How to clear your YouTube history – a guide for all device types

Sign into your YouTube user account.

Select the ‘History’ option in the left sidebar (under the three-dash icon) to access your YouTube playback history.

Now delete your entire YouTube history via ‘Clear all watch history’. Skip this step if you only want to delete the history for a certain period of time.

To delete select search periods or adjust the general settings for YouTube’s history behaviour, go to ‘Manage all history’.

To delete your playback and search history for specific time periods, go to ‘Delete activity by’.

Now, set the time period of the YouTube history you want to delete. Again, you can select the entire period, but shorter periods such as ‘Last hour’ or ‘Last day’ are also possible.

To automatically delete your YouTube history at regular intervals, select ‘Set up automatic deletions’ in the ‘Delete YouTube Activity’ section.

Select whether Google should automatically delete your activities after 3, 18, or 36 months and confirm your selection via ‘Next’.

Launch the YouTube app on your smartphone or tablet and sign into your account, if you haven't already. Open the user profile settings by pressing your profile picture.

Tap the ‘Settings’ item in the menu.

In the next menu window, select the ‘History & privacy’ option.

Now, delete your entire YouTube history by tapping ‘Clear watch history’ and ‘Clear search history’ one by one.

Want to prevent YouTube from analysing and storing your user behaviour? You can pause watch history permanently by selecting the corresponding option. You’ll find the corresponding option in in ‘History & privacy’ in the app and ‘History’ in the browser.

To permanently disable your YouTube history, go to ‘History’ in the left sidebar and ‘Saving activity’ in the history menu.

Flip the blue switch to permanently disable YouTube history. You can switch the option back on at any time.