To Claim Or Not To Claim, Therein Lies The Vexation (or the one about Legacy Linking)

This is about legacy YouTube accounts, those which were created before May 2009 and which have not been linked to Google Accounts.  Which means that these legacy YouTube accounts cannot have been used sine 10th January 2011 as it became mandatory for all legacy YouTube accounts to be linked to Google Accounts in order to be sign in-able.

But first of all, in order to really get to grips with this topic we need to address what IS "legacy"?

The dictionary defines it as:

noun, plural legacies.

1.

Law. a gift of property, especially personal property, as money, by will; a bequest.

2.

anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor:

the legacy of ancient Rome.

3.

an applicant to or student at a school that was attended by his or her parent.

4.

Obsolete. the office, function, or commission of a legate.

adjective

5.

of or relating to old or outdated computer hardware, software, or data that, while still functional, does not work well with up-to-date systems.

For us the relevant bit is "obsolete" and relating to old site functionality which is not supported.

OK, now that I have that out of the way with-  YouTube channels which were created before May 2009 and which have not been linked to Google Accounts yet do exist, although they are increasingly rare.

Google have owned YouTube since late 2006, allowed the creation of YouTube accounts under the legacy system until May 2009 and thereafter ran two systems in tandem-  their YouTube channels on Google Accounts and legacy YouTube accounts not on Google Accounts.

Until, that is, the 11th of January 2011.  From that day onward Google have required that users with legacy YouTube accounts to link them to Google Accounts and use the same system as anyone who created their YouTube channel from May 2009 onward.

And then at the end of that year Google announced the purging of unclaimed legacy YouTube accounts.  But unclaimed legacy YouTube accounts were only those which were never actually used under any system, not even the legacy one.  These unclaimed legacy YouTube accounts had no uploads, no one had ever really signed into them at all.

By January 2012 there were only YouTube channels and non-linked legacy YouTube accounts which had uploads.

Signing in was possible with the custom URL (aka YouTube username) until 2013 when Google realised that the security risk of publicly known "usernames" was causing problems on a crazy scale and required everyone, even YouTubers, to use their Google Accounts' usernames, ie the email addresses these Google Accounts use.  Problems arose for YouTubers who didn't realise that they even had a Google Account involved and that it used the email address as its username.  This is not that important except to inform why this is such a problem for users:



This is the information about the Gaia linking process for those users who really do still have these rare non-linked legacy YouTube accounts which they need to know their legacy YouTube username for and the legacy YouTube password in order to use the Gaia link.

Because the information is outdated (it looks at the linking process from about three years ago) and misleading/confusing (it uses contradictory and conflicting terms) it causes problems for users with these rate non-linked legacy YouTube accounts.

The Gaia link just doesn't look like this anymore.

The current link itself is flawed because explain that if you don't have your legacy password (it is assumed you at least know your legacy YouTube username) you must know/be able to use the legacy email address as a Google Account's email address username.  And it has a completely useless link for loss of access as that is for a Google Account, not a legacy YouTube account.

I have made a video about my many issues with the Help Centre article which I have reported to Google time and time again.  I am hoping that it will be addressed as a matter of urgency.  The one incorrect bit of information about the Google Account to link to needing to not have a YouTube channel on it already has, I note, been removed.  But it is not enough-  the article needs to be rewritten from the bottom up.

How To Transfer A YouTube Channel From One Google Account To Another Google Account

This has been a vexing topic for too long.  Ever since Google introduced Google Accounts for YouTube channels in May 2009 YouTubers have struggled with understanding that YouTube channels are mere products on their Google Accounts, sort of extensions to enable Google Accounts to be used at YouTube and therefore (and quite obviously) cannot be moved to another Google Account.

This is a visual representation of the hierarchy many of us legacy YouTubers still don't "get":

This fact has meant that if someone created a YouTube channel on their Google Account and then wanted to give ownership of the YouTube channel to someone else, they had to consider giving their entire Google Account to that someone as that was the only way.  Think on it-  the YouTube is merely a functionality or "add-on" of the Google Account and so it is the Google Account you would need to hand over.

Where Google Account owners were using third party email and were not attached to other products/services on their Google Account-  not a problem.  Change the email to that of the new owner and Bob's your mother's brother.

But what if you had Google Apps or other Google services you could not afford to give up?  You were stuck.

Stuck, that is, until late Spring 2013.  That marked the period when Google+ was being offered to YouTubers in the form of Google+ Pages, a difficult and yet very helpful development if YouTubers were just to realise it.

Now-  I am not a lover of Google+, it is not a secret.  I will take down websites/forum presences I am not using because I do not like virtual waste and, to me, Google+ is not useful in a big enough way to merit it.  But even I will admit that it has its uses and this one is key to my appreciation of it.

Because now it is possible to move a YouTube channel's ownership from one Google Account to a different Google Account and do so as many times as you wish.  :D  GOOD news!

How?

