How to recover a very old youtube account?

AnimeSpry

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
17
Reaction score
6
Age
28
Hey guys, I've had a YouTube channel for years I haven't touched. I mainly want to get access for it since the username is my full name and would just work better for me in the long run I feel. But anyways I made this account bad in 2009. When YouTube wasn't owned by Google. I would just like to know if it's possible to recover the account and if so how would I go about it? Thanks!
 

ziiChex

Active Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
42
Reaction score
8
Channel Type
Youtuber
Im honestly unsure if that is possible! have you found any of your old videos or the channel on youtube today?
 

AnimeSpry

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
17
Reaction score
6
Age
28
Im honestly unsure if that is possible! have you found any of your old videos or the channel on youtube today?
Yeah I have, I went to the channel yesterday. All of the videos are still on it
 

KatyAdelson

I Love YTtalk
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
7,166
Reaction score
6,855
Location
Colorado
Channel Type
Musician
It depends if the account has been linked to a google account or not. If it has been linked to a google account, then you can use this:
https://accounts.google.com/signin/v2/recoveryidentifier?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin

If you don't have a google account attached to it, then you'll need to link it with this gaia link, but this requires you to know your login info for that account:
https://www.youtube.com/gaia_link

This link states if you don't remember your old password, and if it hasn't been linked to a google account, then there isn't a recovery option... :/
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/55757?hl=en

This seems to be different than how I remember the process in ~2015. I could have sworn it used to be recoverable if you could remember the email address but forgot the password, but not recoverable if you had forgotten the email address. Hmm....

Hopefully you had created a google account, because then I think you could follow the first link to recover the password... :eek:

On the google forums, someone mentioned trying to create a google account with the same email as the legacy YouTube channel, and then linking the channel with the gaia link, but I have no idea how that would really work..so.. :/

Here's a thorough post on the google forums that would be good to read through, too! :)
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/zMC0TlC37No
 

AnimeSpry

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
17
Reaction score
6
Age
28
It depends if the account has been linked to a google account or not. If it has been linked to a google account, then you can use this:


If you don't have a google account attached to it, then you'll need to link it with this gaia link, but this requires you to know your login info for that account:


This link states if you don't remember your old password, and if it hasn't been linked to a google account, then there isn't a recovery option... :/


This seems to be different than how I remember the process in ~2015. I could have sworn it used to be recoverable if you could remember the email address but forgot the password, but not recoverable if you had forgotten the email address. Hmm....

Hopefully you had created a google account, because then I think you could follow the first link to recover the password... :eek:

On the google forums, someone mentioned trying to create a google account with the same email as the legacy YouTube channel, and then linking the channel with the gaia link, but I have no idea how that would really work..so.. :/

Here's a thorough post on the google forums that would be good to read through, too! :)
Thanks for the info! Unfortunately i can't create a gmail with the same name since that email address is already in use. My only chance now i think is trying to go through old emails i remember and maybe hoping to find out which one i used to create the account.
 

Courtney Candice

I Love YTtalk
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Messages
3,802
Reaction score
1,672
Age
28
Channel Type
Youtuber
Thanks for the info! Unfortunately i can't create a gmail with the same name since that email address is already in use. My only chance now i think is trying to go through old emails i remember and maybe hoping to find out which one i used to create the account.
Good luck, hopefully you can recover your old youtube account