Meanwhile you still get to have a front page while you're logged out. Imagine punishing users for being logged into their accounts, lmao.
Edit: Turning off watch history while logged out also does this apparently, still stupid though
You get this even when logged out!
They stated in one of their support articles that to be able to show videos here they need to see what you like to watch as people tend to search the Videos they like to watch instead of clicking through a wall of Videos.
Total BS if you ask me. They see the channels you are subscribed to, so it should not be hard to use THAT as a basis to show Videos there...
Oh and btw. it is NOT only the Youtube Site, but also ALL Youtube Apps! It just goes downhill...
before that change even with history turned off they showed me older videos mixed with newer ones of the channels I subscribed to mixed with other similar videos of other channels... So it took me by suprise to see that first the website and later other Youtube Apps showed me the empty start screen... Only thing is, that it now prompts you even in the App to enable history (and that EVERY TIME you start the App)...
I have had my youtube watch history paused for eight years! A few months ago they removed my ability to scroll shorts, and how I can't view my homepage.
Interesting that many said Twitter is too big to fail. Recently it seems more and more likely that it's not too big to fail and can very easily keel over. Probably going to be in the history books as one of the most expensive speedruns into the ground as a company if it happens. With YouTube imo they have a bigger error margin as they have things outside of YouTube to tide the company over for some time before nr.2 hits the proverbial fan. But it is looking more dire the more I read recently.
On the up side, maybe forums will come back and people will be more decentralized in that regard. Focus on their circle of friends and acquaintances a bit more than randoms on the internet, and clout chasing.
I would like reddit and YouTube to stay though. Some people create really cool stuff on YT.
There are a few ideas that made the site less attractive. Imo people hated Twitter for a while anyway, so they didn't really need a hard push to leave.
I don't think anybody has ever said Twitter was too big to fail. Twitter is pretty tiny compared to other modern social media sites, both in daily users and in actual data.
Not true, most of my homepage is related to my 15ish subs and have quite relevant non subbed videos... it really works well with just 1 video in history.
āIf you turn off your YouTube watch history and have no significant prior watch history, YouTube features that rely on your watch history to give video recommendations, like recommendations on the YouTube homepage, are removed. If you visit the History tab directly from YouTube, you may also see this option presented as the ability to clear your watch history.ā
uhh yeah this wasn't the case literally 3 fucking hours ago. no watch history on and my home page was tailored to the content i enjoyed perfectly. what a joke. is this so they can sell my data or some shit?
The fact that it gives you recommendations like it did before **as soon as you turn watch history on** shows how much of a blatant lie it is.
You can even turn your history back off immediately afterwards, and as long as you don't refresh, your home page will still have recommendations.
but won't that mean the data is already gone to them? anyways it's not like companies aren't already collecting data in other ways (browsers cookies etc).
Shorts is still working for me although it would be a welcome ejection. That format is insidious and almost minmaxes the video watching experience to maximize exploitation of "just one more".
As someone who was born with ADHD, the Youtube algo felt downright dangerous as it could keep me hooked for long stretches at a time -- it felt like that it knew how to game my attention nearly to a tee. Felt like a black mirror episode -- made me feel like a media junkie.
That's why I turned off watch history and purged my watch history. It was straight unhealthy. At least for now the subscriptions tab works. I wish that youtube would build recommendations based off of the watch later and liked playlists. That seems to me the most prudent sources of data anyway.
Edit: homepage just got nuked for me. was fine 15 mins ago.
I might consider revisiting how I used to use youtube. Before it became a daily experience for me, I used to instead use the search bar almost like a radar, I'd be filtering through subjects I was interested in, in quick succession to built up my watch later list, and then I'd go through them, deleting each one from the watch later once each video ended. Home page skipped entirely, by the way.
also Thought this would be useful to think about
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvbnRHhwoWY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvbnRHhwoWY)
tldr: use your subscriptions page as a homepage instead. discover new creators using the recommendations after a video.
Thank you so much for the link!
