon, they'll probably have to switch back to Spectrum.

 

[savarese04]

That doesn't sound right. i have never needed to use the YTTV app to verify my location. I have done it on my laptop when I've needed to watch on there, but the streaming app itself is pretty independent....

 

[osu1991]

Are there any other family or friends with a phone or tablet that they can temporarily login and use to verify their location? A computer should be able to be used to set and update home location.

Did you try walking them through updating the location on the pc in Chrome?
tv.youtube.com>sign in>profile picture>location

It might at least get them the national networks. Locals will probably require a more precise GPS device?

If the laptop has an hdmi output then connecting to the tv may temporarily allow them to use the service until a better solution is found.

Edit: Just tried on my desktop and it shows an update button for both Home Area and Current Playback Area.

 

[NYDutch]

Are there any other family or friends with a phone or tablet that they can temporarily login and use to verify their location? A computer should be able to be used to set and update home location.

Did you try walking them through updating the location on the pc in Chrome?
tv.youtube.com>sign in>profile picture>location

It might at least get them the national networks. Locals will probably require a more precise GPS device?

If the laptop has an hdmi output then connecting to the tv may temporarily allow them to use the service until a better solution is found.

Edit: Just tried on my desktop and it shows an update button for both Home Area and Current Playback Area.

Updating the location on the PC should also update it on the TV app. When I was traveling in our RV, I did it often.

 

[ncted]

Are there any other family or friends with a phone or tablet that they can temporarily login and use to verify their location? A computer should be able to be used to set and update home location.

Did you try walking them through updating the location on the pc in Chrome?
tv.youtube.com>sign in>profile picture>location

It might at least get them the national networks. Locals will probably require a more precise GPS device?

If the laptop has an hdmi output then connecting to the tv may temporarily allow them to use the service until a better solution is found.

Edit: Just tried on my desktop and it shows an update button for both Home Area and Current Playback Area.

When we tried using my mom's phone and iPad, it would not login to his account, only hers. I had hoped that would be enough since she is a member of the family that has access to the service, but the message she received when she tried to verify the location was something to the effect of the owner of the service needed to login to verify, not her. Both my parents are in their mid-80s, so going through this process was very painful and time-consuming.

We went through the location update process in Chrome multiple times, but it never fixed the problem of the Apps on their Roku devices displaying an error that they needed to verify the location. The update buttons were there, but updating didn't do anything.

We restarted the Rokus and re-installed the YTTV app. Nothing seemed to work.

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[MartyDe]

Have you tried logging in to youtube tv itself?

https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/

After signing in you can set location under your account settings.

 

[Juan]

When we tried using my mom's phone and iPad, it would not login to his account, only hers. I had hoped that would be enough since she is a member of the family that has access to the service, but the message she received when she tried to verify the location was something to the effect of the owner of the service needed to login to verify, not her. Both my parents are in their mid-80s, so going through this process was very painful and time-consuming.

We went through the location update process in Chrome multiple times, but it never fixed the problem of the Apps on their Roku devices displaying an error that they needed to verify the location. The update buttons were there, but updating didn't do anything.

We restarted the Rokus and re-installed the YTTV app. Nothing seemed to work.

Can't your mom use your dad's password?

 

[osu1991]

When we tried using my mom's phone and iPad, it would not login to his account, only hers. I had hoped that would be enough since she is a member of the family that has access to the service, but the message she received when she tried to verify the location was something to the effect of the owner of the service needed to login to verify, not her. Both my parents are in their mid-80s, so going through this process was very painful and time-consuming.

We went through the location update process in Chrome multiple times, but it never fixed the problem of the Apps on their Roku devices displaying an error that they needed to verify the location. The update buttons were there, but updating didn't do anything.

We restarted the Rokus and re-installed the YTTV app. Nothing seemed to work.

Need to add your dad's Gmail account to her iPad.
Edit and then switch to that account in the YTTV app on the iPad.

 

[Bruce]

Have you tried logging in to youtube tv itself?

https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/

After signing in you can set location under your account settings.

Correct.

When we moved to Florida in 2020, it first located us in Orlando, I switched it back to Detroit, worked for about 2 years.

