Delete YouTube search history and watch history effectively

Deleting your YouTube search history and watch history is a useful measure to protect your privacy or simply to enable a fresh start. In this guide, you will learn how to perform these steps on your PC and mobile phone to remove unwanted data.

Key Takeaways

• You can delete the search and watch history on both your PC and mobile phone.
• On the PC, you have the option to delete the entire history or remove entries selectively.
• There are also simple steps on your mobile phone to pause or delete the history.

Step-by-Step Guide

Delete Search History on PC

To delete your search history on YouTube from your PC, first open the YouTube website. Click on the search bar at the top.

On the right side, you will see your search history. Next to the entries, you will find the option to delete this history. Clicking on "remove" will delete the desired entry.

Delete Watch History on PC

The watch history shows you the videos you have watched. To delete this history, go to the left sidebar of YouTube and click on "History".

Here, you will see the entire watch history. You have two options: Either delete the entire history on the right or click on the X next to a specific video to remove that individual video.

If you wish to manage your histories, go to "Manage history" to access both the search and watch history.

Save or Pause History

If you want to decide whether your search or watch history should be saved, click on "Activities are being saved". If you want to pause the saving, simply remove the checkmark and click "pause". This way, no further history will be saved.

If you no longer want to save search queries, also remove the checkmark at "Save search queries on YouTube". This will prevent future searches from being saved.

Set Up Automatic Deletion of Activities

If you want YouTube to automatically delete your activities, click on "automatic deletion". Here you can specify after what period your data should be deleted – for example, after 36, 18, or 3 months.

Delete History on Mobile

To delete your history on your smartphone, you can do this directly in the YouTube app. I am using BlueStacks here, which provides me with a mobile interface. Open the YouTube app and go to your channel.

In the top right, you will find the three dots for settings. Tap on it and then click on "History & Privacy".

Here, you can now also pause the search history or watch history. If you disable saving, this data will no longer be stored. Additionally, you have the option to delete the history directly.

Summary

Deleting the search and playback history on YouTube is a simple process that can be done on both PC and mobile. You have full control over which data is stored and can ensure that your privacy remains protected.