YouTube Watch Later Tidy

Bulk delete, filter, sort, and reorder your YouTube Watch Later. Escape the 5000-video limit. Runs locally, no data collected.

YouTube Watch Later Tidy is a Chrome extension for managing your YouTube Watch Later playlist. Bulk delete, filter by channel or topic, sort by duration or upload date, reorder videos, and escape the 5,000-video limit. Everything runs locally — no account, no sign-in, no data collected. 📋 Your YouTube Watch Later playlist is a graveyard. Videos saved months or years ago. Channels you forgot you followed. A queue so long you stopped trusting it. Then one day, you hit the 5,000-video limit. YouTube freezes you out. Can't save anything new until you dig through the pile and start deleting. One. Video. At. A. Time. YouTube gives you zero tools to fix this. No bulk delete, no overview, no way to take back control. YouTube Watch Later Tidy fixes it. Open a dashboard over your YouTube page, see your entire Watch Later broken down by channel or by topic (like a storage manager for your queue), filter, sort, reorder, and bulk-delete. Done in minutes instead of hours. 🚀 HOW IT WORKS 1. Install the extension. 2. Go to youtube.com/playlist?list=WL (your Watch Later page). 3. Click the YouTube Watch Later Tidy icon in the top-right corner of Chrome (pin it from the puzzle-piece menu if you don't see it). 4. Click "Open Dashboard". 5. Hit Sync and wait for the progress counter to finish. 6. Browse by channel or by topic, filter, sort, select, bulk-delete, reorder, or export. No account. No setup. No permissions beyond your current YouTube session. Completely free. ✨ NEW IN v1.3.0 ⏱️ Filter by duration: five buckets — Shorts (≤60s), Under 5 min, 5–20 min, 20–60 min, Over 1 hour. Mix-and-match with the watched filter. 📐 Sort by duration: longest-first or shortest-first. Videos without a duration (Live, Upcoming, Private/Deleted) sink to the bottom. 📅 Sort by published date: newest-first or oldest-first, based on YouTube's upload timestamps. 🧹 Topic-breakdown refresh fix: deleting the last video under a topic now clears the topic and its filter chip instead of stranding an empty group. 🏷️ Honest sort labels: "Date Added" renamed to "Playlist order (Top/Bottom first)" — YouTube doesn't expose a per-video added-date timestamp on the web, so the sort isn't really by date. The dropdown explains where to find true date sort (YouTube mobile app). 🔒 Permission cleanup: dropped one host permission no longer needed at runtime. One less line in the install prompt. v1.2.0 also added By Topic clustering, brand-channel support, drag-and-drop reorder, Open in Tabs, and remote announcement banners. 🛠️ FULL FEATURE LIST 🗑️ Bulk delete selected videos with live progress and a stop button. 📊 A dashboard with channel breakdown bars, sorted by count. 🏷️ By Topic view: local keyword clustering, no API calls, no data sent. 🔍 Search and filter by title, channel, watched status, availability, or duration. 🔃 Sort by playlist order (top/bottom first), duration (longest/shortest), published date (newest/oldest), channel A–Z, or title A–Z. 📁 Move or copy videos to another playlist. Create new playlists inline (Private / Unlisted / Public). ↕️ Reorder via Move to Top, Move to Bottom, or drag-and-drop (single or multi-select). 🔖 Per-video 3-dot menu: Move to Top, Move to Bottom, Open in new tab, Copy URL, Remove. 💾 Export to JSON or CSV (UTF-8 BOM, handles non-Latin titles correctly). 👤 Multi-account aware: auto-detects your logged-in Google account. Brand channels supported. ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts: Cmd/Ctrl+A (select all), Delete/Backspace (delete selected), Esc (close or deselect). 🌗 Light and dark theme following your browser's setting. WCAG-AA contrast in dark mode. ♿ Accessibility: keyboard navigation on dropdowns, ARIA labels, prefers-reduced-motion respected. ❓ FAQ Does it need a YouTube API key or OAuth login? No. It uses the same internal endpoints your browser already calls when you use YouTube. No API key, no OAuth, no account setup. Is my data sent anywhere? No. Everything runs locally in your browser. No login, no servers, no analytics, no telemetry. The extension calls YouTube's own endpoints (with your existing session) and a public config file on tidywl.com (no identifiers, no payload). Why can I only add 5,000 videos to Watch Later? YouTube caps every playlist, including Watch Later, at 5,000 items. Once you hit the limit, adding more fails silently. The only fix is to delete older ones. This extension makes that possible without losing your afternoon. How do I bulk-delete videos from YouTube Watch Later? Install the extension, go to your Watch Later page, click "Open Dashboard", hit Sync, then select videos (individually, by channel, by topic, by filter, or with Cmd/Ctrl+A) and press Delete. YouTube's API requires sequential deletion, so large batches take a few seconds. How does the By Topic grouping work? It scans the titles of videos in your cached Watch Later and clusters them by recurring keywords (e.g. "recipe", "react", "interview"). Each video is assigned to its single strongest keyword, and topics with fewer than 3 videos are excluded to avoid noise. It runs 100% locally: no API calls, no external service, no data sent anywhere. Why does my video count differ from what YouTube shows? YouTube hides videos from its own playlist API when they are deleted, set to private, region-locked, copyright-blocked, from an expired livestream, from a suspended channel, or age-restricted. The dashboard shows you the exact gap and explains each reason. Does it work on brand channels or "Page" accounts? Yes, as of v1.2.0. Sync, delete, and reorder all work correctly on brand-channel Watch Later playlists. Can I undo a deletion? No. Deletions are permanent on YouTube's side. Confirm before you delete. Use Export first if you want a snapshot. Does it sync across devices? No. The cached playlist lives in your browser's local storage. Open the extension on another device, hit Sync, and you get a fresh pull from YouTube. Will it break if YouTube changes their API? Possibly. This extension piggybacks on YouTube's internal endpoints, which can change without notice. v1.2.0 added a remote config system that can patch parser paths without forcing an extension update, which adds some resilience. Larger breakages will still require an update. 🔒 PRIVACY No login required. No servers storing your data. No analytics. No telemetry. Network calls go only to YouTube (using your own logged-in session) and to a public config file on tidywl.com (no identifiers, no payload). ⚠️ HONEST LIMITATIONS - Requires being signed in to YouTube in this browser. - No undo: deletions are permanent. - No cross-device sync. Storage is local to each browser. - "Playlist order" sort reflects current playlist position, not the date you added the video. YouTube doesn't expose per-video added-date timestamps on web — for true date-added sort, use the YouTube mobile app. - Uses YouTube's internal, undocumented API. It could break if YouTube changes their internals. 💬 COMMUNITY Join the Discord to report bugs, request features, or just say hi: https://discord.gg/natc623GhX Built by an indie developer who hit the 5,000-video limit and had enough. Independent and not affiliated with YouTube or Google. 🚀"