YouTube stores all your watched and search history to provide you with a more personalized experience. But, over time, you may wish to clear them to reset the video recommendations or avoid others from viewing your history.
YouTube allows its users to manage their browsing history. You can sign in to your YouTube account and clear them from settings.
To Delete Watch History
YouTube monitors and takes your watch history as the main factor for providing recommendations. So deleting your watch history is the best way to reset your activity. You will receive newer recommendations after clearing it.
On Web
- Launch the YouTube website.
- Sign in to your YouTube account.
- Click on the More (Three lines) icon at the upper-left.
- Choose History.
- Now, highlight the video and click on the X icon to remove it from the watch history.
On Mobile
- Open YouTube and sign in.
- On the bottom right, tap on the Library icon.
- Next to History, choose View All.
- Highlight the video and tap on Three-dot more icon.
- Choose Remove from watch history.
To Remove Search History
You can clear your YouTube search history to avoid similar video recommendations. After clearing your search history it will not show up your past searches. You can only remove individual search lists from the search bar.
For iOS users, there is a Delete option. Similarly, on Android and Web, you can find the remove option.
On Web
- Launch the YouTube website.
- Navigate to the Search bar and click on it.
- Choose Remove next to the search history.
On Mobile
- Go to the YouTube app and sign in.
- Tap on the Search bar.
- A list of search history will appear.
- On Android, Tap and hold on the Search history. Pick the Remove option.
- On iOS, highlight the video on Search list. Swipe it left and tap on Delete.
Clear All Watch and Search History
All your YouTube activities are saved on your Google account. So the quickest way to clear all your YouTube history is from “My activity”. For mobile app users, you can delete them from the History & privacy.
On Web
- On a web browser, launch myactivity.google.com
- Sign in if prompted.
- Now, on the History tab, click on Delete.
- Choose Delete all time.
On Mobile
- Launch YouTube on your smartphone
- Tap on your Profile icon at the Upper-right
- Choose Settings > History & Privacy
- Tap on Clear watch history and confirm on the pop-up.
- Again, tap on Clear search history and confirm.
Auto-delete YouTube History
For users who do not want to manually clear YouTube history, there’s an option to automatically delete it after the preset time. You can enable this setting from My Activity on Google.
On Web
- Launch a web browser and enter “myactivity.google.com”
- Sign in to your account.
- Click on Auto-delete option.
- Choose Auto-delete activity older than option and set the Time frame.
- Click on Next.
- Pick Confirm on the pop-up.
On Mobile
- Open YouTube app.
- On the top-right, tap on your Profile icon.
- Choose Settings > History & Privacy.
- Tap on Manage all activity.
- On History tab, choose Auto-delete.
- Tap on Auto-delete activity older than.
- Set the time frame and choose Next.
- Tap on Confirm.
Pause YouTube History
YouTube has a pause history feature that can be useful while watching YouTube on someone’s device temporarily. It will not save any history after you enable this feature. But, you must note that it won’t delete your previous activities.
On Web
- Launch YouTube website.
- Sign in to your account.
- Click on the Three horizontal line menu at the upper-left.
- Choose History.
- On the right side, select Pause watch history.
- Again, pick Pause to confirm.
On Mobile
- Open YouTube app and Sign in to your account.
- Tap on your Profile icon at the top-right.
- Choose Settings > History & privacy.
- Locate Pause watch history and turn on the toggle. Pick Pause to confirm.
- Again, slide the toggle right for Pause search history to enable it. Tap Pause to confirm.
