How to clear your YouTube history

How is your history YouTube? Like so many other media services over the Internet, the YouTube remembers all the videos you watch (as long as you are logged into your Google account when accessing the service, of course). The platform uses each user's history to generate recommendations, and even encourage them to review old videos. 

However, if you don't like keeping this information, in this article we will teach you how to clear your viewing history and even how to stop YouTube from collecting this type of information.

Removing items from your YouTube watch and search history

Before we show you how to clear your information from YouTube, it is worth remembering that the app YouTube all with Android owns a Incognito mode which you can temporarily turn on to prevent your history from being stored. You can even do the YouTube completely stop collecting your viewing history by following the instructions below.

However, if you have already watched a video, Incognito Mode will not help you and you will need to remove the video from your history manually if you do not want to watch it again. To do this, simply access the YouTube through your browser and click on the top left corner of the home page. Select "Historic".

To remove an item from your viewing history, click the "X" which appears on the right of the video. You need to hover over the video, otherwise the "X" will not appear.

You can also select “Poll history” to see a full list of video searches you've already made on YouTube. To delete this list, simply click on the "X" to the right of the search to delete it.

You can also delete videos from your search history in the YouTube app to iPhone, Android ou iPad. To do this, open the app and select "Library" in the bar at the bottom of the application, and choose the option "Historic".

After that, select the video menu button (the three vertical dots) and then choose the option “Remove from watch history”.

Unfortunately, the mobile versions of YouTube They do not have a feature to view your entire search history. If you want to manage this part you will have to use the web version of the platform.

Clearing your entire search history on YouTube

Instead of deleting the videos you watch one by one, you can simply delete your entire viewing history from the servers. Google. However, be warned: this action will cause the recommendation videos of the YouTube become worse, since the platform is unable to analyze your information and define your content preferences.

To do this on the YouTube, click the menu button in the top left corner of the home page, then select the option "Historic". To the right of the list of your watched videos, select the command “Clear all poll history”.

A dialog box should appear asking you to confirm the action. Just click “Clear viewing history” to confirm your choice.

To clear all your history on the mobile app YouTube just access "Library" and depois "Historic". After that, select the menu button at the top of the page (the three vertical dots) and then choose “History Controls”.

Scroll and select “Clear watch history”. If you prefer, you can also select “Clear search history” to clear all your search history on YouTube.

Use YouTube Incognito Mode

If you're watching embarrassing videos that you don't want YouTube to remember later, try using the Incognito mode from YouTube.

For now, YouTube Incognito Mode is new and only available in the app Android. In the future, we hope that the Google add this feature to the app to iPhone, YouTube website and apps for other platforms.

To activate Incognito Mode, tap your profile photo in the top right corner of the app YouTube all with Android and tap “Enable incognito mode” on the displayed menu screen. After you turn on Incognito Mode, searches you make and videos you watch in your current session won't be saved.

Pausing YouTube History Collection

You cannot turn on Incognito Mode on YouTube on most platforms, but there is an alternative: pause your watch history YouTube before watching something you don't want in your history.

This setting is valid for your entire account, meaning YouTube will no longer remember the videos you've watched on all your devices — iPhone, Android, iPad, site, Smart TV — as long as you're signed in to YouTube with your account on this device.

You can also select “Search History” here and click “Pause Search History” to stop YouTube from remembering the searches you make.

To do this through the app YouTube all with iPhone, Android ou iPad, go to Library -> History. On the History page, open the menu and tap the button “History controls”.

Scroll down to the History and privacy section and enable the option “Pause watch history”. You can also activate the option “Pause search history” here to stop YouTube from collecting your search history.

When you want the YouTube remember your watch history again, come back here and click “Enable watch history” (on the website) or disable the option “Pause watch history” (in the app). You can leave watch history disabled for as long as you want, even forever.

However, remember that even if you have paused your viewing history YouTube, your browser will continue to store the web pages of the YouTube that you see in your browsing history. This does not apply if you are watching videos in an app, but in a browser, your browser will remember the web pages of the YouTube like any other page you have visited.

Source: YouTube support page