YouTube Watch Later: Instructions For PC And Mobile Users

Dhir Acharya


YouTube Watch Later is a feature that lets you save videos to watch at another time. How do you use this feature? This post will give you a complete guide.

YouTube is the world’s most popular video-sharing platform launched in 2005 where users can watch all types of videos for free. Here, you can find videos across various categories such as education, music, films, science, and more. Over the past 15 years, the platform has adjusted and offered new features to help enhance the user experience for everyone. These include the YouTube watch later feature that allows you to save videos that you don’t have time to watch right away or want to watch again sometime.

YouTube watch later

How to watch later on YouTube on PC

Essentially, the feature lets you save videos in a playlist that you can open at another time and watch. This special list is put in the Library tab. So, if you find this feature useful for you, you should go through this post and find out YouTube how to add to watch later.

It’s very easy and simple, all you have to do is hovering over a video thumbnail, by which you will see a clock icon in the top-right corner of the thumbnail. Click on the icon and the video will be added to the Watch Later list immediately.

YouTube watch later

To view the YouTube watch later playlist, you need to click on the three-dash icon in the top-left corner of the screen. Then, scroll down until you see Library and click on it. Here, you will first see a list of all the videos you’ve recently watched. Below that is the watch later list with the videos you previously saved, click on View All and they will all appear. Now, just click on a video you want to watch and enjoy.

There’s a faster way to access the watch later list. After clicking on the three-dash icon, you will see the Library tab, but under that, you will also see the Watch Later tab. By clicking on this tab, you will be taken directly to the watch later list.

You can rearrange the videos on your YouTube watch later list by clicking on Sort. This feature allows for arranging the videos by the date they are added (newest or oldest), most popular, and the date they are published (newest or oldest).

How to use YouTube watch later on mobile

You can also use this feature on your mobile devices such as an Android phone, an iPhone, or an iPad. When you see a video and decide to watch it at another time, tap on the three-dot icon under the video, next to its title. After that, you will see a short menu with the “Save to Watch Later” option. Tap on this option and the video will be saved in your Watch Later list.

YouTube watch later

If you have already opened the video, you will see the Save button under the title of the video, tap on it. Next, select to save the video to Watch Later by ticking on the empty square next to this option and tap on Done.

How to delete all watch later on YouTube

For those using Android phones and iPhones, the YouTube app offers an option to delete all the videos saved in the Watch Later tab. Here’s what you need to do.

  1. On the interface of the app, tap on Library in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
  2. Tap on Watch Later.
  3. Once you’re in the Watch Later folder, tap on the three-dot icon in the top-right corner.
  4. Tap on Removed Watched Videos then click on Remove to confirm the choice.

After these four easy steps, you will clear watch later on YouTube. If there are some videos left in the folder, it’s because you haven’t even opened them at all.

YouTube watch later

YouTube watch later button gone

Last year, between May and October, many users found that the Watch Later button is gone, making it impossible for them to save from YouTube to watch at another time. The issue was reported on social media including Twitter and Reddit.

Users said that they tried different tricks but still failed. One of them said he tried logging out and in again and deleted some videos to make space but the issue was still there.

YouTube watch later

Meanwhile, others thought YouTube might have removed the feature permanently, but this was not the case. At the time, Google confirmed the issue existed and assured to fix the problem. The YouTube team posted on Reddit that they did not remove the button but it was a technical issue instead.

The team had another post recommending a workaround for users. They said users could click on the menu icon to the right of the video and add it to Watch Later. “If you’re not seeing video previews, you can go to ‘watch’ instead of preview,” a team member said.

Acknowledging the problem, YouTube investigated and found that this wasn’t on the consumer side but it was troubling content creators. It resulted from the Analytics feature that gives content creators details about the performance, demographic reports, traffic, and more about their channels. By that time, the revenue update had been delayed for 3 days. Later, Google found that a bug caused these problems and had since fixed everything.

As of the time this post is written, the Watch Later button works normally and you can use it just like we instructed in the previous section.

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