How to Turn Off YouTube Recommendations
Last updated: August 2026
Quick answer: You cannot fully switch off YouTube’s recommendation engine, but you can stop seeing it. Install the free Dehook extension: Redirect homepage to Subscriptions removes the recommendation wall where it hits hardest, and topic, channel, and language filters clean what remains in search and the sidebar.
The honest version first: nothing can switch the recommendation engine off, and guides claiming otherwise usually mean blanking your homepage by disabling watch history, which breaks half of YouTube’s useful features.
Replace, then filter
Dehook’s approach is two moves. First, replace the homepage with your subscriptions: the recommendation wall disappears from your daily entry point. Second, filter the surfaces that remain: sidebar and search suggestions pass through your topic, keyword, channel, and language filters. The result is not a recommendation-free YouTube; it is a YouTube where recommendations lost their power over you.
Silence the recommendations in 4 steps
- Install Dehook. Add the free extension to your browser.
- Redirect the homepage. Turn on Redirect homepage to Subscriptions. The wall of recommendations never loads again.
- Filter the leftovers. Add topics and channels you never want suggested. The AI filters them in the sidebar and search too.
- Hide Shorts. Turn on Hide Shorts, the most aggressive recommendation surface of all.
Dehook↑ wall gone, leftovers filtered
The recommendation-taming setup in Dehook.
FAQ
Can recommendations be fully disabled?
Not by any setting YouTube offers. Turning off watch history blanks the homepage but cripples other features and leaves the sidebar intact. The practical approach is replacing the homepage and filtering the rest, which is what Dehook does.
What about the sidebar next to videos?
Dehook’s topic, keyword, channel, and language filters apply to sidebar suggestions, so the worst of it is removed even though the sidebar itself remains.
Will YouTube stop recommending filtered stuff over time?
Largely yes. Because filtered content cannot be clicked, your engagement with it drops to zero and the algorithm deprioritizes it. See our guide on retraining the algorithm.
Is this better than turning off watch history?
For most people, yes. History-off breaks resume, watched markers, and search personalization. The redirect gives you a useful homepage instead of an empty one.