YTLock
We’ve all been there. You open YouTube, ready to watch something good, and the first thing you see is a video from that one channel you can’t stand. Maybe it’s clickbait. Maybe it’s someone who just gets under your skin. Either way, you don’t want to see it. You hit “Not interested.” YouTube ignores you. The channel shows up again tomorrow.
That’s why I built YTLock.
What Is YTLock?
YTLock is a free Chrome extension that lets you block YouTube channels. Not “not interested” them. Not “don’t recommend” them. Actually block them. When you block a channel with YTLock, their videos vanish from your home feed, search results, recommendations, Shorts, sidebar, trending page, and subscriptions. Everywhere.
If you somehow end up on a blocked channel’s page directly, YTLock throws up a full screen message letting you know that channel is blocked. And if autoplay tries to queue up a video from a blocked channel? YTLock skips it automatically.
It Does More Than Block Channels
A few other things YTLock can do that you might care about:
Block every Short from every creator. One toggle. That’s it. If you’re tired of the endless scroll of 60 second videos taking over your feed, just flip the switch and they’re gone.
Turn off live chat. Some of us find live chat on YouTube videos distracting (or worse). YTLock can hide it across the board so you get that sidebar space back.
Import and export your blocklist. Moving to a new computer? Want to share your blocklist with a friend? Export it as a file and import it wherever you need it.
Sync across devices. If you’re signed into Chrome, your blocklist follows you. Block a channel on your laptop and it’s blocked on your desktop too.
How to Block a Channel
There are a few ways to do it:
- Click the YTLock icon in your browser toolbar and type in a channel name, @handle, or YouTube URL.
- Right click any channel link on YouTube and select the block option from the menu.
- Open the full YTLock dashboard (there’s a link in the popup) to manage everything in one place.
Unblocking is just as easy. Open the dashboard, find the channel, and hit unblock.
YTLock Doesn’t Collect Your Data
This is the part where most apps would say “we take your privacy seriously” and then bury the tracking details in a 4,000 word privacy policy. I’m going to keep it simple instead.
YTLock collects nothing. Zero. No analytics, no tracking pixels, no cookies, no data sent to any server. Your blocklist lives in Chrome’s built in storage on your device. When it syncs between your computers, that’s Chrome handling it, not YTLock.
The extension is also open source. You can read every line of code yourself if you want to verify that.
Why Not Just Use YouTube’s Built In Tools?
YouTube does offer a “Don’t recommend channel” button. The problem is it barely works. It’s a suggestion, not a command. YouTube’s algorithm treats it as one signal among thousands, and it regularly decides it knows better than you do.
YTLock doesn’t negotiate with the algorithm. It simply removes the content from the page before you ever see it. No machine learning required. If a channel is on your blocklist, it’s gone.
Getting Started
Install YTLock from the Chrome Web Store and you’re up and running in seconds. There’s nothing to configure, no account to create, and no signup form to fill out. Just install it, start blocking channels, and enjoy a YouTube feed that actually shows you what you want to see.