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I find myself wasting far too much time watching YouTube videos. I start by watching a legitimate video, and then click on one of the suggested videos, and keep on going for hours.

Is there a way to block the suggested videos in Firefox or Chrome or Opera?

Specifically, I want to block:

  • The videos thumbnails displayed in the side bar on the right
  • The videos thumbnails shown at the end of playing a video
  • Optionally, links to other Youtube videos in the video itself, that the author has inserted.

I would prefer not to block ads, although this is not a requirement.

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7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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This can be achieved by using Adblock Plus on Firefox or Chrome. First install Adblock Plus. Then go into Adblock Plus' options (Filter preferences on Firefox) and create a custom filter. Then copy each of these lines separately into the filter list:

/yts/swfbin/player-*/endscreen.swf
youtube.com##div.videowall-endscreen
youtube.com##div.watch-sidebar
youtube.com##watch-related

This will block the video thumbnails shown in the sidebar and at the end of the video. It should work for both the html5 and flash youtube players in Firefox. In Chrome to get this to work properly I needed to enable the html5 youtube player. Visit https://www.youtube.com/html5 to opt into using the html5 player.

To block the links inside videos (annotations) go to your youtube settings page. Then go to the playback tab and disable the check box that says "Show annotations on videos".

If you don't want to block ads, just disable all the ad lists in Adblock Plus.

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4
  • This worked flawlessly for me, where not even the Youtube: Remove Youtube Suggestions would. Thanks.
    – Marc.2377
    Nov 23, 2016 at 3:17
  • 2
    Since a couple weeks ago, www.youtube.com###related is needed.
    – Marc.2377
    Oct 19, 2017 at 5:19
  • Here in 2020 I had to add youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element to block them
    – gene_wood
    Jan 28, 2020 at 7:39
  • The lines given does work for me , or may they don't work anymore in general , I had to click on th add bock plus gear on the browser(pin it if you haven't) then block specific element on this website( in this case youtube) and then just hover over the side bar and the main bar that you want to block
    – Snedden27
    May 2, 2021 at 12:21
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DF YouTube (Distraction Free)

It's browser extension, recommended by Center for Humane Technology. It lets you block suggested videos, and also if you want, the feed, subscriptions and comments.

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6

Improve YouTube!

You can use Improve YouTube!, an open-source browser extension that can tweak YouTube in various ways (Chrome version / Firefox version).

The videos thumbnails displayed in the sidebar on the right

Improve YouTube! can hide or collapse the right sidebar, among other YouTube UI elements.

After installing Improve YouTube!, hide or collapse the "related videos" in the right sidebar by clicking the extension's button → Appearance → Sidebar → Related videos → "Hidden" or "Collapsed". Settings screenshot:

screenshot of extension settings described above

The videos thumbnails shown at the end of playing a video

Enable: Appearance → Player → Hide endscreen to block it.

Optionally, links to other Youtube videos in the video itself, that the author has inserted.

If you're referring to YouTube annotations, enable: Appearance → Player → Hide annotations to block them.

If you're referring to YouTube cards, enable: Appearance → Player → Hide cards.

Note: I was also testing DF YouTube (Distraction Free), as was suggested in another answer to this question, but it currently (Mar. 2024) causes issues with the YouTube UI. It hasn’t been updated since Nov. 2019, which is more than 4 years ago as of this edit. Improve YouTube! is still being actively maintained, so I think it’s a better solution than DF YouTube.

uBlock Origin

With uBlock Origin (Chrome version / Firefox version), AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, or any browser extension that can use AdBlock Plus syntax filter lists, add this filter into your custom filters (called My filters in uBlock Origin):

youtube.com###related

That should block the entire sidebar including the 'Up Next' video and the list of related videos.

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2
  • "[L]inks to other Youtube videos in the video itself, that the author has inserted." Improve YouTube –> Appearance –> Player –> Hide cards.
    – Brian Schack
    Mar 3 at 17:33
  • 1
    @BrianSchack Thanks. Added that into the answer.
    – galacticninja
    Mar 4 at 0:03
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Try StayFocused add-on for chrome. It can be found here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji/related What this add-on does is limits the amount of time you can spend on a website in it's list. As a default, sites like youtube.com are "blocked", so that you can only spend a maximum time on them. You CAN increase this time if you want, however, there are mechanisms in the add-on such as positive reinforcement to help you stop procrastinating.

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3

I would suggest trying out the YouTube Center greasemonkey script (also comes in the form of an independent add-on/extension). It is available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE, and a bunch of others. You'll want to get the latest developer version though, as the current official version is very out-of-date and is broken in many ways.

It has options for disabling the endscreen on videos

You can also hide the recommended channels column

To block links to other videos within the current video you are watching, you can disable annotations by default

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3

Using Stylish, a browser plugin, I made a rule for YouTube with:

.ytp-ce-element
{display:none !important}

This blocks the overlay elements for suggested videos and the channel icon/logo.

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1

For anyone using Safari, BlockYT works on both macOS and iOS

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blockyt-for-safari/id1575379461

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