Delete Your YouTube Playlists in Bulk
A YouTube library fills up with playlists you stopped using a decade ago and playlists somebody else made that you saved once and never opened. YouTube makes you delete them one at a time, from two different places, because the two kinds work differently. Redact shows you the whole library in one list, you tick what should go, and it sorts out which ones are yours to delete and which ones just need unsaving.
Available on
Plan
Playlists *Premium
Choose playlists to delete or remove from your library
Why clear your library out?
Playlists are the part of your channel you forgot was public
Most people set a playlist up once, use it for a month, and never think about it again. YouTube keeps showing it on your channel page long after you've stopped caring what's in it.
Public by default, forgotten by you
A new playlist is public unless you changed it, so a list called 2016 Breakup Songs is sitting there on your channel where anyone can read the title and every single video inside it.
Titles say more than the videos do
Nobody has to open a playlist to learn something about you. The names on their own give away what you were studying, what you were worried about, and what phase you were in.
Saved lists aren't yours to curate
A playlist you added from another channel keeps changing after you save it. Whatever the owner adds shows up in your library, so a list you vetted years ago may hold anything now.
The interface fights you
Deleting your own playlist takes a menu, a settings page and a confirmation. Unsaving somebody else's takes a different path. Doing thirty of them is a genuinely tedious afternoon.
What this feature does
One list, two outcomes
Redact pulls every playlist attached to your account and puts them in a single selector. You tick the ones you want gone and start the run. From there Redact checks each playlist against your account and takes the right action for it.
A playlist you created is deleted. The list itself is removed from your channel, along with the videos it held. A playlist you saved from another channel leaves your library, which is the only thing you can do to somebody else's list. You don't have to know which is which before you start, and you don't have to sort them into two runs.
One thing worth knowing up front. A playlist carries no date of its own, so a date range has nothing to match against and can't narrow this list. Picking the playlists by name is the filter here.
- Your whole library
- Deletes yours
- Unsaves theirs
- Pick by name
- Preview first
Playlists *Premium
Choose playlists to delete or remove from your library
How the batch gets built
You choose the playlists, not a filter
Here the selection is the whole story. A playlist offers Redact no date and no body of text to work with, so the run reaches exactly as far as the boxes you tick and no further.
Pick from your real library
Redact fetches your playlists from the account you connected, so the list you're choosing from is the actual one, not a search box you have to guess names into.
Ownership sorted for you
Each playlist is checked at delete time and gets the right treatment, so a list you made is deleted and a list you saved is dropped from your library.
Date ranges don't apply
A playlist has no timestamp to test, so setting a date range won't shrink this batch. Dates go to work on Watch Later, likes, comments, history, and uploads instead.
Before you commit
Check the list, then run it
Preview Mode
Redact shows you exactly which playlists it matched and what it would do to each one. Nothing is touched, so this is where you catch a list you'd rather keep.
Select and Delete
Approve each playlist on its own before it goes. Slower on purpose, and the right call when two of the names look alike.
Deletion Mode
Start the real run and Redact works down your selection from your own machine, deleting or unsaving each playlist and reporting as it goes.
Step-by-step guide
How to delete your YouTube playlists with Redact
Connecting takes a minute and the run itself is as long as your library. Playlists sit on Premium, so this is a paid-plan feature at any age.
- 1
Download Redact for free
Download for your device →Install Redact on your computer and create a free account. YouTube cleanups run in the desktop app on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- 2
Connect your Google account
Open Redact, choose YouTube, and sign in. The login goes straight to Google in a browser window Redact opens for you, and your password never touches a Redact server.
- 3
Tick Playlists, then choose which ones
Select Playlists under Content Types and Redact loads your library into a selector below it.
- Pick the ones to remove. Tick as many as you want. At least one has to be selected or the run won't start.
- Leave the rest alone. Anything unticked is untouched, whether you made it or saved it.
- Skip the date range. It has nothing to match on here, so it makes no difference to which playlists are queued.
Good to know: playlists need Premium however old they are, because a playlist carries no date at all, and the free window the other categories use is measured in days.
- 4
Preview the selection
Run a preview and Redact lists the playlists it matched. Check the names, drop anything you got wrong, then start the real run.
- 5
Let it work through the library
Redact deletes the playlists you own and removes the saved ones from your library, one after another, showing you where it's up to. Large libraries take a while because each one is a separate action against your account.
Your library stays between you and Google
Redact reads your playlists and removes them from your own computer, talking directly to YouTube. The names of your playlists, what's in them, and the fact you deleted them never reach a Redact server. Cut the account loose whenever you like. Redact is an independent tool and neither YouTube nor Google has a hand in it.
Try Redact Today
We are frequently adding support to other social network services. You can receive direct updates from us in Redact's Discord Channel.
Frequently asked questions
The playlist itself. Deleting a playlist you created removes the list, and the videos in it go with it in the sense that the list no longer exists. The videos themselves stay on YouTube because they belong to whoever uploaded them. If what you want is to empty a list rather than remove it, that's the Watch Later flow.
They leave your library. You can't delete a list somebody else owns, so removing it from your library is the full extent of what anyone can do, and it's what Redact does for those. Redact works out which case each playlist falls under while the run is going, so you don't have to separate them first.
Yes. Select every playlist in the list and start the run, and Redact works through all of them in one pass. There's no all-or-nothing switch though, so a full clear-out means ticking them all rather than leaving the selection empty.
Because YouTube doesn't expose a date for a playlist that Redact can trust, so there's nothing for a start or end date to test against. Rather than guess and delete a list that might fall outside your window, Redact leaves playlist selection entirely to you.
No, a premium plan is required no matter how old the playlist is. YouTube's free tier here covers a month of comments and history, measured by date, and a playlist has no date to measure.
More YouTube features
Clear Out Your Watch Later Queue
Empty a queue that's hundreds deep in one run, or clear only part of it by matching words in the video titles.
Delete Your Liked Videos
Un-like your whole liked videos list in one run, or aim it at a topic with a title keyword.
Delete All Your YouTube Comments
Clear your whole comment history, or aim at it with a date range, the words in the comment, or the video it sits under.
Delete Your YouTube Watch History
Clear the record of everything you've played, all of it, a date window, or every video whose title matches a word.
Delete Your YouTube Search History
Wipe every phrase you've typed into the YouTube search box, or just the ones from a period you name.
Mass Unsubscribe From Channels
Reset a subscription list built over years in one run, instead of unsubscribing channel by channel.
Delete Your Uploaded Videos
Pick old uploads out of your channel's own list and delete them in bulk. Permanent, so preview it first.