 

[ncted]

Need to add your dad's Gmail account to her iPad.
Edit and then switch to that account in the YTTV app on the iPad.

That makes sense. However, I have no confidence in the people operating the iPad to achieve success in doing so.

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[savarese04]

That makes sense. However, I have no confidence in the people operating the iPad to achieve success in doing so.

Can you not log in as them and do it for them?

 

[osu1991]

That makes sense. However, I have no confidence in the people operating the iPad to achieve success in doing so.

Been there, fortunately my 80 yr old mother is only 20 mins away as she has no idea how to do anything other than make calls, texts and take pictures with her iphone. She stopped using the ipad I got her because it was too hard to hold. So far the Roku she uses has stayed logged in to YTTV, Youtube and Paramount Plus. She only uses YTTV to watch softball and it has to be one of the recommendations on the home tab for her to easily find it. My mom doesn't use it but I keep her gmail account on my phone so I can get verification emails and such for her user accounts in those apps she uses. That probably wouldn't help you with location verification though, being 11hrs away

 

[cpalmer2k]

Can you not log in as them and do it for them?

Not in this case because they're trying to verify the parents' physical location.

YTTV enforces a rule that makes you log in within your home area to prove your location every 90 days. Since no mobile device is logged into the subscriber account it's likely they decided to enforce the rule, and blocked the Roku's from accessing the service.

YTTV is picky. To complete the verification the mobile device has to be connected to the same WiFi network as the Roku device you're trying to update. Do they have any other friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. with tech savvy kids that you might could call upon for help in this situation? Any local IT places that make house calls?

 

[dishdude]

Can you take control of Mom's iPad during a Facetime call and get her logged in under your Dad's account?

 

[cpalmer2k]

Can you take control of Mom's iPad during a Facetime call and get her logged in under your Dad's account?

Great idea! It might work.

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[Foxbat]

That makes sense. However, I have no confidence in the people operating the iPad to achieve success in doing so.

If you have an iPad, you can FaceTime with your parent and share their screen, then you can "drive." I do this with my Mother-in-Law from time to time.

edit: Oops, I see dishdude beat me to this suggestion.

 

[ncted]

So, an update: My brother spent most of the day trying to help them. He is 20+ years younger than my parents, but still not particularly tech-savvy. Still, he tried and tried to login on my mom's iPad with my dad's account, but it kept erroring after authentication. It just won't verify.

He is familiar with Hulu+Live and lives in the area, so he is going to try to get my parents to switch to that. It will cost a little more, but at least they will have someone to help them nearby when things go wrong. If they don't want to do that, the second recommendation is to switch to Spectrum. At least that way, they can call a number and someone shows up to the house to help.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions as always.

 

[Jimbo]

Updating the location on the PC should also update it on the TV app. When I was traveling in our RV, I did it often.

Yes, I don't believe you can make Any of those changes on the actual TV.
Also, it has to be done on the Accounts owners set up.

I fought for months trying to be able to have service up here and at the other home in SC and YTTV fought me every 3 months ... We eventually turned it off down south.

 

[Juan]

Yes, I don't believe you can make Any of those changes on the actual TV.
Also, it has to be done on the Accounts owners set up.

I fought for months trying to be able to have service up here and at the other home in SC and YTTV fought me every 3 months ... We eventually turned it off down south.

Make 2 accounts...you can put one on pause when not using it

 

[ncted]

So, an update: My brother spent most of the day trying to help them. He is 20+ years younger than my parents, but still not particularly tech-savvy. Still, he tried and tried to login on my mom's iPad with my dad's account, but it kept erroring after authentication. It just won't verify.

He is familiar with Hulu+Live and lives in the area, so he is going to try to get my parents to switch to that. It will cost a little more, but at least they will have someone to help them nearby when things go wrong. If they don't want to do that, the second recommendation is to switch to Spectrum. At least that way, they can call a number and someone shows up to the house to help.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions as always.

Well, my brother ran into problems with Hulu, so my dad made the executive decision to get Spectrum. I helped my dad install the Spectrum app on their Rokus. The nice thing about that is, there is no logging in to do. It automatically detects they are on a Spectrum Internet connection with TV service and just works. The downside is now my parents have a new app to learn how to use.

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