YouTube Shorts has become one of the platform’s most heavily promoted features, occupying prime visual space across the homepage, subscription feeds, and search results. While short-form vertical videos appeal to casual scrolling, many users prefer YouTube specifically for comprehensive long-form tutorials, deep-dive documentaries, lectures, and in-depth reviews. For these viewers, persistent rows of autoplaying vertical clips create unwanted distraction and disrupt thoughtful content consumption.
Although YouTube does not offer a permanent, single-click “turn off Shorts forever” toggle in user account settings, there are multiple effective, officially supported methods and lightweight browser techniques to dismiss, suppress, and conceal the Shorts shelf across mobile devices and desktop computers. In this guide, we will explore how to clean up your feeds and reclaim an uncluttered video experience.
Method 1: Dismiss the Shorts Shelf for 30 Days (Desktop & Mobile Web)
Google provides an official dismiss mechanism on the desktop homepage and mobile web versions of YouTube that hides the Shorts carousel for thirty consecutive days:
- Navigate to the YouTube homepage in your desktop web browser.
- Scroll down until you encounter the horizontal Shorts grid.
- Look at the top-right corner of the Shorts shelf header. You will notice a small X (Dismiss) icon next to the section title.
- Click the X button.
- YouTube will display a temporary confirmation banner reading: “Shelf will be hidden for 30 days.”
- Repeat this process if a secondary Shorts shelf appears further down the infinite scroll stream.
When the thirty-day window elapses, the shelf will quietly reappear, requiring only a single click on the X icon to dismiss it for another month.
Method 2: Mark Individual Shorts as “Not Interested” (Mobile App)
Within the native YouTube app on iOS and Android, you can train YouTube’s machine learning recommendation algorithm to systematically deprioritise Shorts content on your home feed:
- Open the YouTube application on your smartphone.
- Locate the Shorts grid on your home screen.
- Tap the three vertical dots icon located in the upper-right corner of the first video thumbnail.
- From the pop-up menu, select Not interested.
- Repeat this action for every thumbnail displayed in the row.
Once you dismiss the final thumbnail in the row, the entire Shorts shelf will collapse and disappear from your active feed. Performing this training routine two or three times signals to the algorithm that your account prefers long-form uploads, significantly reducing the frequency of Shorts injections.
Method 3: Pause or Clear Your YouTube Watch History
YouTube’s recommendation engine relies heavily on your recent video watch history to populate the Shorts carousel. Clearing your history or pausing recording disrupts algorithmic targeting:
- Open YouTube and click on your Profile Avatar > select Your data in YouTube (or Settings > History & privacy).
- Under YouTube Watch History, click Manage your YouTube Watch History.
- Click Turn off to pause your history recording.
- Alternatively, click Delete > Delete today or choose a custom time range to wipe out recent short-form clip consumption.
With watch history turned off, YouTube defaults to displaying subscriptions and neutral topical categories rather than viral vertical shorts.
Method 4: Conceal Shorts on Desktop Using uBlock Origin Filters
If you browse YouTube primarily on a laptop or desktop computer using browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, you can permanently eradicate all Shorts shelves, sidebar tabs, and recommendation carousels using custom content filter rules in popular ad-blocking extensions such as uBlock Origin:
- Click the uBlock Origin extension icon in your browser toolbar and click the Settings (gear) icon to open the dashboard.
- Click the My filters tab at the top.
- Paste the following declarative rules into the text area:
! Hide YouTube Shorts Shelf on Home and Search
youtube.com##ytd-rich-shelf-renderer[is-shorts]
youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer
! Hide Shorts Button from Left Navigation Sidebar
youtube.com###endpointLorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
youtube.com##ytd-guide-entry-renderer:has(aLorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
)- Click Apply changes at the top-left.
- Refresh YouTube. The entire Shorts ecosystem—including the navigation sidebar shortcut and home shelves—will vanish cleanly without impacting standard videos.
Method 5: Access YouTube via Mobile Web Instead of the App
If you find yourself opening the native smartphone application out of muscle memory and getting trapped in an infinite vertical scroll loop, consider removing the standalone app and accessing m.youtube.com through Safari, Chrome, or Firefox on mobile:
- The mobile web interface honours the 30-day X dismissal button described in Method 1.
- Mobile browsers do not automatically start full-screen autoplay reels when launching links.
- You can install mobile extensions (such as content blockers in Safari on iOS) that block shorts elements completely.
Curating a Focused, Long-Form YouTube Feed
By combining algorithmic dismissal, history management, and custom browser filters, you can tailor YouTube into an intentional research and entertainment tool. Eliminating short-form reels restores emphasis to thoughtful long-form creator content, reduces digital fatigue, and gives you back full control over your media habits.