How to Empty Your YouTube `Watch later` Playlist

Need to clear hundreds (or thousands) of videos from YouTube’s Watch later playlist without clicking “Remove” over and over? You can do it straight from your browser in less than a minute.

A Step-by-Step Guide

This walkthrough uses the developer console built into every modern desktop browser. A short JavaScript snippet automates the clicks YouTube normally requires.

1. Open Your “Watch later” Playlist
   Log in to YouTube and visit:
   https://youtube.com/playlist?list=WL

2. Load Every Video
   Scroll to the very bottom. Keep scrolling until new videos stop appearing.
   Why? YouTube loads items in batches; the script can only act on what’s already in the DOM.

3. Open the Developer Console

   • Chrome / Edge / Brave: Ctrl + Shift + I → Console tab
   • Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + K

4. Run the “Empty Playlist” Script
   Copy the code below, paste it into the console, and press Enter.

   // Remove every video from “Watch later”
   ;(() => {
     const STEP = 800 // ms between deletions – increase if your PC feels sluggish
     const WAIT = 300 // ms YouTube needs to render the dropdown
   
     const loop = setInterval(() => {
       // 1. The three-dot menu button for the first video in the list
       const menuBtn = document.querySelector(
         '#contents ytd-playlist-video-renderer #button[aria-label="Action menu"]'
       )
   
       // No button found → nothing left to delete
       if (!menuBtn) {
         clearInterval(loop)
         alert('🎉 “Watch later” is now empty!')
         return
       }
   
       // 2. Open the menu
       menuBtn.click()
   
       // 3. After it appears, click “Remove from Watch later”
       setTimeout(() => {
         const removeBtn = [
           ...document.querySelectorAll('tp-yt-paper-item yt-formatted-string'),
         ].find((el) => /remove from watch later/i.test(el.textContent))
         if (removeBtn) removeBtn.click()
       }, WAIT)
     }, STEP)
   })()

5. Wait for Completion
   The script removes one video every STEP milliseconds. Leave the tab in focus until an alert confirms the list is empty.

Notes & Customization

• Different UI language?
  Replace remove from watch later in the RegExp with the exact text your YouTube UI shows, e.g. Entfernen aus “Später ansehen”.

• Page looks frozen?
  If deletions stop, the playlist may have loaded new items off-screen. Scroll down a bit and the loop continues.

• Bookmarklet option
  To turn the snippet into a bookmarklet, prepend javascript: and save it as a browser bookmark. Clicking that bookmark on the playlist page runs the code without opening the console.

That’s it—no extensions, no API keys, just native browser tools. Enjoy the clean slate!