How to delete a YouTube playlist — and why there is no undo
Open the playlist, use its More menu, choose Delete playlist, confirm. It takes seconds and YouTube documents no way to get it back, so the interesting part is what to do instead.
Open the playlist, click More, select Delete playlist, then confirm with Delete. That is the whole job on a computer.
The part worth reading is what happens next: YouTube's help pages describe no way to restore a deleted playlist. There is no recovery page and no restore window. Treat delete as permanent.
Where the button is on each platform
| Where | Path |
|---|---|
| Computer | Go to one of your playlists → More → Delete playlist → Delete |
| iPhone & iPad | Tap your profile picture → tap the playlist under "Playlists" → Delete → DELETE |
| Android | Tap your profile picture → tap the playlist under "Playlists" → More on the playlist → Delete playlist → DELETE |
The two mobile apps differ by one tap, which is why instructions written for one often do not match what is on your screen.
If you are a creator, the Studio app has its own route
In the YouTube Studio app for Android: Content from the bottom menu → the Playlists tab → Options next to the playlist → Edit → Delete → Delete.
YouTube's Studio playlist article for computers covers creating, editing, filtering and reordering playlists, but does not document a delete step. Use the ordinary YouTube path above instead.
There is no undo
This is the honest answer and it is worth saying plainly: YouTube's help centre documents creating, editing, reordering, saving and deleting playlists. It documents nothing about recovering one. Unlike some services, there is no restore page sitting in your account settings.
So if a playlist represents real work, copy the video links somewhere before you delete it. Once the confirmation dialog closes, the help centre offers you nothing.
Deleting is not the same as removing
Three different things get called "deleting a playlist", and only one of them is the delete button.
A playlist you saved from someone else. You did not create it, so you cannot delete it. Go to the playlist, and in the playlist box click Remove. That takes it out of your library. The creator's original is untouched.
Watch later. YouTube documents adding and removing individual videos: in the Guide click You, then under "Watch Later" click More below a video and choose Remove from Watch later. The help pages do not document deleting the Watch later playlist itself.
Your own playlist. That is the one with a real Delete playlist option.
Work out which one you have before hunting for a button that is not there.
What deleting does and does not touch
Two things YouTube states directly:
- Your old playlist may continue to exist in viewers' watch histories. Deleting it does not reach backwards into other people's accounts.
- After deletion, the playlist URL and title are no longer visible or searchable in YouTube Analytics. Data associated with it, such as watch time, stays in broader reports but is no longer attributed to the deleted playlist.
So deletion is a clean break for you and a partial one for everyone else. If the goal was to make a public playlist stop being findable, deleting achieves that for search; it does not scrub history.
The softer option: make it private instead
If you want a playlist out of sight rather than out of existence, change its privacy setting. You can do that in YouTube Studio: Content → Playlists → Details on the playlist → Visibility → pick the setting → Save. Or on YouTube itself: the You tab → Playlists → View full playlist → pick the setting from the drop-down below the title.
What the settings actually do:
| Unlisted | Private | Public | |
|---|---|---|---|
| URL can be shared | Yes | No | Yes |
| Shows in search, related and recommendations | No | No | Yes |
| Posted on your channel | No | No | Yes |
| Shows in subscriber feed | No | No | Yes |
Private removes it from everyone else's view while you keep it. Given there is no undo on delete, private is the safer move when you are not certain.
The short version
- Delete: the playlist's own More menu → Delete playlist → confirm. Same idea in all three clients, slightly different taps.
- Recovery: not documented anywhere by YouTube. Assume permanent.
- Someone else's playlist: Remove from your library, not delete.
- Watch later: remove videos from it; deleting the playlist itself is not documented.
- Second thoughts: set it to Private instead — same effect for viewers, reversible for you.
Menu paths, the watch-history and Analytics notes, the save-and-remove behaviour for other people's playlists, the Watch later steps and the privacy table all come from YouTube's own help pages on creating and managing playlists, saving playlists, Watch later, playlist privacy and managing playlists in YouTube Studio, checked on the date at the top of this page. YouTube moves menu items around, so if a step does not match your screen, the button has usually just moved.