YouTube will pause your personalized video recommendations if you turn off watch history. Google says this is by design, and here’s what you need to know.
If you turn off watch history in your Google account settings, recommended videos picked based on what you’ve already watched will disappear, leaving you with an empty Home feed. The only exception is if you don’t have significant prior watch history. When you re-enable watch history, recommendations will resume.
Disabling YouTube watch history stops recommendations
The math is simple. Turn off your watch history and YouTube will only display the search bar and the lefthand menu in the Home section so you can “more easily search, browse subscribed channels and explore Topic tabs.” The choice is yours. Either you’ll leave watch history on to get video recommendations or turn it off and end up with an empty Home feed. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to revisit videos you already watched if you turn off watch history.
Why Google made this change
“We are launching this new experience to make it more clear which YouTube features rely on watch history to provide video recommendations and make it more streamlined for those of you who prefer to search rather than browse recommendations,” according to the YouTube Help.
How to manage your YouTube watch history
To toggle your YouTube watch history, sign in with your Google account on the My Google Activity page at myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols, then scroll to the YouTube History section and click Turn off or Turn on. If using the Google app for iOS and Android, tap the gear settings icon and select Manage all history.
By default, watch history comprises videos you’ve watched and searches you’ve conducted as a logged-in user. However, you can adjust what watch history keeps track of via the My Google Activity page. For example, you can optionally include voice searches in your history. If you don’t want to turn off watch history because you’ll lose video recommendations, use YouTube’s Incognito Mode instead.
How to delete videos in your watch history
To remove any item from your watch history, select the You tab in the mobile YouTube app and hit View all next to History at the top. Touch the ellipsis button (⋮) next to any listed video and choose Remove from watch history in the menu.
You can also do this from the My Google Activity page: Choose Manage history in the YouTube History section, then click the X (Delete) button next to the video you’d like to remove from watch history or hit the Delete menu and select the videos to remove. You can have YouTube remove all videos watched today, set a timeframe to select multiple videos, or clear your watch history entirely.
Don’t worry, turning off watch history won’t delete records of what you’ve watched. To resume video recommendations, simply turn your watch history back on.
Other YouTube tips for you: