How to view, pause, or delete your YouTube watch and search history on a computer or mobile device

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How to view, pause, or delete your YouTube watch and search history on a computer or mobile device
You can use YouTube's website or mobile app to manage your search or watch history.Dado Ruvic / Reuters
  • Your YouTube history tracks the videos you search for and watch to improve the accuracy of its recommendations.
  • You can delete specific videos, clear your entire history, and turn off Google's ability to track the videos you watch.
  • You can manage your YouTube search and watch history from a web browser and the Android or iOS mobile app.
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YouTube remembers every video you watch. There are some great reasons for doing this — by checking your watch history, you can quickly find and rewatch or share a video you recently viewed. YouTube also uses this history to make better recommendations for new videos you might want to see. But you also have complete control over this feature. You can pause your watch history, which prevents YouTube from learning about what kind of video you watch, or you can delete your history entirely.

How to view, pause, or delete YouTube watch history on a computer

To see your YouTube watch history, start by opening YouTube in a web browser. Click the three-line menu at the top left of the webpage and then click History. Here you'll see a chronological list of all the videos you have viewed, and you can use the Search watch history field on the right to search for specific video names or keywords.

In addition, you can pause or delete your watch history.

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  • Pause your watch history: In the pane on the right, click Pause Watch History to stop tracking your watched videos.
  • Delete specific videos: To remove a video from your watch history, find the video in the list on the left, move the mouse over the video and then click X.
  • Delete the entire watch history: To delete everything from your watch history, in the pane on the right, click Clear All Watch History.
How to view, pause, or delete your YouTube watch and search history on a computer or mobile device
You can manage your watch history by deleting specific videos, clearing the history or pausing the history entirely.Dave Johnson

How to view or delete YouTube search history on a computer

Google also tracks the videos you have watched and searched for in one comprehensive list. You can use this page to view or delete specific items from your search history — or to delete your entire search history at once.

Here is what you can do.

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  • See your YouTube watch and search history: Go to the YouTube History webpage in a browser. Here is a chronological list of all the videos you have searched for and viewed.
  • Delete a specific video: To delete a video from your search history, hover the mouse over the entry and then click X.
  • Delete your entire YouTube search history: To the right of Filter by date, click Delete and then choose the time frame of videos you want to delete, including All time, which deletes all your video search results.
  • Auto-delete video searches after a period of time: You can tell Google to remove videos from your search history after a certain time period, such as after three months, 18 months, or 36 months. To do that, click Auto-delete and then choose a timeframe from the drop-down menu.
  • Turn off search history: If you don't want Google to remember your YouTube search history, click Saving activity and then click Turn off.
How to view, pause, or delete your YouTube watch and search history on a computer or mobile device
The YouTube History page is a dashboard for managing your YouTube search and watch history.Dave Johnson

How to view, pause, or delete YouTube watch history on a mobile device

Google provides a few convenient tools for viewing and managing your YouTube watch history, and the steps are the same whether you're using iPhone or Android.

  • View your watch history: In the YouTube mobile app, tap the Library tab at the bottom of the screen and then tap History.
  • Delete a video from your watch history: If you see a video you want to remove from the watch history, tap the three dots to the right of the video and then choose Remove from watch history.
  • Delete or pause your watch history: At the top of the screen, tap your account icon, then tap Settings. Tap History & privacy. Here, you can tap Clear watch history or pause your watch history by swiping the Pause watch history button to the right.
How to view, pause, or delete your YouTube watch and search history on a computer or mobile device
Tap the three dots to the right of a video you want to remove from the history.Dave Johnson

How to view, pause, or delete YouTube search history on a mobile device

You can manage your YouTube search history with the following features.

  • View your search history: Tap the search icon (the magnifying glass) in the upper-right corner. To remove an individual search, swipe left on the search query and tap Delete (iOS) or tap and hold on the query and tap Remove on the pop-up window (Android).
  • Pause your search history: Tap your account icon, then tap Settings. Tap History & privacy. Then swipe the Pause search history button to the right.
  • Delete your search history: At the top of the screen, tap your account icon, then tap Settings. Tap History & privacy. Finally, tap Clear search history or pause your watch history by swiping the Pause watch history button to the right.
How to view, pause, or delete your YouTube watch and search history on a computer or mobile device
The YouTube mobile app lets you pause or clear your search history.Dave Johnson
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