CleanWatch – Help

Welcome to CleanWatch

v0

CleanWatch helps you take back control of your YouTube experience. It reduces distractions like interruptions, Shorts, algorithmic recommendations, and other attention-grabbing elements so you can watch what you actually came for.

Use the popup for quick actions, open Settings for full configuration, and use the Dashboard for stats and tools. Settings and stats stay local by default. If you enable server sync, a sync code derives the encryption key so the server stores encrypted settings and per-device stat snapshots instead of readable data.

Below you'll find a full reference of every toggle and what it does.

Using the extension

Area	What it does
Popup	Shows your pinned quick actions plus fixed links to Settings, Dashboard, and Help. Drag the quick-action cards in the popup to reorder them.
Settings page	The full configuration surface. It includes search, grouped sections, dependency-based controls, popup quick-action selection, and settings transfer tools.
Dashboard	Shows watch time, top channels, focus schedule, keyword blocklists, and transfer actions.
Help	Provides a human-readable reference for every setting, an up-to-date explanation of storage and sync behavior, and the privacy notice.

Data & Sync

Setting	What it does
Server sync	Pairs devices with one sync code and uploads encrypted settings plus encrypted per-device stat snapshots to your sync server. The server cannot read the decrypted content.
Settings export/import	Lets you save your settings as JSON and restore them later on the same or another device.
Copy/paste settings code	Moves the same synced settings set through a private text code without requiring a file.
Show update notifications	After an update, shows a small toast on YouTube once with the new features and a link to the changelog page (also reachable from the header of every extension page).
Sync keyword blocklist	Includes your keyword blocklist in the synced settings so it follows you across devices.

Homepage

Setting	What it does
Redirect homepage to	Sends you to Watch Later, Subscriptions, or Library instead of the recommendation-heavy homepage.
Hide homepage button	Removes the home entry point from the YouTube sidebar.
Hide all suggestions	Hides the homepage feed entirely for a blank, distraction-free start page.
Show only one row	Keeps the homepage to a single row of videos instead of an endless grid.
Hide infinite scroll	Stops YouTube from loading more homepage items as you scroll.
Hide watched videos (%)	On Home and Subscriptions, hides videos once the watched-progress bar reaches this percentage. Set it to 0 to disable the filter.
Hide filter bar	Removes the category chips at the top of the feed.
Hide view counts	Hides view counts and recency metadata on homepage thumbnails.
Hide "Explore more topics"	Removes the Explore more topics chip shelf from the feed.
Hide Playables (mini-games)	Removes the shelf of browser mini-games YouTube injects into the home feed.
Hide Live & Premiere videos (all feeds)	Hides livestreams and premieres on every feed, not just Subscriptions.
Hide Upcoming videos (all feeds)	Hides scheduled videos that have not premiered yet, on every feed.
Hide Members first / Members only videos	Hides early-access and members-exclusive videos from feeds. Channels on the Trusted channels list are always allowed through.
Minimum view count	Hides feed videos below the configured number of views. Set to 0 to disable.
Maximum video age	Hides feed videos older than the configured number of years. Set to 0 to disable.
Channel & keyword blocklists	Managed from the Dashboard: videos from blocked channels disappear everywhere, and keyword matches are hidden across feeds and search.

Video Player

Setting	What it does
Reduce distractions	Reduces interruptions by skipping skippable ads, blocking common ad-related requests, and suppressing intrusive surfaces where possible.
Hide live chat	Removes the live chat column on livestreams and premieres.
Hide related videos	Hides related video modules and turns off autoplay when it is visible. Sub-toggles let you instead hide only categories, already-watched videos, Shorts, or playlists from the related list.
Hide mini-player button	Removes the mini-player button from the main player controls.
Hide next/prev buttons	Removes the next and previous buttons from the player controls.
Hide end screen cards	Suppresses the clickable overlays shown near the end of a video.
Force cinema mode	Opens every video in theater mode. If you switch it off yourself, it stays off until the next video.
Auto fullscreen on play	Sends a video straight to fullscreen when it starts playing. Browsers only allow this shortly after a click, so it quietly does nothing after a reload or in a new tab.
Exit fullscreen when video ends	Leaves fullscreen automatically when the video finishes, so swiping back a page works again. Works independently of auto fullscreen — it also exits videos you fullscreened by hand — and stays in fullscreen while a playlist or autoplay continues with the next video.
Default quality	Applies your preferred playback quality when YouTube allows it.
Default playback speed	Applies your preferred playback speed to every video.
Auto-enable subtitles	Turns subtitles on automatically for every video.
Custom subtitle styling	Overrides YouTube’s subtitle look with your own size, font, colors, and background opacity.
Auto-like at watched threshold	On watch pages, likes the video once playback reaches the watched percentage you set above. The small green marker on the progress bar shows exactly where that auto-like will happen.
Auto-like toast (seconds)	Controls how long the in-player auto-like confirmation stays visible after the extension likes a video.

Subscriptions

Setting	What it does
Hide Most relevant shelf	Removes the Most relevant shelf that YouTube inserts into the subscriptions feed.

Shorts

Setting	What it does
Hide Shorts everywhere	Removes Shorts shelves, cards, and navigation entries across YouTube.
Redirect Shorts to player	Opens Shorts links in the normal watch player instead of the Shorts viewer.