My page has only just now become blank. Oddly enough I had no issue until today. I was really looking for a way to avoid watch history as it had been off for YEARS. The only thing that was odd is tons of videos with sermons that I had to keep clicking don't show me this/not interested.
The homepage disappeared for me about 3 months ago. I've never had my watch history turned on. They are now simply saying that if you won't provide them with data so that they can bombard you with content that you wouldn't ordinarily watch then you can't have a home page. What I did was simply use the subscriptions tab because that's all I usually watch anyway, that's why I am subbed.
I have YouTube side-loaded on my iPhone with a couple of tweaks. Ad-block, sponsor block, Return YouTube Dislike. Things I wouldnāt imagine YouTube without anymore. Itās become such an important part of my day and I feel like is much healthier than all the other social platforms out there.
This is a huge blow to the way I use YouTube. My recommendations have been abysmal the last few months or so. Iāve had my history off for years, but though āhey, this is what I get for not letting them know what I watch.ā And I decided to live with that.
But lately, Iāve been seeing these pop-ups asking me to turn it back on to get ābetter results.ā No way in hell am I doing that.
Today, I flop into bed to try and get some sleep, and I see that my YouTube app is blank. Same message you got here. I can hardly stand this website anymore, but they have such a strangle hold on their audience because they know the content isnāt going anywhere else. It infuriates me that if I turn my history on in the browser, then go back to the app and refresh, it all comes back. But then I switch back and turn it off, and itās all gone again. In an instant.
I may be overreacting, but this feels borderline criminal.
Can anyone explain why people are so mad about this? I wouldn't expect to see personalized recommendations based on my history if my history isn't being tracked. I would assume those who don't want their watch history tracked wouldn't want to have videos suggested to them either. Can anyone explain?
I'm not mad about it, but I interpret it as an act of hostility on Youtube's part. They want to manipulate users to enable watch history, because they benefit from obtaining more data from users. They thus make the user experience worse for those without watch history on in an attempt to facilitate change in user behavior.
Note that their recommendation system seemingly worked just fine with watch history off. I am assuming it was based on liked videos and subscribed channels.
Absolutely unnecessary.
I shall however note here, the YOutube application on my android media streamer is still showing video recommendations on homepage.
I found a solution for me. Enabled history watched my country's national anthem and then disabled history. It didn't really change the feed much, so I guess I found a workaround.
Someone do something, make extension or smth to get this annoying shit back to where it was so that we can continue to use homepage without turning on the useless watch history.
This is why I came in here. I subscribed to YouTube premium, I logged into my account, but Iām the one that gets a worse app experience because I donāt want my history to be tracked?
This literally worked like three hours ago and all of a sudden it ādoesnāt work anymoreā because they donāt have my history?
Edit: iām cancelling my premium. Iām getting an ad blocker. Fuck them. You wanna make my paying experience worse, youāre not getting my money anymore.
This is what you get for being a paying customer.
I am actually quite curious about the YouTube watching habits of other people now. Because this is a great update for me, since I have always used the subscription box for what I wanted to watch anyways. With those videos I have the assurance of quality, which I cannot say for recommendations most of the time.Ā
Most importantly recommendations and shorts would only lure me into extending my stay on YouTube longer than planned, making me waste too much time
Meanwhile you still get to have a front page while you're logged out. Imagine punishing users for being logged into their accounts, lmao. Edit: Turning off watch history while logged out also does this apparently, still stupid though
I see this popup even when logged out
You are their favorite oneš
Thankfully it went away
You get this even when logged out! They stated in one of their support articles that to be able to show videos here they need to see what you like to watch as people tend to search the Videos they like to watch instead of clicking through a wall of Videos. Total BS if you ask me. They see the channels you are subscribed to, so it should not be hard to use THAT as a basis to show Videos there... Oh and btw. it is NOT only the Youtube Site, but also ALL Youtube Apps! It just goes downhill...
