Channel URL already taken?

Peter

Obsessed Guitarist
Okay, so I was thinking about setting up a vanity URL for my channel and even though I've read somewhere that YouTube currently don't bother with redirecting URL's, I thought it would be wise to just create the channel beforehand you know, just in case. :p

So I checked if the URL I wanted was available by typing it into my browser and according to YouTube it isn't in use because it says that "This channel does not exist" (www.youtube.com/user/petergergely). So I went ahead and created a new channel, however when I wanted to request the above mentioned URL, I get an error saying that the name is already taken.

Is it something I'm missing or is Google/YouTube being stupid?
 
I did this for a channel that I wanted to set up as a secondary channel, and the exact same happened.

I had to result in adding "The" to the beginning.

Maybe it's a bug in the YouTube system, or it could be if the channel previously existed and got terminated, and maybe is still in the system but isn't, which confuses the algorithm.
 
Yeah it's what Faptain said. If somebody had that URL before and deleted your channel then you won't be able to use that URL ever again. I know because I had a second channel but decided that I didn't want to use it, when it was deleted I got a message saying that the URL I had won't be able to be used again
 
Well that's a pretty stupid move on YouTube's end in my opinion but oh well. :P Thanks for the replies guys! :)
 
I used to reclaim YouTube urls long time ago, when not everyone could be a YouTube Partner. Now I possess some great usernames like "5" or "Bass" thanks to it.
 
It's been taken. YouTube stops displaying the notice that says the account is closed or terminated after a while. Who knows why.. :P
 
This is probably a dumb question, but if you set a url for your YouTube channel there is no way to change it huh?
I made mine a long time ago and i hate it lol
 
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