Fix YouTube

A Chrome extension that takes back control of your YouTube experience. No Shorts. No algorithmic homepage. No distractions. Just the content you subscribed to.

Features

• Remove Shorts — Hides Shorts shelves, sidebar links, search results, channel tabs, and notifications everywhere on YouTube. Redirects /shorts/ URLs to the normal video player.
• Redirect Home to Subscriptions — The YouTube logo and all home navigation points to /feed/subscriptions instead. The homepage is dead to you.
• Hide Suggested Videos — Removes the related/recommended videos sidebar on watch pages and endscreen suggestions. The player expands to fill the space.
• Disable Autoplay — Turns off auto-play next and hides the toggle so YouTube can't re-enable it
• Hide Trending / Explore — Removes trending and explore from sidebar navigation
• Channel Blocklist — Permanently hide videos from specific channels everywhere. Add channels by handle (@channelname) from the popup. Blocks apply across all tabs instantly.
• Subscriptions Only — Filters recommendations, search results, and "Up next" to only show videos from channels you're subscribed to. Builds your subscription list from the sidebar guide and /feed/channels, caches it hourly.
• Custom YouTube Theming — Personalize YouTube's appearance:
  • Accent color: 8 preset colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white) or YouTube default
  • Font size: S / M / L / XL (85% to 130% scaling)
  • Theme mode: force Dark, Light, or leave on Auto
• Thumbnail Declutter — Hides overlay badges (NEW, LIVE, 4K), watch progress bars, and view count overlays on thumbnails. Normalizes ALL CAPS clickbait titles to sentence case when >60% of letters are uppercase.
• Hide Algorithmic Sections — Removes "People also watched", "For you", "Recommended", "Breaking news", auto-generated Mixes, community posts, promoted shelves, and "Channels new to you" carousels. Matches section titles via JS and hides structural elements via CSS.
• Hide Comments — Toggle to completely hide the comments section on watch pages.
• Disable Ambient Mode — Turns off YouTube's ambient glow effect behind the video player.
• Cinema Mode Default — Automatically activates theater/cinema mode on every video.
• Hide Notification Badge — Removes the red notification count from the bell icon.
• Auto Scroll to Player — Automatically scrolls the video player to the top of the page on every navigation.
• Pause on Tab Switch — Pauses the video when you switch to another tab, resumes when you return.
• Confirm Before Closing — Browser warning before closing a tab with a playing video.
• Playback Speed Default — Force a default playback speed (1x / 1.25x / 1.5x / 1.75x / 2x) on all videos. Applied once per video so manual changes aren't overridden.
• Grid Layout Control — Set videos per row (2-6) or leave on Auto
• Daily Usage Timer — Separate weekday and weekend limits (30m / 1h / 1.5h / 2h) with:
  • Live countdown clock overlay on the page
  • Color-coded warnings (orange at 25%, red pulsing at 0%)
  • Full-screen blocker when time runs out — pauses video and locks the page
  • Per-day schedules: different limits for weekdays vs. weekends (default 1h / 2h)
  • Resets at midnight automatically
• Focus Mode — One-click toggle (Alt+D) that enables all distraction blockers at once: Shorts, sidebar, autoplay, trending, algorithmic sections, declutter, and subscriptions-only. Snapshots your settings on activate, restores them on deactivate.
• Keyboard Shortcuts — Quick toggles without opening the popup:
  • Alt+D — Toggle Focus Mode
  • Alt+S — Toggle suggested videos sidebar
  • Alt+F — Toggle subscriptions-only filter
  • Alt+T — Toggle daily usage timer
  • Customizable via chrome://extensions/shortcuts
• Break Reminders — Gentle nudge after continuous watching (15m / 25m / 45m / 1h). Pauses video, shows a dismissable overlay. Resets when you leave the tab for 30+ seconds or dismiss the reminder.
• Watch History Dashboard — Tracks every video you watch (title, channel, duration). Opens in a full tab with:
  • Today / this week total watch time
  • Top channels by watch time
  • Recent 50 videos with duration and timestamp
  • Auto-prunes entries older than 30 days
  • Clear all history button
• Export/Import Settings — Download your configuration as a JSON file, share it, or restore it on another machine. Import validates keys so unknown data is safely ignored.
• Popup Settings Panel — Dark-themed control panel with toggles for every feature. Changes apply instantly, no reload needed.

Install

Chrome

1. Clone or download this repo
2. Open chrome://extensions
3. Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle)
4. Click Load unpacked and select this folder
5. Click the extension icon to configure features

Firefox

1. Clone or download this repo
2. Run ./build.sh firefox (or manually copy manifest.firefox.json to manifest.json)
3. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
4. Click Load Temporary Add-on and select manifest.json from the dist-firefox/ folder
5. Click the extension icon to configure features

Build Script

./build.sh chrome   # → dist-chrome/
./build.sh firefox  # → dist-firefox/

How It Works

All features use a CSS class toggle pattern: the content script sets classes like .fix-yt-hide-shorts on the <html> element, and CSS rules activate based on those classes. This means features toggle instantly without page reloads.

The subscription redirect works on two layers:

• declarativeNetRequest intercepts youtube.com/ at the network level before the page loads
• Content script catches SPA navigations via YouTube's yt-navigate-finish event

The daily timer only counts seconds while the YouTube tab is visible (document.visibilityState), saves progress to chrome.storage.local every 5 seconds, and persists across tabs and sessions.

Roadmap

Features under consideration for future releases:

• Custom YouTube Theming — Dark/light mode overrides, custom accent colors, font sizes, and overall page styling to make YouTube look the way you want
• Watch History Dashboard — Track what you've watched, how long, and surface patterns in your viewing habits
• Channel Allowlist/Blocklist — Only show videos from specific channels, or hide channels you never want to see
• Keyboard Shortcuts — Quick toggles for features without opening the popup
• Per-Day Timer Schedules — Different time limits for weekdays vs. weekends
• Break Reminders — Gentle nudge after X minutes of continuous watching before the hard lockout
• Firefox Support — Port to Firefox with WebExtension compatibility
• Hide "People Also Watched" / Algorithmic Sections — Remove any remaining algorithmic content sections from feeds
• Thumbnail Declutter — Hide clickbait indicators like excessive capitalization or view count badges
• Export/Import Settings — Share your configuration across devices or with friends

Next Up

• Focus Mode — One-click toggle that enables all distraction blockers at once for deep focus sessions
• Playback Speed Default — Force a default playback speed (1x–2x) on all videos
• Hide Comments — Toggle to hide the comments section entirely
• Disable Ambient Mode — Turn off YouTube's ambient glow effect behind the player
• Cinema Mode Default — Always open videos in theater/cinema mode

v3

• Redirect Shorts to Watch — Rewrite /shorts/ URLs to play as normal videos in the standard player
• Hide Notification Badge — Remove the red notification count from the bell icon
• Auto Scroll to Player — On watch pages, auto-scroll so the video player is flush with the top
• Pause on Tab Switch — Auto-pause video when switching to another tab, resume when returning
• Confirm Before Closing — Warn before closing a tab with a playing video

Tech Stack

• Manifest V3 Chrome Extension
• Vanilla JS + CSS (zero dependencies)
• chrome.storage.sync for settings
• chrome.storage.local for daily timer state
• declarativeNetRequest for network-level redirects

License

MIT