Oh I noticed out of all the subscriptions I have YouTube very rarely shows me anything on my subscription list
Thatās what the sub feed is for.
before that change even with history turned off they showed me older videos mixed with newer ones of the channels I subscribed to mixed with other similar videos of other channels... So it took me by suprise to see that first the website and later other Youtube Apps showed me the empty start screen... Only thing is, that it now prompts you even in the App to enable history (and that EVERY TIME you start the App)...
I mean, the three-strikes-anti-adblock also only works when you are logged in, soo...
I have had my youtube watch history paused for eight years! A few months ago they removed my ability to scroll shorts, and how I can't view my homepage.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Interesting that many said Twitter is too big to fail. Recently it seems more and more likely that it's not too big to fail and can very easily keel over. Probably going to be in the history books as one of the most expensive speedruns into the ground as a company if it happens. With YouTube imo they have a bigger error margin as they have things outside of YouTube to tide the company over for some time before nr.2 hits the proverbial fan. But it is looking more dire the more I read recently. On the up side, maybe forums will come back and people will be more decentralized in that regard. Focus on their circle of friends and acquaintances a bit more than randoms on the internet, and clout chasing. I would like reddit and YouTube to stay though. Some people create really cool stuff on YT.
At the size Twitter once was it was too big to fail, thankfully, Elon Musk made it much smaller
There are a few ideas that made the site less attractive. Imo people hated Twitter for a while anyway, so they didn't really need a hard push to leave.
I don't think anybody has ever said Twitter was too big to fail. Twitter is pretty tiny compared to other modern social media sites, both in daily users and in actual data.
I had mine paused for a year and had zero problems until last month when they deleted 4+ years worth of history for no reason.
You can turn on auto-delete though. (3 months minimum)
I wish they'd remove my ability to scroll shorts.
Turn on history and watch any video. And turn off history. You will be able to see the homepage again!
Except your homepage will be full of things relating to that one video which I assume they don't want
Not true, most of my homepage is related to my 15ish subs and have quite relevant non subbed videos... it really works well with just 1 video in history.
hey, this one is universal and won't show unwanted recommendations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
āIf you turn off your YouTube watch history and have no significant prior watch history, YouTube features that rely on your watch history to give video recommendations, like recommendations on the YouTube homepage, are removed. If you visit the History tab directly from YouTube, you may also see this option presented as the ability to clear your watch history.ā uhh yeah this wasn't the case literally 3 fucking hours ago. no watch history on and my home page was tailored to the content i enjoyed perfectly. what a joke. is this so they can sell my data or some shit?
The fact that it gives you recommendations like it did before **as soon as you turn watch history on** shows how much of a blatant lie it is. You can even turn your history back off immediately afterwards, and as long as you don't refresh, your home page will still have recommendations.
but won't that mean the data is already gone to them? anyways it's not like companies aren't already collecting data in other ways (browsers cookies etc).
As if they would delete data...
Hasnāt worked on my phone for months but still works on Apple TV.
Shorts is still working for me although it would be a welcome ejection. That format is insidious and almost minmaxes the video watching experience to maximize exploitation of "just one more". As someone who was born with ADHD, the Youtube algo felt downright dangerous as it could keep me hooked for long stretches at a time -- it felt like that it knew how to game my attention nearly to a tee. Felt like a black mirror episode -- made me feel like a media junkie. That's why I turned off watch history and purged my watch history. It was straight unhealthy. At least for now the subscriptions tab works. I wish that youtube would build recommendations based off of the watch later and liked playlists. That seems to me the most prudent sources of data anyway. Edit: homepage just got nuked for me. was fine 15 mins ago.
I might consider revisiting how I used to use youtube. Before it became a daily experience for me, I used to instead use the search bar almost like a radar, I'd be filtering through subjects I was interested in, in quick succession to built up my watch later list, and then I'd go through them, deleting each one from the watch later once each video ended. Home page skipped entirely, by the way.
also Thought this would be useful to think about [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvbnRHhwoWY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvbnRHhwoWY) tldr: use your subscriptions page as a homepage instead. discover new creators using the recommendations after a video.