Video Buttons

Setting	What it does
Hide Thanks button	Removes the Super Thanks button below videos.
Hide Clip button	Removes the Clip button below videos.
Hide Sponsor button	Removes Join and similar membership buttons.

Search & Navigation

Setting	What it does
Hide search bar	Removes the search bar from the top navigation.
Hide search suggestions	Disables the dropdown suggestions while typing in the search bar.
Clean search results	Filters out related-result modules and off-topic result blocks.
Hide channel results	Removes channel cards from search results.
Hide playlist results	Removes playlist cards from search results.
Hide Shorts results	Removes Shorts from search results.
Show duration filter	Adds a range control above search results to show only videos between a minimum and maximum length — something YouTube’s own filter cannot express.
Hide sponsored content	Hides promoted and sponsored result cards.
Fix first-column layout	Removes the special first-column styling YouTube sometimes applies to grids.

Sidebar

Setting	What it does
Hide Explore section	Removes the Explore sidebar section, including entries like Music, Films, and Gaming.
Hide History	Removes the History entry from the sidebar.
Hide Playlists	Removes the Playlists entry from the sidebar.
Hide Your videos	Removes the Your videos entry from the sidebar.
Hide Your courses	Removes the Your courses entry when YouTube shows it.
Hide Watch Later	Removes the Watch Later entry from the sidebar.
Hide Liked videos	Removes the Liked videos entry from the sidebar.
Hide Downloads	Removes the Downloads entry from the sidebar.
Hide More from YouTube	Removes the More from YouTube section, including links like Premium, Studio, Music, and Kids.
Hide footer	Removes the legal and about links at the bottom of the sidebar.

Audio

Setting	What it does
Force preferred audio	Selects your preferred language track when a video has multiple audio tracks.
Preferred language	Sets the audio language that should be preferred.
Block multi-audio menu	Hides audio-track controls from the player menu.
Aggressive audio control	Re-applies the preferred track when YouTube tries to switch it.

Comments & Chat

Setting	What it does
Filter scam & spam comments	Hides comments that match known scam and spam patterns below videos.
Use built-in scam phrase pack	Applies the maintained list of common scam phrases to the comment filter.
Also apply my keyword blocklist	Additionally hides comments that match your own keyword blocklist from the Dashboard.
Filter live chat too	Applies the same scam and spam filtering to live chat messages.

SponsorBlock

Setting	What it does
Enable SponsorBlock	Uses the crowdsourced SponsorBlock database to handle in-video segments like sponsors, intros, and self-promotion.
Per-category behavior	Each segment category can be skipped automatically, muted, shown on the timeline only, or ignored.
Minimum segment length (seconds)	Ignores segments shorter than this, so playback is not interrupted for a two-second sponsor mention.
Show manual-skip button	Shows a small in-player button when a segment starts so you can skip it yourself.
Auto-skip on music videos	Automatically skips non-music sections in music videos.
Show segments on the timeline	Marks known segments as colored bars on the progress bar.
Also sync my SponsorBlock ID	Includes your SponsorBlock user ID in synced settings so votes and submissions stay yours across devices.

Focus

Setting	What it does
Grayscale thumbnails	Turns thumbnails grayscale to make the feed less tempting.
Color on hover	Temporarily restores color while hovering over a thumbnail.
Grayscale intensity (%)	Controls how strongly the grayscale effect is applied. Only active when grayscale thumbnails is on.
Thumbnail blur (px)	Blurs thumbnails to reduce their visual pull. Set to 0 to disable.
Thumbnail transparency (%)	Makes thumbnails semi-transparent to reduce their visual pull. Set to 0 to disable.
Hide thumbnail previews	Disables moving thumbnail previews and hover playback.
Lowercase titles	Converts video titles to lowercase on cards, neutralising ALL CAPS clickbait.
Readable titles	Renders video titles in a more legible font for easier scanning.
Reduce motion	Tones down animations and hover motion across YouTube.
Hide like count	Removes the like counter below videos.
Hide published time	Removes the "2 years ago" recency label from video cards.
Hide video duration	Removes the duration label from video thumbnails.
Hide watched progress bar	Removes the red progress bar on thumbnails of partially watched videos.
Hide comments	Removes the comments section below videos.
Hide notification badge	Hides the unread count on the bell icon.
Daily limit (minutes)	Shows a stop overlay once your YouTube time for the day reaches the configured limit.
Break reminder (minutes)	Shows a break reminder after continuous viewing for the configured interval.
Wind-down mode	As you approach your daily limit, gradually fades YouTube to grayscale from the configured percentage of the limit onward.

About 365DevNet

CleanWatch is built and maintained by 365DevNet, an IT services company helping freelancers and small businesses harness the power of technology. The company specialises in Microsoft 365, Power Automate, AI automation, API integrations, and SharePoint — delivering practical, impact-driven solutions with a focus on long-term results.

For installation guides, sync documentation, and privacy details, visit the CleanWatch website.

CleanWatch is fully open source under the GNU General Public License v3. The code lives on our Forgejo instance at git.365devnet.eu/365DevNet/CleanWatch — clone it there if you want to inspect, fork, or customise the extension.