By linking the YouTube channel to a Google+ Page; that's how!  To do this know your basic navigation tools at YouTube (see first image) and Google+ (see second image):

1. Sign into your YouTube channel's Google Account at YouTube,
2. Determine if you need to link to Google+ in the first place or if you already have a Google+ product (these come in two flavours-  personal Google+ Profile and non-personal Google+ Page) linked, then either-
3. Link to a Google+ Page using the "Link to Google+" option in your YouTube channel's YouTube settings and picking "business or other name" and not your Google profile name, or-
4. If you have your YouTube channel linked to your personal Google+ Profile and do not yet have a Google+ Page at all then create a new YouTube channel in YouTube settings using "see all your channels or create a new one" (don't worry- the YouTube channel is a means to an end and will be deleted in the next step.  We just want that Google+ Page it creates along with it) and then go to YouTube settings / Advanced to move the YouTube channel from your Google+ Profile to this new Google+ Page or the Google+ Page you already have using the link for this.  Note that you will be asked to confirm that it is OK to delete any YouTube channel already on that Google+ Page you are relinking to.  Check, to make sure.  Obviously with the new one you might just have created as per my instructions-  it is OK to delete.
5. Go to Google+, select the drop-down menu at the far left, select Pages (or All Pages), select Manage this page for the correct one, click on the cog near the top right to reveal drop-down, select Settings and in Settings click on the Managers tab.  Invite the "target" Google Account which is to become the new owner to be a manager by typing in their email address or their Google+ Profile name if known and sending the invite,
6. Sign in/get the owner to sign into the "target" Google Account and accept the invitation which can be done two ways, either by navigating to the Google+ Page to be made manager of and clicking on "Accept" in the banner at the top of the page, or by going to their mail services inbox (check spam if not visible) and accepting the invite from the email itself (note-  still need to be signed into the "target" Google Account for this to work without hassle),
7. Wait 24 hours,
8. Sign in as the YouTube channel's Google Account owner at Google+ (or at YouTube if you want to be sure), navigate to Pages (or All Pages) / Manage this page / Settings / Managers and transfer ownership by clicking on the small downward arrow by the manager's name on the right.

This completes the transfer.

Your "target" Google Account which was made manager but was upgraded to owner is now the owner of both the Google+ Page and the linked YouTube channel, leaving the original owner as manager.  The new owner can transfer ownership back immediately (handy if you made a mistake or change your mind) and can also remove the old owner from even being just a manager (which is what they become after transferring ownership away).

I have made two videos on the topic-  one longer and very explanatory as is my want:

The other a little more to the point (still with an unhealthy tendency to avoid shortcuts and making a huge deal about the use of Google+ links but at YouTube):

Thereafter it is possible for the new owner to move the YouTube channel from that Google+ Page to any other Google+ product on the same Google Account;  perfect for anyone who wants to use their Google+ Profile with the newly transferred YouTube channel or has a Google+ Page they'd prefer to use instead by using the same process described in 4. above, and here:

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Note:  if your YouTube channel's Google+ linkage is permanent then you cannot unlink your YouTube from Google+ despite the ability to transfer ownership or move between Google+ products.  Sorry.

Caveat:  Custom "/c/" URLs do not move with the YouTube channels using them.  They remain with the corresponding Google+ product which has the matching +URL.  Consider this carefully where the "/c/" URL is associated with a Google+ Profile as these cannot be moved (Google+ Profiles ARE the Google Accounts' public faces).

Move Your YouTube Channel's Google+ Linkage With This Nifty Tool

Since the introduction in early 2012 of Google+ for YouTube we have been dogged by the fact that the linkage we establish between our YouTube channels and Google+ products becomes permanent after the 14 day cooling off period.  To add insult to injury all YouTube channels created nowadays come with their Google+ product perma-linked and if we don't choose well enough we could end up regretting our choices.

Until this week moving the linkage from one Google+ product to another was possible only with the help of support.  And now we have this über cool tool which allows us to do this ourselves:

You will find a link to it in YouTube settings / Advanced of the YouTube channel you wish to move to a different Google+ product placed as seen above.

Once you click on the link you are shown a super visual interpretation of your current set-up and a box to click to begin the process:

The easy to understand interface gets even better with the next screen where you will see your choices:

If we look at this third screen you will see that I am using my test YouTube channel Skitrel Mark 5 (shown on the left) which is linked to a Google+ Page of that name (shown on the right) and have the option to link it to my Google account's Google+ Profile (with a photo of Alice) and another Google+ Page (Skitrel Mark 7, sporting its default +Page avatar) on the same Google account.  This is important-  you can only choose Google+ products which exist/are owned by the Google account the YouTube channel and its current Google+ product are owned by.  As per the little note about this on the box with the choices.  :)

There are a couple of caveats here:

1.  You cannot link to a Google+ Profile if you have deleted the Google+ Profile as seen here:

It just wont appear as an option because it doesn't exist.  And if that is what you wish to link the YouTube channel to then you would need to stop the process and go to Google+ in your Google account and create a new Google+ Profile before returning to your YouTube channel and starting the move process over.

2.  You cannot (currently) move the new style custom YouTube /c/ URL with the YouTube channel although you are not told this as seen here:

This is not entirely intuitive behaviour but if you appreciate that the /c/ URL of your YouTube channel is associated with the matching +URL and that that +URL belongs to the Google+ product you are moving from, it begins to make sense.  It "stays" with its matching +URL and is associated to the YouTube channel only where it is linked to the matching +URL using Google+ product.  Annoying, no?  Meh.

Final consideration when choosing the Google+ product to relink your YouTube channel to-  every Google+ product may only have one YouTube channel on it at any one time.  This means that if you pick a Google+ product on that bottom list which has its own channel already you will first be asked to delete it (or cancel the action of course) as seen here:

Be very careful not to delete a YouTube channel you might be super-attached to!  Recovering a user-deleted YouTube channel is not easy at best of times but once you move your other YouTube channel to the deleted channel's Google+ product- all the more confusing for everyone!

Instead-  consider moving the "blocking" YouTube channel to a different Google+ product before moving your YouTube channel to its Google+ product.  ;)  That way you keep both!

Here is a video I made about the process (I don't address the /c/ URL caveat in it as I didn't want to confuse folk but might update the video as the tool's development progresses):

Any questions please drop me a note or, better still, pop over to the fora for serious trouble-shooting.

To "Claim" Or Not To Claim (A YouTube), That Is The Question

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: