Read this article to find out how to clear browsing history and search history on YouTube, and how to make this service stop collecting your data, check if the Incognito mode is available in YouTube and how to use it.
Introduction
For convenience of its users, the YouTube video hosting service is complemented with various functions, and one of them is remembering every video that users have ever watched. YouTube uses this data to improve its recommendations for future videos and also suggests them to watch again the videos they saw before. Watch history and search history is only saved when a person used a Google account to watch videos on YouTube. However, it is possible to make the service stop collecting data on watched videos and clear all such data. In today’s article, we will show you how to do it.
YouTube:
Remove video reminders from watch history (and search history)
The YouTube app for Android mobile devices features a preinstalled incognito mode which can temporarily prevent the service from collecting data on watched videos. Otherwise, you can prevent YouTube from collecting watch history altogether, by using the advice below. So if you ever need to watch certain videos without adding them to watch history, use these recommendations.
However, if a video was already watched from a user’s personal account, the incognito mode won’t be able to hide it, and you will have to clear watch history if you don’t want to see a reminder of the watched video all the time.
To remove watch history for videos you don’t want the video hosting to remember, open a browser and go to YouTube. In the left upper corner of the website page, next to its name, click on the menu button fashioned like three horizontal lines. In the menu side panel, choose History.
To remove a single video from the watch history position the mouse cursor over it and click on the button Remove from Watch history, which is shown as a black cross Х to the right of the video’s name. When it’s complete, you will see a message saying This item has been removed from your history, to indicate that the action has been performed.
In the side menu History type you can also select Search history to see the full list of search queries you made on YouTube. Press the X button to the right of the search result to instantly remove the reminder of a certain video.
Similarly, you can remove specific items from your watch history in the YouTube mobile app for iPhone, Android or iPad.
To do it, tap the Account icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select History.
In the new page, you will see all videos you have ever opened for watching. Touch the menu button fashioned like three vertical dots to the right of the video and in the menu that appears tap on Remove from Watch history.
However, with the YouTube mobile app you can’t view all search history and remove specific search queries. For this purpose, it’s better to use the YouTube website. The method for clearing entire search history on YouTube is described below.
Clear entire watch history (and search history)
Instead of removing watched videos one by one, you can just clear all watch history from the Google server. However, bear in mind, that it will make further YouTube recommendations less accurate as the service won’t be able to see what kind of videos you prefer.
To clear watch history at the YouTube website, click on the menu button in the upper left corner of the page (three horizontal lines) and then select History. To the right of the list of watched videos, click on the link Clear all watch history.
You will see a dialogue box asking to confirm the action. Click Clear watch history to confirm your choice and remove watch history from all your devices.
Similarly, you can clear YouTube search history. In the History page, look at the side panel in the right side of the screen and select the line Search history, by checking the corresponding option, and then click on the link Clear all search history.
To perform operations in clearing watch history for the YouTube mobile app, tap on the menu button fashioned like three vertically arranged dots.
From the list of possible actions, select History controls.
It opens another menu, History and privacy. There, select Clear Watch history and confirm your decision when the video service asks you for approval.
To clear search history for YouTube, you will have to take almost the same steps. Use the method described below to open the nested menu (use the three-dot button), choose History controls \ History and privacy, but this time, tap Clear search history. Just as before, confirm your decision when the system asks you for approval, and the search history for this account will be removed from all devices.
In the same page, you can also clear watch history if you want to clear both from their YouTube account.
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