If your YouTube watch history is disabled and you’re now being asked to turn it on to get recommendations, you’re not alone. Watch history on YouTube is used to generate personalized recommendations on the platform – when it’s disabled, suggested videos and channels are pulled from your likes, saves and subscriptions rather than videos you’ve watched. While some YouTube users want to be able to see a list of what they’ve watched, many have turned off watching history for privacy reasons or to keep junk out of their algorithms in favor of a more curated experience.
Some? Reddit users recently reported That their recommendations have disappeared from the YouTube homepage, replaced by a prompt with their YouTube viewing history enabled. The issue doesn’t seem to have any effect Everyone Those with watch history turned off—people who have had it disabled for several years are more likely to encounter the prompt. As Mashable explainsThis may be an attempt to gain access to search history for ad targeting.
Manage your YouTube watch history
You don’t have to give up and drop more data to get your recommendations back, and the solution may be as simple as turning on your viewing history, refreshing the page, or search, and turning it off again. To try it, in the YouTube app, tap your profile photo and go to Settings > Manage All History > Controls choose more Include YouTube videos you watch. Refresh your home page, then follow the same steps to deselect the setting. (note that turn off will completely disable history, including search.) On a TV or gaming console, you’ll find this below Settings > Stop viewing history; On a browser, go to my activity > control.
What do you think so far?
Even with watch history disabled, you can train your algorithm to give you better recommendations than YouTube would otherwise suggest. The most basic tools are likes (and dislikes), subscriptions and bells, though you can also reject recommendations, create playlists and even switch accounts to manage what you watch.
