No More Watched Videos

For Whom This Extension Is Made If you've been an active YouTube user for many years (just like me), you’ve probably noticed that old videos keep appearing in your recommendations from time to time. They may appear as already watched (with a red progress bar at the bottom) or not — which clearly shows that YouTube’s “watch history” is far from complete. I tolerated this for several years while working and didn’t have time to solve the problem. But three months ago, I finally got completely fed up when, late one evening, the platform recommended me the same ~70% already-watched videos in four updates in a row. What does this extension do? The extension maintains a local database of watched videos directly in your browser. It requires no external servers (mine or anyone else’s) — this is clearly visible in the requested permissions and was approved by Chrome Web Store moderators, as everything is declared in the `manifest.json` and easily traceable. The extension works completely autonomously, even without an initial import of your YouTube history. It also includes both **whitelist** and **blacklist** functionality for channels — all stored locally. The whitelist helps avoid hiding videos from music artists you follow, while the blacklist is essential because YouTube’s built-in “Don’t recommend channel” feature often stops working and brings videos back over time. As a result, you get customizable protection for: - The **Homepage** (`/`) - **Video watch page** (`/watch`, sidebar recommendations) - **Channel pages** (main page and all videos) Disabling the extension via the icon instantly restores all hidden videos. Re-enabling it hides them again in real time. Key Advantages Over Other Solutions: - Everything is **fully local** — you can export, import, or completely delete the database at any time. - The watched videos database can **never be cleared** (option in settings), allowing you to truly forget about videos you’ve already watched forever. If some videos still appear in the beginning, simply open them all (or one by one) in new tabs, wait about 5 seconds, and close them — they will be added to the database and instantly disappear from the homepage in real time. - No modifications to YouTube itself: videos are simply hidden using `display: none`. - No tracking components: the extension only listens to existing signals and web requests already generated by YouTube. - Completely new and fully compatible with the current YouTube.com UI/UX. Since the interface and service change frequently, older extensions often break. I created this for myself and will always maintain and update it. Publishing it on the Chrome Web Store is my way of finding out whether other people had the same problem — and because I’d hate for this code to “die” on just two PCs. Latest Update - Added channel blacklist - Added hiding of videos on channel pages - Significantly improved speed of initial and repeated (from settings) YouTube history import