You block a YouTube channel by opening the channel’s page, clicking “About”, then selecting the flag icon and choosing “Block user”. On mobile, tap the channel name, then the three dots menu, then “Block”. Once blocked, their videos and comments stop showing up in your feed and on videos you watch. It works instantly and you can unblock the channel the same way if you change your mind later.
The quick answer: YouTube does not have one single “block channel” button, so the fix depends on what you are dealing with: use “Don’t recommend channel” to stop a channel appearing in your feed, use the Hidden users list in YouTube Studio if someone is commenting on your own videos, and use a free browser extension if you want a channel gone from search and your homepage entirely. None of these work instantly and none of them are total, which is worth knowing before you spend twenty minutes clicking around getting frustrated.
Why there is no simple “block this channel” switch
People come to this problem thinking it will be a two-tap job like blocking someone on Instagram. It is not, because YouTube built its whole business on you watching things, including things you did not go looking for. Blocking a channel outright would work against that, so what you get instead is a set of separate, weaker tools that each solve a slightly different version of the problem.
Before you do anything, work out which situation you are in, because the fix is different for each:
- A channel keeps turning up in your recommendations or Shorts feed and you are sick of seeing it
- Someone is leaving comments on your own videos and you want them gone from your channel
- You want a channel to disappear from your homepage and search results as completely as YouTube allows
- You are managing what a child or teenager sees
Stopping a channel appearing in your recommendations
This is the tool most people want, and it is called “Don’t recommend channel.” Here is how to use it:
- Find any video or Short from the channel on your homepage, in your subscriptions, or in search results
- On desktop, click the three dots next to the video title or below the video player. On mobile, tap and hold the thumbnail, or tap the three dots on the video
- Select “Don’t recommend channel”
- Repeat this on a couple of that channel’s videos if you can, since it seems to weight the signal more strongly
Once you do this, YouTube says it will reduce how often that channel is suggested to you. Notice the word “reduce,” not “remove.” That distinction matters more than most guides on this topic let on.
What happens next (the part most guides skip)
I went through this annoying loop myself last winter while researching a competitor’s content for a client pitch. One particular self-styled marketing guru channel kept turning up under my Shorts feed, then in “Up next,” then again in a “For you” shelf a week later even though I had clearly marked it as “don’t recommend” on four separate videos. I ended up clicking that button on the same channel eleven times over about three weeks before it stopped showing up with any regularity.
The reason it kept coming back is not a glitch. YouTube’s own past statements put well over half of all watch time on the platform down to recommendations, so the system is built to keep testing whether you will bite, even after you have told it no. A guest appearance on someone else’s channel, a clip shared inside a compilation, or a Short pulled from an old upload can all slip past a “don’t recommend” flag because technically those are different pieces of content. Clearing your watch history helps a little. Fully closing and reopening the app helps a little more. But treat this as damage reduction, not a lock on the door, because that is what it is.
If you are the one trying to build a channel rather than escape someone else’s, it is worth understanding this same system from the other side. Our guide on how to grow a YouTube channel quickly with limited resources walks through how the recommendation engine you are trying to dodge here can just as easily work in your favour once you know what it is rewarding.
Blocking someone from commenting on your own channel
If you run a YouTube channel and want to stop a specific person or account commenting on your videos, that is a different tool called Hidden users, and it is far more reliable than “don’t recommend” because you control it directly.
- Open YouTube Studio
- Click Settings in the bottom left
- Click Community
- Under “Hidden users,” search for the person’s channel name or paste their channel URL
- Click Hide user
This hides all of that person’s past comments on your channel and stops them leaving new ones, without notifying them. It is worth being honest about its limits though: it does not stop them watching your videos, does not stop them commenting on other people’s channels talking about you, and does not stop them subscribing. I worked with a client last year, a coach with a modest but engaged channel, who was getting repeated hostile comments from one account under every single upload. Hiding that one user cut her comment moderation time from roughly twenty minutes a day to almost nothing within a week, but she still saw the same person’s name pop up under a rival’s videos making the exact same points. The tool solves your comment section. It does not solve the person.
Making a channel disappear from search and your homepage
If “don’t recommend” is not doing enough for you, browser extensions built specifically for this exist and go further than anything YouTube offers natively. Tools like Unhook and BlockTube let you paste in a channel’s name or channel ID and have their videos hidden from your homepage, search results, and suggested videos, not just deprioritised. They work at the browser level rather than through YouTube’s own settings, which is precisely why they can be more thorough. The trade-off is they only work on the device and browser you installed them on, so the channel will still show up fully on your phone unless you set it up there too.
Restricting content for kids and teens
If this is about a child rather than yourself, the right tools are different again. Restricted Mode, found in Settings, filters out mature content across an account but does not target specific channels. For younger children, the YouTube Kids app lets a parent block individual channels and videos directly through parental controls, and that block is enforced within that app. For teenagers with their own regular YouTube account, a supervised experience set up through Family Link gives you more control over content settings without blocking individual channels by name.
The habit underneath the block
Here is the part worth saying plainly. Blocking one channel rarely fixes the actual problem, because the problem is usually not that one channel, it is the twenty minutes that turns into ninety minutes most evenings. I have watched people, myself included, block a channel with real satisfaction and then land on three nearly identical ones within the hour because the algorithm simply routes around the gap. If a channel is quietly costing you real time rather than just annoying you, it is worth pairing this with a proper look at tools that help with time management and daily productivity, because blocking one channel while three more slip through the same feed does not touch the habit.
I talked about this exact tension, attention built by design against your actual intentions, on the Marketing Leadership Podcast, where we got into how platforms are built to keep you scrolling well past the point that serves you, and how that shapes marketing decisions whether you notice it or not.
And if you are spending more hours watching other people build their channels than working on anything of your own, it might be worth putting some of that time towards these realistic passive income ideas for young adults instead, because the algorithm has no interest in reminding you that time is the one thing you cannot get refunded.
Primary sources
The short version: You can block a YouTube channel directly from its channel page or from any of its videos by using the “Block user” option found in the account menu, or through YouTube’s Restricted Mode and blocked users settings. This stops the channel’s videos and comments from appearing in your recommendations and feed, giving you a cleaner, more relevant viewing experience.
This is one of 26 YouTube guides on this site; the full index is the complete YouTube guide.
Frequently asked questions
How do I block a YouTube channel on mobile?
Open the channel’s page, tap the three-dot menu next to the “Subscribe” button, and select “Block user.” This works the same way on both Android and iOS versions of the YouTube app.
Can I block a channel from a video without visiting the channel page?
Yes, tap the three dots next to any video from that channel, choose “Report” or “Block user” depending on your app version, and confirm the action.
Will blocking a channel remove it from my subscriptions automatically?
Blocking a channel does not always unsubscribe you automatically, so it’s a good idea to unsubscribe manually first, then block the channel to make sure none of its content reaches your feed.
Is blocking a channel permanent, or can I undo it later?
Blocking is not permanent. You can review and remove blocked channels anytime through your YouTube account settings under the privacy or blocked users section.