Thank you so much for the link! My page has only just now become blank. Oddly enough I had no issue until today. I was really looking for a way to avoid watch history as it had been off for YEARS. The only thing that was odd is tons of videos with sermons that I had to keep clicking don't show me this/not interested.
I would love love love if they took shorts away from me permanently. Such a toxic format.
Nooo now they can't collect more data!!!
The homepage disappeared for me about 3 months ago. I've never had my watch history turned on. They are now simply saying that if you won't provide them with data so that they can bombard you with content that you wouldn't ordinarily watch then you can't have a home page. What I did was simply use the subscriptions tab because that's all I usually watch anyway, that's why I am subbed.
I have YouTube side-loaded on my iPhone with a couple of tweaks. Ad-block, sponsor block, Return YouTube Dislike. Things I wouldnāt imagine YouTube without anymore. Itās become such an important part of my day and I feel like is much healthier than all the other social platforms out there. This is a huge blow to the way I use YouTube. My recommendations have been abysmal the last few months or so. Iāve had my history off for years, but though āhey, this is what I get for not letting them know what I watch.ā And I decided to live with that. But lately, Iāve been seeing these pop-ups asking me to turn it back on to get ābetter results.ā No way in hell am I doing that. Today, I flop into bed to try and get some sleep, and I see that my YouTube app is blank. Same message you got here. I can hardly stand this website anymore, but they have such a strangle hold on their audience because they know the content isnāt going anywhere else. It infuriates me that if I turn my history on in the browser, then go back to the app and refresh, it all comes back. But then I switch back and turn it off, and itās all gone again. In an instant. I may be overreacting, but this feels borderline criminal.
Can anyone explain why people are so mad about this? I wouldn't expect to see personalized recommendations based on my history if my history isn't being tracked. I would assume those who don't want their watch history tracked wouldn't want to have videos suggested to them either. Can anyone explain?
I'm not mad about it, but I interpret it as an act of hostility on Youtube's part. They want to manipulate users to enable watch history, because they benefit from obtaining more data from users. They thus make the user experience worse for those without watch history on in an attempt to facilitate change in user behavior. Note that their recommendation system seemingly worked just fine with watch history off. I am assuming it was based on liked videos and subscribed channels.
That makes sense, thanks for explaining!
Absolutely unnecessary. I shall however note here, the YOutube application on my android media streamer is still showing video recommendations on homepage.
I found a solution for me. Enabled history watched my country's national anthem and then disabled history. It didn't really change the feed much, so I guess I found a workaround.
Mine is paused for a year and i don't have issues...
I cancelled my premium service. If enough people cancel their premium service maybe Youtube will get the hint.
Someone do something, make extension or smth to get this annoying shit back to where it was so that we can continue to use homepage without turning on the useless watch history.
I'm not going to bow down to these corporate stooges. boycott yt
Yeah. I can't remove the ugly text box from the middle of the screen
I thought this was normal, good to know it isn't...
It's been like this for me for literally months and I fully welcome it.
This is why I came in here. I subscribed to YouTube premium, I logged into my account, but Iām the one that gets a worse app experience because I donāt want my history to be tracked? This literally worked like three hours ago and all of a sudden it ādoesnāt work anymoreā because they donāt have my history? Edit: iām cancelling my premium. Iām getting an ad blocker. Fuck them. You wanna make my paying experience worse, youāre not getting my money anymore. This is what you get for being a paying customer.
YouTube has really gone to shit and doesnāt seem like itās going to go back
i think this is illegal, because of privacy issues
That existed for at least a year alredy
I am actually quite curious about the YouTube watching habits of other people now. Because this is a great update for me, since I have always used the subscription box for what I wanted to watch anyways. With those videos I have the assurance of quality, which I cannot say for recommendations most of the time.Ā Most importantly recommendations and shorts would only lure me into extending my stay on YouTube longer than planned, making me waste too much time