A lightweight Firefox extension for filtering YouTube videos by upload age.
ChronoLock allows you to hide, dim, or fade videos newer than a selected cutoff year, reshaping YouTube into something slower, stranger, and more archival. Built for nostalgia, intentional browsing, old internet archaeology, and resisting the platform’s constant pressure toward recency.
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Filter videos newer than a chosen year
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Three filtering modes:
- Hide — removes videos entirely
- Dim — desaturates and lowers opacity
- Fade — visually suppresses videos without removing layout space
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Floating in-page control panel
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Persistent saved settings
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Lightweight vanilla JavaScript implementation
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No telemetry
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No tracking
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No data collection
🔗 Install ChronoLock on Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chronolock/
- Open Firefox
- Navigate to:
about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
- Click:
Load Temporary Add-on
- Select
manifest.jsoninside the ChronoLock folder
Temporary installs will be removed when Firefox closes.
- Download the
.xpifile - Open Firefox
- Drag the
.xpiinto the browser window - Confirm installation
ChronoLock works on its own.
I like to pair it with YouTube Redux to reshape YouTube’s interface and reduce algorithmic noise.
👉 YouTube Redux: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-redux/
This is not required. It simply changes how the site presents itself, while ChronoLock changes what is allowed to surface.
ChronoLock is licensed under the MIT License.
You are free to use, modify, distribute, and sublicense this software, including for commercial use, provided that the original copyright notice and license are included in all copies or substantial portions of the software.
The software is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind.
YouTube changes its internal structure frequently. Future platform updates may occasionally break filtering behavior until the extension is updated.
ChronoLock intentionally avoids heavy frameworks and build pipelines in favor of a small, transparent codebase that can be easily modified and understood.
If you want to support continued development:
You are under no obligations here, the extension will always be free and open-source.
Created by Enargeia.