Google terminology has never been particularly transparent or, indeed, consistent, and it is left to users to work out the meaning of terms used interchangeably.
With this blog I want to look at the terms "legacy", "channel" and "claiming".
1. "Legacy"
As the word implies- something which is passed down by a predecessor. In the computer world it also defines that which is considered to be "legacy" as "outdated but hard to replace".
In regard to YouTube the term "legacy" specifically refers to any YouTube account created prior to 6th May 2009 as these were created by the no-longer existing YouTube system which Google continued to run despite purchasing over two years previously (late 2006).
That is the definition of "legacy" and I could leave it with that. However- should you be interested to know more: these legacy YouTube accounts were autonomous (standalone) in that they had an email address which they used for their own recovery, their own password and a sort of control dashboard, beloved of web masters.
2. "Channel" (versus "account")
From May 2009 onward Google implemented their own system of Google account "owned" (as in- controlled/managed) YouTube channels and any YouTube channel created from then on automatically came with a split control in that the account side of things, ie the email address and the password, were controlled by the master Google account and only the YouTube video/community/public actions were still controlled by the YouTube channels themselves.
This is where the greatest problem with consistency is in that Google often use the terms interchangeably, even where it is not appropriate to do so. Basically a legacy YouTube account is a pre-May 2009 YouTube account which is not yet linked to a Google account (and they do still exist) and a YouTube channel is any YouTube (pre-May 2009 or post-May 2009 vintage) which is linked to and controlled by a Google account.
But since Google had inherited these legacy YouTube account users they ran the two systems, one for legacy YouTube account users and one for Google account with YouTube channel users in parallel with each other until the 10th of January 2011.
3. "Claiming" (another word for "linking")
Until the 11th of January 2011 it was option to "link" a legacy YouTube account to a Google account but from that day forward everyone who had a pre-May 2009 non-linked true-blue legacy YouTube had to link to even sign in. This process is what became known as the Gaia Linking Process.
The introduction of the term "claiming" as part of the process is fairly recent and its usage is both frustrating and misleading. While it implies that users can "claim ownership" of any YouTube (both channel and account variety), belonging, possibly, not even to themselves it is actually just a way of saying "link a legacy YouTube account to a Google account".
In short- only a still legacy YouTube account can be "claimed" by a Google account controlled by the user with access to the legacy YouTube account. Or to rephrase it- only still legacy YouTube accounts can be linked to Google accounts.
Already linked YouTube channels cannot be "claimed" again.
Sigh...
Here is a video on how to "claim" (aka "link") a legacy YouTube account to a Google account), should this be relevant to your case:
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