If this is only the 2nd time that this is happening
to you, I wouldn't worry for too long. Many times
every day, YouTube shuts down quite a lot of its
servers without telling anybody so that they can
update various stuff.
However, I am beginning to see many questions
just like yours on Yahoo!, so I recently did a ton
of Googling, searching, reading -- poring through
all variations, combinations & search results for:
-- "youtube", "password"
-- "username", "user name"
-- "log", "login", "log-in"
-- "sign", "signin", "sign-in"
-- "doesn't let me", "does not let me"
-- "won't let me", "will not let me"
-- "can't log", "cannot log"
-- "doesn't log", "does not log"
-- "won't log", "will not log"
as well as using the word "sign" rather than "log".
After all that time, the best that I could come up
with were these possibilities:
1) There might be something awkward with your
security software or firewall. Maybe it will not let
you send out any of your personal information --
or if you are rather young, it's possible that your
parents have put a "block" on it.
2) If you have Firefox, your problem may have to
do with "cookies" or "exceptions". If cookies are
"accepted", YouTube might be an "exception" --
therefore you should "allow" YouTube to puts its
cookies on your computer or "remove" YouTube
from the "Exceptions" list. This is all accessible
by clicking Tools > Options > Privacy.
3) I don't understand the logic, but one guy on a
forum discussion thread said he hit "CTRL" plus
"F5", and for some reason it worked for him.
4) There's a grainy YouTube video of an old lady
with a rather clever idea: delete your passwords.
Things can sometimes get "hairy" if a computer
has many IDs and passwords. For example, I'm
'inukjuak89' on YouTube, 'inukjuak90' on Yahoo,
and other names on different sites. Also, all my
passwords are different as well.
Thus, one thing you may want to do is to check
all your passwords. Believe it or not, she states
you can actually see every one inside of Firefox.
(I don't know because I'm a true devotee of IE6.)
Here are her instructions, plus the YouTube link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=k0F90GAd17k
5) The only other thing I can think of is "cookies".
Perhaps a bad or false "cookie" has stuck itself
in your computer and is sending out either false
or wrong information. Even if you don't think that
is the case, clear your "cache" of all its cookies.
While you are at it, do the same thing with your
"temporary internet files" and your "history" -- in
order to reset everything. Whatever problem you
may be having, this is something you should be
doing at least every couple weeks:
Internet Explorer 6:
→ Tools → Internet Options
→ Delete Cookies → OK
→ Delete Files → OK
→ Clear History → Yes
→ OK
Internet Explorer 7:
→ Tools → Internet Options → Delete...
→ Delete files → Yes
→ Delete cookies → OK
→ Delete history → OK
→ Close (browsing history window)
→ OK
Mozilla Firefox
→ Tools → Clear Private Data
[x] Browsing History
[x] Download History
[x] Saved Form and Search History
[x] Cache
[x] Cookies
→ Clear Private Data Now
If any of these quasi-solutions solves your issue,
please click my avatar and let me know, so that
I may incorporate them into future YA questions
similar to yours.
If you are still stuck, this is what YouTube says:
www.google.com / support / youtube / bin / answer . py ? answer=55755 & topic=16594
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55755&topic=16594
Here are the links to two websites that you may
find interesting and helpful if you're using Firefox:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Cookies
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Cookies