How to block YouTube Shorts on iPhone

Updated 23 September 2026 · 4 minute read

The short answer: the YouTube app has no setting that removes Shorts. You can hide the Shorts shelf on the Home tab for 30 days at a time, and that's it. To get rid of the Shorts tab and stop Shorts turning up in search and subscriptions, you need to either use YouTube in a browser with a blocker, or use an app that opens YouTube with Shorts stripped out. Details for each below.

1. The 30-day hide

On the Home tab, tap the three dots on the Shorts shelf and choose "Not interested" or the "Show fewer" option. YouTube hides the shelf for 30 days, then it comes back. The Shorts tab in the bottom bar stays, Shorts still appear in search results, and the app keeps opening on the Home feed. Better than nothing, but it doesn't change the shape of the app.

2. Turn off watch history

Settings → Manage all history → turn off watch history. With no history, YouTube can't personalise the Home feed and shows a mostly empty page, which removes a lot of the pull. Shorts are still one tap away, and search still works normally. Some people find this enough. It also means no "continue watching".

3. YouTube in Safari with a content blocker

m.youtube.com in Safari works well, and a Safari content blocker can hide the Shorts shelf and tab by selector (ytm-reel-shelf-renderer and the pivot bar item). YouTube's markup changes every few weeks, so the rules need upkeep, and the site nags you to open the app. The bigger problem is the same as with Instagram: the real app icon is still on your Home Screen.

4. An app that opens YouTube without Shorts

FeedOff opens the real m.youtube.com inside Apple's standard web view and hides the parts on your phone: the Shorts tab, every Shorts shelf and link, the Home recommendations, autoplay-next, and, optionally, related videos and comments. It opens on your Subscriptions feed instead of Home, so you see the channels you chose and nothing else. Search, watching any video, history and playlists all work because it's the real site. Video ads are blocked too.

The app can also shield the real YouTube app on a schedule using Screen Time, so the red icon opens a block screen pointing back to the calm version. FeedOff is free, with no subscription, no account and no tracking.

Which should you pick?

• Want a small nudge without changing anything: the 30-day hide, repeated monthly.
• Want the Home feed to go quiet: turn off watch history.
• Want YouTube to open on your subscriptions with no Shorts anywhere, and the real app blocked when you say so: FeedOff.