YouTube's Watch Later limit, and what to do about it
Watch Later holds 5,000 videos. YouTube doesn't mention the limit in its help pages, and nothing warns you when you reach it: new videos just stop going in.
What happens at 5,000
Every YouTube playlist stops at 5,000 videos, and Watch Later is a playlist. Once it's full, saving another video to it doesn't work, and the first you'll know is a video that never shows up.
To check, open You → Watch later. The number of videos shows under the playlist's title.
Make room
- Clear what you've watched. In Watch Later, open the menu and choose Remove watched videos.
- Remove one at a time. Open the menu beside a video and choose Remove from Watch later.
- Move the keepers. Videos you mean to come back to belong in a playlist of their own, which leaves Watch Later for this week's viewing.
Back it up before you clear it
Google Takeout exports your playlists and your liked videos, but it leaves Watch Later out, and YouTube has no button to copy Watch Later anywhere else. So before you clear it:
Move the keepers by hand. For each video worth keeping, open its menu, choose Save, and pick a playlist of your own.
Request your data at takeout.google.com, choosing YouTube. Google says the archive takes from a few minutes to a few days, and emails you a link.
What you get is a spreadsheet of video links for each playlist. It's a record of what was there, not something you can browse.
Keep the videos worth keeping
YouTube doesn't let other apps read your Watch Later, so no app can bring it in for you, Findy included. What Findy can do is keep the videos you care about. Connect YouTube once, and every video you like arrives in Findy on its own, with its title, channel, description and a copy of the thumbnail. Or save any video in a click with the Findy extension.
Then you can find one by describing it, "the bread-baking one", "that talk about sleep", instead of scrolling 5,000 thumbnails.
Quick answers
How many videos can Watch Later hold?
5,000, the same as any YouTube playlist.
Does Google Takeout include Watch Later?
No. Save the videos you want to keep into a playlist of your own first; playlists are included.
What happens when Watch Later is full?
New videos stop being added. Nothing tells you, so check the count now and then.
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