How to look at youtube search history

When you sign into YouTube with your Google account, YouTube keeps a record of everything you do on the site: What you watched, what you searched, even what you previewed. This allows the site to recommend new videos based on your tastes. But YouTube is a part of Google, raising questions about who has access to your data. If you want to clear your search history, YouTube is a good place to start.

Note that clearing this history means it’s only cleared from your device or browser; your data will still be stored on YouTube’s (or Google’s) servers.

How to clear YouTube history

1. Visit YouTube, and log in.
2. Click the three bars in the upper corner to open the YouTube menu.
3. Select History.
4. From here, you can either delete individual videos or your entire watch history.

Clearing both watch history and search history will remove recommended videos on the YouTube homepage. However, it will not clear favorited videos, or channels you subscribe to.

Clearing YouTube history—advanced options

If you want to do a more thorough sweep of your YouTube search history, try clearing history in the YouTube mobile apps, and on both your mobile and desktop browsers.

Clearing search history in the YouTube app

1. Open the YouTube app, and open Settings.
2. Tap the Library icon.
3. Select History Settings, then clear search history or your entire watch history.

Clearing YouTube search history on your computer

To delete your YouTube watch and search history on your laptop or desktop:

1. Open YouTube in your browser.
2. Open the Settings menu.
3. Click History.
4. Click Clear all Watch History and / or Clear all Search History.

Using Incognito Mode

In the future, you can avoid having to delete your YouTube history by watching videos in Incognito mode, which is available in both the mobile apps and as a browser viewing option. To select this from the YouTube app:

1. Tap your account.
2. Tap the Settings menu.
3. Turn on Incognito.

Note that you can also pause your watch history or search history instead. To do this in your desktop browser:

1. Open your browser and visit youtube.com.
2. Click History.
3. Click Pause Watch History or Pause Search History, and select Pause.

To pause watch history or search history in the iPhone app:

1. Open the YouTube app.
2. Tap Library.
3. Tap History.
4. Toggle on either Pause Watch History, Pause Search History, or both.

If you’re logged in to YouTube, click your profile picture to open the Settings menu and find the Your Data in YouTube option. From here, you’ll have a number of options to control what info YouTube tracks. Among those are:

• Manage your YouTube Watch History (to tell YouTube whether to remember what you watched, or to remember but then periodically auto-delete this watch history).
• Manage your YouTube Search History (to tell YouTube whether to remember your searches at all, or to remember them but then periodically auto-delete).

Your Data in YouTube also lets you make some Google-wide data choices, such as location history and ad settings.

Watch YouTube in Brave for better performance

To see YouTube without annoying ads, and get faster performance, consider downloading the Brave browser and watching YouTube in Brave instead. Brave automatically blocks trackers and YouTube ads via Brave Shields.

Brave is a free download, and it only takes 60 seconds to switch.

YouTube is a great resource for entertainment, news, and education. But if you're not careful, it can also be a source of embarrassment. That's because YouTube keeps track of everything you search for on the site. So, if you've ever searched for something embarrassing or controversial, there's a good chance it's still stored in your YouTube search history.

In this article, we'll show you how to delete your YouTube search history so that no one can see what you've been looking up.

Pros and Cons of Deleting Your YouTube Search History

Before we get into the instructions, it's worth taking a moment to consider the pros and cons of deleting your YouTube search history.

Pros:

It's a good way to protect your privacy. If you're worried about someone seeing what you've been looking up, deleting your search history is a good way to cover your tracks.

It can also help improve your YouTube recommendations. YouTube uses your search history to personalize the content it shows you. So, if you're not interested in seeing certain types of videos, deleting your search history can help YouTube show you more relevant content.

Cons:

It can make it harder to find videos that you've previously watched. If you often watch the same videos, deleting your search history can make it difficult to find them.

It can make YouTube less personalized. As we mentioned, YouTube uses your search history to personalize the content it shows you. So, if you delete your search history, YouTube won't be able to show you as much relevant content.

How to Clear Your YouTube Search History on Mobile

Ready to get rid of your YouTube search history? The process is pretty simple. Here's how to do it:

1. Launch the YouTube app.
2. Tap on your profile icon in the top right corner of the main screen.
3. Select Your data in YouTube from the resulting menu.
4. Scroll down and tap on Manage your YouTube Search History under YouTube Search History.
5. Tap Delete and select your preferred delete duration (Delete today, Delete custom range, and Delete all time).

The steps are similar if you're using a computer; simply look out for the corresponding prompts.

That's all it takes to delete your YouTube search history. If you're worried about someone snooping through your YouTube account, you can go one step further and delete your YouTube history.

Should You Delete Your YouTube Search History?

Only you can decide whether or not you want to delete your YouTube search history. If you're worried about privacy, then it's probably a good idea to delete your search history regularly. But if you find that YouTube is less personalized without your search history, you may want to keep it around.