How to Reset YouTube Recommendations

 

YouTube’s recommendations appear to the side of a video.

They are video suggestions collected by the almighty algorithm based on your watch history.

But what if you lend your computer to your edgy teenage cousin?

Well, the chances are that you’ll get some weird recommended videos based on that cousin’s watch history.

But don’t worry!

There is a way to reset YouTube recommendations, so the algorithm goes back to suggesting amazing videos.

Today you’ll learn:

• How does your YouTube watch history affect your recommendations?
• How to reset your YouTube recommendations
• How to reset your YouTube recommendations on the mobile app

How Does Your YouTube Watch History Affect Your Recommendations

First, we need to understand how your YouTube watch history affects your YouTube recommended videos.

Recommended videos are affected by:

• All the previous searches.
• Your watched videos.
• Your subscriptions.
• The region where you live.

Without a doubt, the most important thing is your YouTube history.

So what can you do if someone has modified your YouTube history?

Simple, you need to reset it!

How To Reset YouTube Recommendations

Resetting your recommendations only takes a few minutes. It’s an easy process to follow. Here’s how to reset YouTube recommendations:

Method 1: Manage Your YouTube Search History On Your Google Account

Think of this method as hitting the Clear Cache button on your browser.

But instead of a browser, you’ll do so for YouTube.

Just follow these instructions:

• Step 1: Go to your YouTube homepage.
• Step 2: Hit your profile icon (profile picture) on the top right corner of the screen.
• Step 3: Select Your Data On YouTube.
• Step 4: Scroll down until you see the Search History option.
  • You’ll be able to delete your search history and your watch history.
• Step 5: Select either or both options:
  • Clear Search History
  • Clear Watch History
• Step 6: For both options, you can select a custom range. The options are:
  • Last hour.
  • Last day.
  • All time.
  • Custom.

Picture the above example in which your cousin visited your household for one week.

Then you can set the custom time and delete all the other Google activity related to that week.

That should reset your video recommendations.

Note that deleting the history won’t reset other things on your YouTube page, like the highlighted comment on a video.

Method 2: Pause Watch History On Your YouTube Account

You can also delete your watch history and pause your search history directly on the YouTube page.

The only downside is that you can set a custom time range.

Still, this will help you reset YouTube recommendations and prevent others from messing with them.

Here’s how you do it:

• Step 1: On the YouTube homepage, click on your YouTube History page.
• Step 2: Once on the History tab, take a look at the right side of the screen.
• Step 3: You can either:
  • Press the Pause Search History button.
  • Or select “Delete History.”
• Step 4: You can reactivate them at any time for future recommendations.

This can help you start fresh or protect your history list from unwanted guests.

How To Reset YouTube Recommendations On The App

If you mainly use the Android version of the YouTube app or use it on Smart TVs, you can still use the two methods described above.

Can You Stop Your YouTube Recommendations?

You can remove YouTube recommendations by clicking on the three vertical dots of any recommended video (to the side of the video’s title).

Then, on the dialog box that pos, click Not Interested and Don’t Recommend Channel.

Removing YouTube recommendations is useful to train YouTube to show you things you like.

Removing a YouTube recommendation video will make your suggested videos better.

Abusing The Algorithm To Get Better YouTube Recommendations

You can abuse the algorithm by pausing and deleting your YouTube and Google account history, so it always shows you videos that you like.

Whenever you are at a party with friends, or your family has made an unexpected visit, they’ll ask you to use your YouTube app.

After they watch YouTube, you can delete all the searches you aren’t interested in.

Think of the function as a browser extension that will help you curate content on your Google account.

YouTube Recommendations FAQ

How Do I Delete All YouTube Suggestions?

You’ll need to go to your Data Page on Google.

You can access it through your YouTube page.

Once you are there, you can delete everything and set your search and watch history to be deleted automatically after watching videos.

How Do You Delete YouTube History?

You can do so by selecting the History option on the left-side top bar of the Youtube homepage.

On the right side, you’ll see the option to delete all your history. Everything you have watched will be deleted.

About the author

Karen

Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter here at GrowFollowing. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.