As many people have noted here, YouTube recently cracked down on Family Plan Premium Memberships where the five family members did not live in the same building, with Premium benefits being "paused" permanently. For some cancelled subscribers, the family members were their actual biological families but who live in other locations; for others (such as myself) the "family" merely consisted of five random people who mutually agreed to form a "household" and share the cost of Family Premium Plan.

However, no one seems to know how restrictive the new geolocation requirements are. Some people claim the cancellations only hit "Families" where the members were spread out across multiple nations -- but if all "Family members" were in the same nation, then it was OK. Others speculate that it is more on a regional basis -- such that (for example) is you were all in the same US state, then the memberships weren't cancelled, but if people are spread out to different states (but still within the same nation), then they would get cancelled. And some people claim that you literally all have to be in the same building, or your Family Premium benefits will be cancelled.

Which is true? I don't know. But maybe we could try an experiment:

If people were willing to start open "Family" accounts that were regionally restricted, maybe they would fly under YouTube's radar and be allowed. So for example, I live in California, and if someone else who also lived in California were to create a Family account with a Premium membership, and then invite in (sharing the cost) four other (random) people, with the only restriction being that they all live in California. Then the "family" would all apear to be in the same general area, and YouTube would allow it. And if that didn't work, we could get more geographically restrictive, and limit potential members to (in my case, for example) the San Francisco Bay Area, or wherever your city/region is.

I don't have the tech know-how to be the one wh starts a group, but I would be willing to join a newly created California-only Family group with Premium membership.

And if other people wanted to try similar experiments in other locations (e.g. an Ireland-only family, New York-only family, etc.), I'd love to hear the results if it worked or not.

Any thoughts?

Family organizer pays for YouTube Premium. 5 members of the family connected. Somehow my account does not have premium features eg ad-free, carplay youtube music, etc. was working for years before but now something changed and YouTube Premium subscription ended 19 Sept 2025. Thoughts?

Might as well call it Household Plan instead of Family Plan. My family of 5 lives in 2 different households. I also travel frequently from one place to another. I honestly don’t understand this L corporate greed. You guys will just piss people of and lose customers over a few dollars instead of keeping them happy with longevity 💀

Hi, my brother is having YouTube premium subscription with me as a member in it. Recently I got a mail from YouTube saying my services will be paused because of this reason. How should I overcome this?

Anyone with any knowledge about this. Considering purchasing YT Premium Family, My wife resides at the same address but travels to other Countries will she still be able to use her premium acct? No commercials etc appreciate your advice or suggestions.

TL;DR: I want to switch to a YouTube Premium Family Plan for my immediate family, but we don’t all live at the same address (they’re in Wisconsin, I’m in Colorado). Wondering how strictly Google enforces the “same household” rule. Can members get kicked off? Can the plan get downgraded or even accounts penalized.

Thinking of upgrading to a YouTube Premium Family Plan, but I’m unsure how strict Google is about the “all members must live at the same address” rule.

In our case, it’s all immediate family—parent, sibling, and me—but we’re split across two states. Three of them live in Wisconsin, I’m in Colorado. We all have active Google accounts and would use Premium regularly, but obviously we’re not under one roof.

I’ve read that Google may verify addresses using account activity, and I’m wondering:

Has anyone here actually had family members kicked off?

Can the plan be forcibly reverted to an individual one?

Has anyone seen more serious consequences, like bans from YouTube Premium or Google accounts being locked or restricted?

I know there are ways to "appear* at the same location online, but I’m more interested in hearing about what Google really enforces in practice vs. what they say in the fine print.

Would appreciate any real-world experience or advice.

Sidebar: It's kind of odd that Google One Premium allows storage sharing across households with family members in different states with no issue (which we do), but YouTube Premium Family locks things down so tightly - feels inconsistent for services under the same umbrella. Curious if there's any rationale.