Every single video you watch on YouTube is recorded and cataloged by Google’s recommendation algorithm. This data is used to customize your homepage feed, suggesting similar content based on your past viewing habits. However, if you let a child watch cartoons on your account for an afternoon, or if you temporarily fall down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theory videos, your homepage will instantly be flooded with irrelevant recommendations. To reset the algorithm and start fresh, you can completely clear your YouTube watch history.
How to Delete Your Watch History on Desktop
If you are using a web browser on your computer, you can clear your history from the main left-hand navigation menu.
- Go to YouTube.com and ensure you are logged into your Google account.
- Look at the navigation menu on the left side of the screen. If the menu is hidden, click the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) in the top-left corner to reveal it.
- Click on History.
- You will see a chronological list of every video you have ever watched. On the far right side of the screen, look for the vertical menu titled “Manage all history”.
- Click the option labeled Clear all watch history (it has a trash can icon next to it).
- A pop-up dialog box will appear warning you that this action will permanently delete your viewing data across all devices and reset your video recommendations.
- Click the blue Clear watch history button to confirm.
How to Delete Your Watch History on the Mobile App
If you are using the YouTube app on iOS or Android, the interface is slightly different, but the process is just as straightforward.
- Open the YouTube app.
- Tap on your Profile Picture in the absolute bottom-right corner of the screen (the tab might be labeled “You”).
- In the new menu, look for the History section near the top. Tap the View all button next to it.
- You are now viewing your video timeline. Tap the three vertical dots in the extreme top-right corner of the screen to open the options menu.
- Tap Clear all watch history.
- A confirmation box will appear. Tap Clear watch history again to finalize the deletion.
Pausing Your History
If you constantly find yourself having to delete your history to protect your recommendations, you can permanently stop YouTube from tracking you. Follow the exact same steps above to reach the History menu, but instead of clicking “Clear”, click the option labeled Pause watch history. YouTube will stop recording your views until you manually turn the feature back on.