How to turn off YouTube Shorts (and what you can’t turn off)
You can’t turn off YouTube Shorts: there’s no setting that removes them. You can ask for fewer on Home, set a time limit on the Shorts feed, and hide them on a computer with an extension. Here’s what each option actually does.
Updated November 2, 20261. “Show fewer Shorts” (in the app)
YouTube’s own option, from its help pages:
- In the YouTube app, go to your Home feed.
- Scroll to a grid of Shorts.
- Tap the three dots at the top of the grid.
- Tap Show fewer Shorts.
It means fewer, not none. To undo it, go to myactivity.google.com, choose Other activity, and delete the Show fewer Shorts entry.
2. Set a Shorts feed limit (in the app)
- In the YouTube app, tap You, then Settings.
- Tap Time management, then Shorts feed limit.
- Choose a limit. Zero is one of the options.
When you reach it, YouTube shows a reminder, and you can dismiss it and keep scrolling. It’s a speed bump, not a wall.
3. “Not interested”, one Short at a time
On a Short you don’t want, open the three dots and choose Not interested, or Don’t recommend channel to stop recommendations from that channel. It teaches YouTube slowly, and only about that one video or channel.
4. On a computer: the X and extensions
On YouTube in a browser, the Shorts shelf on Home often has an X that hides it. It’s temporary, and the shelf comes back.
For something that lasts, several free Chrome extensions hide the Shorts shelf and the Shorts button altogether. That removes the format, good and bad alike, and only in the browser you install it in. The app on your phone is unchanged.
5. The blunt option: turn off watch history
YouTube says that if you pause and clear your watch history, recommendations on Home are removed. That takes out a lot of Shorts, but it also takes out every recommendation you liked. Our guide to resetting your YouTube recommendations covers watch history, if you want a fresh start instead.
What none of these do
- Nothing turns Shorts off. The Shorts feed, Shorts in search results and Shorts from channels you subscribe to all stay.
- They don’t choose by topic. “Show fewer Shorts” can’t tell the cooking clips you like from the drama you don’t. It’s all or less.
- They fade. The X is temporary, and people often find Shorts drifting back after “Show fewer Shorts” too.
If Shorts are where your evenings go, how to stop doomscrolling has a few habits that help more than any setting.
Keep Shorts, lose the ones you can’t stand
Remedy doesn’t remove the Shorts shelf or the Shorts feed. It filters what’s in them. Tell it, in your own words, what you never want to see, like “no prank videos”, “no diet talk” or “nothing from” a channel you name, and it removes matching Shorts and videos from your Home page, search results, the sidebar and the Shorts feed as they load.
It’s a Chrome extension, so it works on a computer, not in the YouTube app. It filters X, Reddit, Instagram and other sites too.
Questions
Can you permanently turn off YouTube Shorts?
No. YouTube has no setting that removes Shorts. “Show fewer Shorts” and a Shorts feed limit cut them back in the app, and browser extensions can hide them on a computer.
Why do Shorts come back after “Show fewer Shorts”?
It asks YouTube to recommend fewer, not none. Shorts still turn up in the Shorts feed, in search and from channels you follow.
Does a Shorts feed limit of zero block Shorts?
On your own account, reaching the limit brings up a reminder that you can dismiss. It nudges you; it doesn’t lock Shorts away.