How to Clear YouTube History? [3 Practical Methods]

YouTube tracks your search and watch history when you are using it with an account logged in. We can understand why YouTube tracks you. Because it wants to push more good videos that you might be interested in. It’s a way to enhance user experience. However, some people may feel insecure when a video website knows what you have done. So, is there any method to clear YouTube history?

The answer is yes. In this article, I’ll tell you how to delete YouTube history permanently and safely. Clear the search and watch history to prevent personal information leakage.

Part 1. Clear YouTube Watch History

YouTube has a detailed list of what you have watched. You can easily find the History tab in the right-side menu. Click on it, and you can see the videos you’ve watched in descending order. In the default situation, YouTube will keep all your watch history, but you can make it automatically remove your watch history every 3 months or 18 months. You can go to your Google Account Settings to do so.

YouTube only tracks your watch history when you are logged in with your Google account. So if you don’t log in, your watch history will not be saved.

Clear YouTube Watch History on The Desktop

In most cases, we watch YouTube via our browser on PC. You can easily delete the watch history when you visit YouTube by your browser. Find the History tab, and you can remove a specific video from your history list or batch delete the videos by selecting the period you wish to remove.

On the right side, you will see options like “Clear all Watch History,” “Pause Watch History,” and “Manage All History.” After you click “Pause Watch History,” YouTube will stop tracking any videos you’ve watched and will not recommend new videos on your homepage based on your watch history.

If you click on “Manage All History,” you will be redirected to Google Account Settings. You can manage both your watch and search history there.

Clear YouTube Watch History in The YouTube App

If you use the YouTube app on mobile devices, you can also delete YouTube history within the app.

Tap the Library icon at the bottom right corner, and then go to “History.” You can view all your watch history there. There’s a search box on the top to let you search for the content you’ve watched before.

If you want to delete the watch history, just tap the three-dot icon at the top right corner of each item, then choose “Remove from watch history.”

You can also tap the three-dot icon above the search bar and then go to “History controls.” You can clear all the watch history and pause watch history in this tab.

After that, YouTube will remove all the watch history from your account, no matter which device you have logged in.

Part 2. How to Clear YouTube Search History?

Besides watch history, YouTube also keep an eye on your search history. But you can also delete YouTube search history by simple steps.

Delete YouTube Search History on The Web

On the YouTube website, you can clear YouTube search history in its search bar. However, the search bar only keeps the most recent 10 items of your search history. And you have to remove them one by one. If you want to delete YouTube search history completely, you need to go to Google Account Settings.

The most straightforward way to access the YouTube History tab in Google Account Settings is via the “Manage All History” option on the YouTube site. Make sure that you are on the Item view, and then you can see your watch and search history listed as independent items. You can remove each item individually or just clear all the history on one date.

You can set a custom range of items to delete as well.

Delete YouTube Search History in the YouTube App

Unlike the YouTube website, YouTube App saves the most recent 50 items of your search history on your device.

Of course, you can clear YouTube search history on your mobile phones as well. Follow the same path as it is on the website: go to the “History controls” to clear YouTube search history. This option will enable you to delete all search history of your YouTube account on all devices you’ve logged in.

If you enable the “Pause search history,” the YouTube app will stop tracking your search history from now on.

There’s another option in the YouTube app: Turn on Incognito. When you exit the incognito mode, you will back to your normal account, and all the history during the incognito session will not be saved.  

Part 3. Watch YouTube Offline without Leaving Traces

Here’s another method to watch YouTube without leaving any traces – download the YouTube video for offline watching. To download YouTube videos, Doremi Video Downloader Pro could be a great assistant for you.

Doremi Video Downloader Pro supports video downloads from 1,000+ websites. The download steps are pretty simple. Just copy the YouTube video link and insert it into the downloader’s search box. Then, Doremi Video Downloader Pro will parse the link for you.

When you see the result page with the list of download options, you can select the one you wish to save. Click the Download button, and wait till the process bar hits 100%, and the video will be saved to your local folder.

With the video downloaded, you don’t need to worry about the watch and search history on YouTube. What’s more, you can avoid ads and internet connection problems.

Conclusion

After reading this article, I believe you’ve already known how to clear YouTube history. No matter you are using the YouTube website or app, you can delete YouTube watch and search history in its settings.

If you don’t want to leave any traces in the future, you can watch YouTube videos in incognito mode without worrying about watch or search history. Using Doremi Video Downloader Pro is another way to watch YouTube without leaving any traces.

Offline watching has a lot of advantages. Let’s install Doremi Video Downloader Pro for a brand-new experience!