# YouTube history and mouseover on home page **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 11, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954 "2023-09-11T22:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/1 "2023-09-11T22:38:35Z")
I do a lot of browsing on the You Tube home page looking for something interesting to watch. I recently wanted to go back to a channel that I had been watching the prior day but wasn’t getting any recommendations for, so I went over to the history tab. I saw there that any video that I had hovered over for long enough to start the preview playing showed up in my history. There were videos there that I didn’t even remember intending to do that, all cluttering up my history and making it more difficult to find the video I was looking for. If all these videos in my history count as “views”, they are really being generous with what counts as a view. I’m fairly sure that you have to have a video playing for more than a split second to get it to count as a view, and I don’t know if all these videos in my history actually count for a view, but I certainly don’t think most of them should. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/2 "2023-09-11T22:47:04Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > I saw there that any video that I had hovered over for long enough to start the preview playing showed up in my history. That doesn’t happen with me. Do you have a cat? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/3 "2023-09-11T22:49:20Z")
Were you logged in? YouTube behaves very differently for me if I’m using a device that’s logged in, vs. public browsing. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/4 "2023-09-11T23:20:09Z")
It only happens on the home page. Any video page it does not happen on. I don’t have a cat. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/5 "2023-09-11T23:20:55Z")
Of course I’m logged in. How else would the YouTube history even exist? Maybe I’m not clear here - I’m talking about YouTube’s history that it generates itself, not my browser history. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/6 "2023-09-12T00:34:26Z")
Okay. I don’t have a Youtube account - or, more precisely, I stopped using one since Youtube moved to bank card verification. I also don’t have a cat. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/7 "2023-09-12T12:26:28Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > I saw there that any video that I had hovered over for long enough to start the preview playing showed up in my history. I tried this and found that this is true for me too. There may be a certain number of seconds for you to hover in order for it to count as a view, but it’s not very many. As far as I could find, there’s no way to change this, although it is possible to turn off or pause Watch History or to delete individual videos from it. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/8 "2023-09-12T12:50:59Z")
Yeah, somehow my Watch History is turned off, of which I am in approval. There is a setting or switch for this somewhere, evidently. But, that appears to shut down the history altogether, not just stuff that was hovered-over ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/9 "2023-09-12T14:15:44Z")
Bank card verification? I have a YouTube account and have never been asked for that… ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/10 "2023-09-12T14:30:20Z")
Maybe I misremembered and it’s phone verification. In any case, I haven’t felt the need to do it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/11 "2023-09-12T14:43:24Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > I don’t have a cat. > [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > I also don’t have a cat. I don’t have a cat either. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/12 "2023-09-12T15:21:00Z")
Do you have any Youtube video history problems? I rest my case. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/13 "2023-09-14T20:08:29Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > > [@glowacks](#): > > > > I don’t have a cat. > > > [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > > > I also don’t have a cat. > > I don’t have a cat either. I don’t have a cat, and neither does my wife! ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/14 "2023-09-14T20:10:44Z")
This happens for me too and it’s super annoying and I don’t know how to turn it off. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/15 "2023-09-14T20:18:47Z")
I don’t know why hovering is counting as part of your video history. But I do know that you can turn off autoplay while hovering. (I actually complained to get them to add this option.) You’ll still get a short preview of the video on hover, but it won’t actually play the video. Click on the icon in the upper right corner of YouTube and click “Settings” (scroll down if necessary). In the left column, click “Playback and Performance.” At the bottom of the page (scroll down if necessary), there’s the option “Play Inline Video”. There will be a little switch beside it. Make sure that switch is points left and the little circle is gray. You may have to change this setting on every computer you use. It’s the first thing I do when I use YouTube on a different computer. There’s a similar option in the mobile app, too–but it disables previews altogether, or just when you’re not on Wi-Fi. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/16 "2023-09-14T22:43:30Z")
Thanks for the tip. I never liked that “feature” anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/17 "2023-09-14T23:27:58Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Maybe I misremembered and it’s phone verification. How do you confuse phone verification with a **bank card** verification!? ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youtube-history-and-mouseover-on-home-page/989954/18 "2023-09-14T23:36:37Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > How do you confuse phone verification with a **bank card** verification!? I guess because they’re two types of identity verification and Youtube has online subscription/video on demand services which use bank card verification.