How to Bulk Delete All Youtube Watch Later Videos

When seeing a good Youtube video, it is common for people to add it to the Youtube Watch Later list to “watch later”. The problem is that the list keeps adding up and becoming bigger and bigger.

• See also: Youtube Thumbnail Grabber

The Watch Later list on Youtube is a great way to keep track of videos that you want to watch later. However, the list can quickly become overwhelming and cluttered if not managed correctly.

When the Watch Later list becomes too big, it will loose its purpose of keeping track of wanted videos. Users start deleting watched videos or uninteresting ones. But they must click “Remove from Watch later” for a hundreds of videos.

In most cases, people would rather not do this and simply leave the list as it is. This can lead to a lot of wasted time scrolling through videos that you have already seen or have no interest in. Therefore, it is important to keep your Watch Later list manageable so that it remains useful or find a good solution to delete all videos.

Bulk-deleting is the solution everyone loves. Youtube has a Delete watched videos feature which deletes videos you already watched. Even if you only watch 1 second of a video, it is also deleted. This is a great way to clean up your history and get rid of any unwanted videos. 

What about videos we haven’t watched? We still need to find a way to delete them in bulk. So Youtube still lacks the much-needed mass delete feature. Fortunately, we can execute a JavaScript block of code to mass delete Watch Later videos.

Steps to Remove All Watch Later Videos at Once

1. Open your Youtube Watch List in web browsers like Chrome or Brave. Or you can access it directly by typing https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=WL to the Address bar.
2. Press F12 to the open developer’s console or access it via the web browser’s Menu.
3. Navigate to Console tab.
4. Paste this script into the console and press Enter.

Updated: 2024/05/24

Here are the scripts I used to delete videos on my Watch later list:

One of the following scripts might work for you. Try both to see which one sticks! The script was modified to work with recent Youtube changes.

setInterval(function() {
	document.querySelector('#contents button[aria-label="Action menu"]').click();
	var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"Watch later")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
		for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
		    things.snapshotItem(i).click();
		}		
}, 1000);

setInterval(function() {
	document.querySelector('#primary button[aria-label="Action menu"]').click();
	var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"Watch later")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
		for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
		    things.snapshotItem(i).click();
		}		
}, 1000);

As flud requested in the comment section, I modified the scripts to allow the deletion of unavailable videos. You must enable “Show unavailable videos” option.

setInterval(function() {
	document.querySelector('#contents button#button').click();
	var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"Watch later")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
		for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
		    things.snapshotItem(i).click();
		}		
}, 1000);

setInterval(function() {
	document.querySelector('#primary button#button').click();
	var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"Watch later")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
		for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
		    things.snapshotItem(i).click();
		}		
}, 1000);

After pressing Enter, you will see videos disappearing one by one. When the script executes, it opens the menu of each video popup item and clicks on the Remove from Watch Later menu item.

Apply the Script in Different Languages

Thank Xerus for reporting bout the script not working in other languages. Here is how to apply it to other languages:

• Find the text of the hidden menu button (three vertical dots) by Right-click and Inspect on it. You will find the aria-label text in your language. Replace “Action menu” with the text in '#primary button[aria-label="Action menu"]'
• Replace “Watch later” with the text in your language in span[contains(text(),"Watch later")

French

I tried the script in the French language by replacing:

• “Action menu” with “Menu d\’actions” – Remember to add a slash (\) before a single quote to escape it.
• “Watch later” with “À regarder plus tard”

The script becomes:

setInterval(function() {
	document.querySelector('#contents button[aria-label="Menu d\'actions"]').click();
	var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"À regarder plus tard")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
		for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
		    things.snapshotItem(i).click();
		}		
}, 1000);

Spanish

setInterval(function() {
  document.querySelector('#contents button[aria-label="Menú de acciones"]').click();
  var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"Ver más tarde")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
    for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
        things.snapshotItem(i).click();
    }    
}, 1000);

Italiano

setInterval(function() {
  document.querySelector('#contents button[aria-label="Menu Azione"]').click();
  var things = document.evaluate('//span[contains(text(),"Guarda più tardi")]',document,null,XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE,null);
    for (var i = 0; i < things.snapshotLength; i++) {
        things.snapshotItem(i).click();
    }    
}, 1000);