YouTube doesn’t have a setting that turns Shorts off. To turn off YouTube Shorts on your iPhone, use Scroll Less: it blocks Shorts inside the real YouTube app, while regular videos, search and the channels you subscribe to keep working. YouTube’s own “Show fewer Shorts” option only trims how many show up on your Home feed.
You open YouTube to watch one video. One. How to fix the leaky faucet. A recipe. The recap of last night’s game. Ten minutes, tops.
Then a Short shows up on the home screen. It’s 30 seconds. What’s 30 seconds?
Forty minutes later you’re watching a stranger pressure-wash a driveway, the faucet is still dripping, and you’ve forgotten what you opened the app for. (If this has never happened to you, congratulations. You might be the only one.)
If that sounds familiar, good news: you don’t have to delete YouTube to make it stop.
Can you turn off YouTube Shorts in settings?
No. You can go looking for the switch as many times as you like, and it isn’t there. YouTube gives you ways to see fewer Shorts, but nothing that turns them off. Here’s what it does give you:
- Show fewer Shorts. On your Home feed, scroll to a grid of Shorts, tap More at the top of the grid, then tap Show fewer Shorts. It does exactly what it says: fewer, not none.
- Not interested and Don’t recommend channel. Tap More next to a video or Short you don’t want, then pick one of these. That tunes your recommendations. It doesn’t remove Shorts.
- Turn off watch history. YouTube’s help center says that if you don’t want video recommendations on Home, you can delete and turn off your watch history. That’s a big trade, and it’s still not an off switch for Shorts.
All three are about steering the algorithm. None of them closes the door. Which is why people keep typing “turn off YouTube Shorts” into search bars at 11 p.m.
Can you block YouTube Shorts on iPhone without deleting YouTube?
Yes. Scroll Less blocks YouTube Shorts on iPhone while you keep using the real YouTube app.
You open YouTube like you always do. If you tap a Short, whether it’s in the Shorts tab, on your Home feed or in search results, it’s blocked. Regular videos, search and the channels you subscribe to keep working, so the tutorial, the recipe and the game recap are all still right there.
So if you’ve been searching for a way to get YouTube without Shorts on iPhone, that’s the whole idea. The addictive part goes away. The useful part stays.
Why deleting YouTube (or leaning on Screen Time) usually doesn’t stick
Deleting YouTube is the nuclear option, and it has one big flaw: YouTube is actually useful. Tutorials. Lectures. The one video that explains your car’s dashboard light better than the manual does.
So you delete it. Two days later you need to fix something, you reinstall it, and you’re back in the Shorts feed by dinner. Delete, reinstall, repeat. (If you’ve run this loop, you’re in very large company.)
The problem was never YouTube. It was the endless vertical feed bolted onto it. Deleting the whole app to get rid of Shorts is like selling your car because the radio is too loud.
Screen Time is worth a quick mention, but think of it as a timer, not a wall. In the Settings app, under Screen Time and then Time Allowances, you can cap how long you get with categories of apps each day. That limits all of YouTube, not just Shorts, so you end up rationing the useful videos along with the doomscroll. And until the time runs out, Shorts are right there.
How to block YouTube Shorts on iPhone with Scroll Less
Here’s the setup, start to finish:
- Download Scroll Less from the App Store.
- Open it and follow the setup steps.
- Turn on Shorts blocking for YouTube.
- Go back to YouTube and use it like you always do.
That’s it. No second YouTube app to get used to, and nothing to delete.
From there, you watch your regular videos. You search for things. You check the channels you follow. And when you tap a Short (out of habit, it’s always out of habit), Scroll Less blocks it. You get stopped at the door instead of an hour deep.
This is the version of “turn off YouTube Shorts” that holds up. You’re not hiding YouTube from yourself. You’re removing the one part that eats your evening.
Best app to block YouTube Shorts on iPhone
If you’re comparing apps, here’s what I’d look for:
- It blocks Shorts inside the real YouTube app. Not a lookalike app, and not YouTube squeezed into a browser.
- It leaves the rest of YouTube alone: regular videos, search and your subscriptions.
- You don’t have to delete anything or log into a new YouTube app.
Scroll Less was built around exactly that. Whole-app blockers like Opal are built around blocking the apps you choose, so YouTube disappears entirely for a while. That’s great for deep work, but your tutorials go too.
Wondering how the Safari Shorts blockers stack up? Here’s the full rundown of the best app to block YouTube Shorts on iPhone.
If you’re weighing the rest of your options, there’s a full comparison in the best apps to block Reels and Shorts on iPhone, and there’s a closer look at an Opal alternative that only blocks Reels and Shorts.
Want a YouTube with nothing queued up at all?
Blocking Shorts kills the endless swipe. But the Home feed and the Related videos column are still full of very clickable thumbnails.
If you’d rather not see those either, open YouTube in Scroll Less’s built-in browser. There you can hide the Home feed, Related videos and even Subscriptions. You get a search bar and the video you came for. It’s an optional extra, and Shorts blocking in the real YouTube app works without it.
What about Instagram Reels?
Same problem, different app. Scroll Less handles Reels the same way it handles Shorts: you keep using the real Instagram app, full-screen Reels are blocked, and your DMs, Stories and Search keep working. Here’s the full guide on how to block Instagram Reels but keep DMs.
If autoplay is your main gripe, there’s a separate guide on how to turn off YouTube autoplay on iPhone. And if you want the bigger picture on blocking inside the real apps, here’s how to block Reels and Shorts inside the real Instagram and YouTube apps.
Frequently asked questions
Can you turn off YouTube Shorts?
YouTube doesn’t have a setting that turns Shorts off. On iPhone, Scroll Less blocks Shorts inside the real YouTube app, while regular videos, search and your subscribed channels keep working.
Does “Show fewer Shorts” remove Shorts from YouTube?
No. It lets you see fewer Shorts on your Home feed. It doesn’t turn Shorts off.
What’s the best app to block YouTube Shorts on iPhone?
Look for an app that blocks Shorts inside the real YouTube app instead of blocking all of YouTube. Scroll Less does that, so regular videos, search and the channels you subscribe to keep working.
Can I still watch regular YouTube videos if Shorts are blocked?
Yes. With Scroll Less, only Shorts are blocked, including Shorts you tap on your Home feed or in search results. Regular videos, search and the channels you subscribe to keep working in the YouTube app.
Does Scroll Less use an in-app browser?
No for Reels and Shorts: those are blocked inside the real Instagram and YouTube apps. The built-in browser is an optional extra for hiding things like Explore and the feed.
Keep YouTube. Lose the Shorts.
If Shorts is the reason you keep deleting YouTube, try the opposite: keep YouTube and delete Shorts.
Get Scroll Less on the App Store.
Then go watch the faucet video. Just the faucet video.