How to Delete the YouTube History?
YouTube keeps a record of all the videos you look for and watch as ‘History‘. This is to make your experience on YouTube better. However, you can delete the YouTube history anytime if you wish to clear it. This is completely in the control of the user and users can decide whether they want YouTube to track their search and watch history or not.
Primarily, history is stored so that one can go back to the video they left unwatched/unfinished. It also helps cater to specific types of videos that users prefer and gives them better recommendations. Though if you may want to watch different genres of videos you can delete the YouTube history time and again to filter your feed.
If you share your laptop or mobile with another person and do not want them to know the videos you surf on the internet, knowing how to delete the YouTube history can be very helpful. In this article, we will talk in-depth about the ways you can delete your YouTube history including your search and watch history.
Table of Contents
How to Delete the YouTube History of your Search List?
Throughout your time on YouTube you have probably searched for thousands of videos. Those searched videos or keyword you used to search for the videos gets saved by YouTube. Unless you delete it manually or pause the setting there is no other way around it. Here we have selected two ways for you to delete the YouTube history of your search list.
Delete Individually
Each search history and keyword associated with can be deleted individually. It is an extremely easy process and all you will need is a running YouTube logged-in with your account. We have demonstrated ways to delete the search history individually from both Mobile and PC.
Using Mobile
Make sure YouTube is installed on your Android and IOS device and follow the steps below:
1. Open YouTube app.
2. Log into your account.
3. Click on the search icon.
4. Long press the search keyword.
5. Select ‘Remove‘.
This way you can individually get rid of search history on your mobile device.
Using Desktop
You can browse YouTube from a web browser of your choice and follow the steps below:
1. Go to YouTube.
2. Make sure you are logged in.
3. Click on the search bar.
4. Tap on ‘Remove‘ beside the keyword.
This will remove the specific search history. You can manually remove each search history or look into the other option to delete the YouTube history for the search list at once.
Clear Search History at Once
If deleting each history individually is too bothersome for you, you can also mass delete search history. This will be useful if you are trying to empty your search list immediately. Make sure YouTube is installed on your mobile device and follow the procedure below:
1. Go to ‘Library‘ and click on the profile icon.
2. Select ‘Settings‘.
3. Click ‘History and privacy‘.
4. Tap on ‘Clear search history‘ and confirm ‘Clear Search History‘.
This way all your search history till date will be deleted.
How to Delete the YouTube History of your Watch List?
Your YouTube watchlist record all the videos you have watched. Looking at your watch history one can determine your current obsession, your likes and dislikes. Though YouTube makes a good use of it by recommending videos based on your history, it may not be something you want others to find out. Here’s how you can delete the YouTube history for your watch list.
Delete Individually
You can delete videos individually from your YouTube using this option. It is an easy and effective way to get rid of certain videos from your history. We have demonstrated ways to delete the videos on your watch history using both mobile and PC.
On Mobile
Install YouTube for mobile on your device and follow the procedure in order as below:
1. Open YouTube app.
Make sure you have logged into the YouTube application using your account.
2. Go to ‘Library‘ and select ‘View All‘ for History.
3. Click on the triple dot icon.
4. Select ‘Remove from watch history‘.
This way the selected YouTube video will disappear from your Watch History.
On Desktop
Browse YouTube from a web browser and complete the following steps:
1. Go to ‘History‘.
2. Click the cross icon beside the video.
This way the specific video will disappear from your watch list.
Clear Watch History At Once
When you sit down to delete videos individually, it can take up a lot of your time. To make this process easier for you, there is a way to delete the YouTube History all at once. Here we have illustrated the process to clear watch history at once from both mobile and PC.
On Mobile
1. Go to ‘Library‘ and click on the profile icon.
2. Select ‘Settings‘ and click ‘History and privacy‘.
3. Tap ‘Clear watch history‘ and confirm ‘Clear Watch History‘.
This way you can clear videos on your watch history all at once using your mobile device.
On Desktop
Go to YouTube and make sure you are logged in before following the steps below:
1. Select ‘History‘.
2. Click ‘Clear All Watch History‘.
3. Confirm by tapping on ‘Clear Watch History‘.
All the videos existing on your watch history will be cleared.
Pause YouTube History
Deleting individual YouTube history or even reminding yourself to clear YouTube history is a hassle. Have you ever wished if you could pause the YouTube history for a certain time? Maybe you are using someone else’s YouTube account and do not use them to follow up on your search and watch history. You can accomplish that by using pause feature n YouTube.
On your mobile device go to Settings > History and Privacy > Pause watch history/ pause search history.
Once you toggle on both features YouTube will stop recording your search and watch history until you resume it back.
On your PC go to Manage All History > Controls > Turn Off > Pause.
You can find the ‘Manage All History‘ in ‘History‘.
This is an alternative for delete the YouTube history feature. It allows users to stop YouTube from keeping records for a certain time.
Auto-delete YouTube History
Keeping a reminder to delete the YouTube history can be quite troublesome and put you in an awkward situation if you are ever forget to delete the history. But using the auto-delete feature on YouTube you can easily set the timer on your YouTube to automatically delete the YouTube history after a certain time period.
1. Click on ‘History‘ and select ‘Manage All History‘.
2. Go to ‘Auto-Delete‘.
3. Tap ‘Auto-delete activity older than‘ and select a time period.
4. Click ‘Next‘.
5. ‘Confirm‘ auto delete.
This is an automated feature provided by YouTube for the convenience of the user.
Conclusion
In a world where privacy is the top priority of most companies and individuals, it is a great initiation from YouTube to allow users to control their activity. Thus, it is also important for people to know how to delete the YouTube history to stay safe. In this article, we talked about different ways to delete the YouTube history as well as manage the YouTube privacy settings. We hope this was a helpful article. Let us know if you have any queries.
Also read: How to Clear YouTube Cache?
