How to Fix the Blank Home Page on YouTube when Watch History Is Disabled

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Last Updated: December 25, 2025 Tested

In 2023, YouTube announced a change to its video recommendation system. According to YouTube, watch history plays an important role in showing video recommendations you may be interested in. As part of this update, if your YouTube watch history is turned off and you do not have enough past watch history, features that rely on recommendations are disabled, including the YouTube home feed.^{[1]
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When watch history is turned off and all previous watch history is also cleared, the home page only shows a search bar and the left-hand guide menu, with no recommended videos.^{[2]
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Research source} This can be annoying, especially when you open the app and are greeted with a blank page, forcing you to search for content every time.

However, there is a way to get the normal YouTube home feed back without enabling watch history. This article explains how to do it!

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Using the YouTube App on Android

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1
Open the YouTube app on your Android phone. The YouTube icon looks like a white play button on a red rectangle and can be found in your app drawer. After doing this, sign in to your YouTube account if you have not already done so.
- Also, make sure you are using the latest version of the app. If not, update it from the Google Play Store before continuing.
2
Tap your profile icon. It is located in the bottom-right corner of the app and labelled “You”. This will take you to your profile page.

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3
Tap the “Settings” icon. This is a gear icon that is located at the top-right corner, next to the search icon.
4
Tap Manage all history. This option is located under “Billing & payments”. After doing this, wait for the “YouTube History” page to load before continuing.
5
Tap the Controls tab. It can be found next to the “History” tab.
6
Tap the Turn on button. You can find it under the “YouTube history” section. A confirmation screen will then appear.
7
Tap Turn on again on the confirmation screen. Once enabled, you will see a “Setting is on” message. YouTube will now start saving the videos you watch to personalise your experience.
- This step is only temporary, and you will turn it off again later.
8
Watch a few videos. To restore video recommendations, YouTube needs some watch history.^{[3]
X
Research source} Search for your favourite topics and watch a few videos for a few seconds each.
- Choose content you actually like. YouTube will use these videos to recommend content on your home feed, so avoid topics you are not interested in.^{[4]
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- Make sure the videos you watched appear in your watch history. You can check this from your profile page.
9
Turn off watch history. After watching a few videos, disable YouTube history again. Go to Settings > Manage all history > Controls, then tap Turn off. Confirm by tapping Pause on the popup.
10
You're done. Go back to the YouTube home page. You should now see your home feed with video recommendations, even with watch history turned off.
- To keep this working, do not clear your YouTube watch history. Also, make sure the auto-delete option for YouTube history is turned off.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Using the YouTube Website

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1
Go to the Google “My Activity” page. Launch your web browser and open myactivity.google.com. Log in with your Google account if asked.
- You can also search for “Google My Activity” to find this page easily.
2
Click on the YouTube History option. It is located next to the “Timeline” option.
- You can directly open the “YouTube History” page by clicking here.
3
Click the Turn on button next to the YouTube History title. A confirmation box will appear.
4
Click Turn on again to confirm. You will see the message “Setting is on” once it is enabled.
5
Go back to YouTube and watch some videos. Open www.youtube.com, search for topics you like, and watch a few videos for a few seconds each. YouTube needs some recent watch history to restore recommendations.
- Watch content you actually like. YouTube will use these videos to improve recommendations on your home feed.
- Make sure the videos appear in your watch history. You can check this from your profile, or use www.youtube.com/feed/history for quick access.
6
Turn YouTube watch history off again. Go to myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols and click the Turn off button.
7
Tap Pause to confirm. You will see the message “Setting is off” once it is disabled.
8
That’s it. You should now see video recommendations on the YouTube home page, even when your watch and search history is turned off.
- To keep this working, do not clear your YouTube watch history. Also, make sure the auto-delete option for YouTube history is turned off.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Disabling the Auto-Delete Option for Your YouTube History

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1
Open the Google “My Activity” page. Go to myactivity.google.com in your web browser and log in with your Google account.
2
Click on the YouTube History option. It is located next to the “Web & App Activity” and “Timeline” options.
3
Open the auto-delete settings. Click on “Deleting activity older than __ months” under the “Auto-delete” section.
- If you see “(off)” next to the “Auto-delete” title, auto-delete is already disabled and you can stop here.
4
Choose Don’t auto-delete activity. Under “Choose an auto-delete option for your YouTube history”, select “Don’t auto-delete activity” to disable the feature.
- Even if you select “Don’t auto-delete activity”, you can still manually delete your watch and search history at any time.^{[5]
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5
Click the Next button. A confirmation box will appear.
6
Click the Confirm button. You will see the “Preference saved” message once it is successfully applied. That’s it!

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Tips

After you follow all the steps, use the “Not interested” button to fine tune the YouTube suggestions on your feed.

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If you see the “Tell us what you like” pop-up on your feed, use it to customise the recommendation algorithm on the YouTube home page.

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Warnings

Don’t remove all videos from your watch history, as this can bring back the blank home page. However, if you have a lot of videos in your history, removing a few of them is not an issue.

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Since watch and search history are disabled, the recommendations on your feed may not feel as relevant as before, as YouTube mainly relies on watch history to suggest videos. However, you can still use the “Explore” menu to find content you might be interested in.

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