This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.
Settings reference
Every setting CleanWatch ships, as of v1.21.0 — grouped exactly as the settings page groups them.
This page is generated from the extension source by scripts/build-wiki-settings.js and rewritten on each release. Editing it by hand will not survive. The Help page inside the extension is the same reference, translated; this one exists so it is readable without installing anything.
Key is the name used in exported settings JSON, so you can edit a value directly in a backup file.
Sets the video speed on each new video. "Remember last used" reapplies the last speed you picked; a fixed value always uses that speed. It only applies on a fresh video, so changing speed mid-video still works. Choices: Normal (off) · Remember last used · 0.5× · 0.75× · 1.25× · 1.5× · 1.75× · 2×
Fail over stalled video servers
mediaStallGuard
On
YouTube gives the player a backup video server but waits about 5 seconds before switching to it. When a server goes silent — usually a broken connection somewhere between you and it, not the server itself — that wait is paid again on every chunk of video. This drops the dead request early so playback moves to the working server straight away. A server that stalls twice is skipped instantly for the next minute, then given one more chance.
Stall timeout (ms)
mediaStallTimeoutMs
2000 (500–10000)
How long a video server gets to send its first response before the request is abandoned. A working server answers in well under a tenth of a second, so the default of 2000 ms only ever fires on a genuinely dead connection. Raise it if you are on a very slow or high-latency link. Only applies when Fail over stalled video servers is on.
Hide live chat
hideLiveChat
On
Hide mini-player button
hideMiniPlayerButton
On
Hide next/prev buttons
hidePlayNextButton
On
Hide end screen cards
hideEndCards
Off
Related videos
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide related videos
hideRelatedVideos
On
Hide related categories
hideRelatedCategories
Off
Hide watched from related
hideRelatedWatched
Off
Hide playlists from related
hideRelatedPlaylists
Off
Hide Shorts from related
hideRelatedShorts
Off
Video buttons
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide Thanks button
hideThanksButton
On
Hide Clip button
hideClipButton
On
Hide Sponsor button
hideSponsorButton
On
Auto-like & watched
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Auto-like at watched threshold
autoLikeWatchedVideos
Off
Hide watched videos (%)
hideWatchedThreshold
95
Auto-like toast (seconds)
autoLikeToastDurationSeconds
4 (1–10)
Only applies when Auto-like at watched threshold is on.
Captions
Auto-enable YouTube captions on every video and, optionally, override their appearance.
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Auto-enable subtitles
autoEnableCaptions
Off
Turns on YouTube’s captions automatically when a video loads, if a caption track is available. Does not fight you if you turn them off manually on a video.
Custom subtitle styling
customCaptionStyling
Off
Override YouTube’s built-in caption appearance with the settings below. Leave off to keep YouTube’s own caption styling.
Subtitle size (%)
captionFontSize
100% (default)
Picks a caption size from 50% up to 165% of YouTube’s current size. Values above 165% were removed because captions would overflow the video. Choices: 50% (smaller) · 75% · 100% (default) · 125% · 150% · 165% (largest) Only applies when Custom subtitle styling is on.
Subtitle font
captionFontFamily
YouTube default
Choices: YouTube default · Sans-serif · Serif · Monospace · Casual / rounded Only applies when Custom subtitle styling is on.
Subtitle text color
captionTextColor
YouTube default
Choices: YouTube default · White · Yellow · Green · Cyan · Red · Black Only applies when Custom subtitle styling is on.
Subtitle background
captionBackgroundColor
YouTube default
Choices: YouTube default · Black · White · Blue · Transparent Only applies when Custom subtitle styling is on.
Background opacity (%)
captionBackgroundOpacity
75 (0–100)
How solid the caption background is. 0 is fully transparent, 100 is fully opaque. Only applies when Custom subtitle styling is on.
Audio
Preferred audio selection and multi-audio handling.
Audio track
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Force preferred audio
forceAudioTrack
On
Preferred language
preferredAudioLanguage
English
Choices: English · Dutch · German · French · Spanish · Italian · Portuguese · Japanese · Korean · Chinese Only applies when Force preferred audio is on.
Block multi-audio menu
blockMultiAudio
On
Only applies when Force preferred audio is on.
Aggressive audio control
aggressiveAudioControl
On
Only applies when Force preferred audio is on.
Home & Feeds
Homepage, subscriptions feed, and feed filtering.
Homepage
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Redirect homepage to
redirectHomepage
Disabled
Choices: Disabled · Watch Later · Subscriptions · Library
Hide homepage button
hideHomepageButton
Off
Hide all suggestions
hideAllSuggestions
Off
Show only one row
hideAllButOneRow
Off
Hide infinite scroll
hideInfiniteScroll
Off
Hide filter bar
hideFilterBar
On
Hide "Explore more topics"
hideTopicChipsShelf
On
Hides the "Explore more topics" chip shelf that YouTube injects into the home feed. Your videos stay; only that algorithmic topic row is removed.
Hide Playables (mini-games)
hidePlayablesShelf
On
Hides the "YouTube Playables" shelf — the row of browser mini-games YouTube injects into the feed. On by default. The /playables page itself still works if you go there yourself.
Subscriptions
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide Most relevant shelf
hideSubscriptionsMostRelevant
Off
Feed filtering
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Minimum view count
minimumViewCount
0 (0–100000000)
Hides videos with fewer views than this number. Set to 0 to disable.
Hide Members first videos
hideMembersFirstContent
Off
Hides feed items carrying the "Members first" badge, unless the channel is in your Trusted channels list (Dashboard → Trusted channels).
Hide Members only videos
hideMembersOnlyContent
Off
Hides feed items carrying the "Members only" badge — videos that never become public — unless the channel is in your Trusted channels list (Dashboard → Trusted channels).
Maximum video age
maximumVideoAgeYears
No limit
Hides videos older than the selected age in the home feed, subscriptions, and related videos. Search results are never filtered. YouTube only reports age roughly ("5 years ago"), so the cut-off is approximate. Choices: No limit · 1 year · 2 years · 3 years · 5 years · 10 years
Hide Live & Premiere videos (all feeds)
hideSubscriptionsLive
Off
Hide Upcoming videos (all feeds)
hideSubscriptionsUpcoming
Off
Shorts
Shorts removal and redirection behavior.
Shorts
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide Shorts everywhere
hideShorts
On
Redirect Shorts to player
redirectShortsPlayer
On
Search & Navigation
Search results, the left sidebar, and layout fixes.
Search results
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide search bar
hideSearchButton
Off
Hide search suggestions
hideSearchSuggestions
Off
Hides the autocomplete dropdown that appears while typing in the search bar.
Clean search results
cleanSearchResults
On
Hide channel results
hideSearchChannels
Off
Hide playlist results
hideSearchPlaylists
Off
Hide Shorts results
hideSearchShorts
Off
Hides Shorts from search results independently of the global Shorts setting.
Show duration filter
showSearchDurationFilter
Off
Adds a duration range control above the search results, so you can ask for videos between two lengths. More precise than YouTube's own filter, which only offers under 4 minutes, 4-20 minutes, or over 20 minutes.
Left sidebar
Low-frequency cleanup for the left navigation rail.
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide Explore section
hideSidebarExploreSection
Off
Hide History
hideSidebarHistory
Off
Hide Playlists
hideSidebarPlaylists
Off
Hide Your videos
hideSidebarYourVideos
Off
Hide Your courses
hideSidebarYourCourses
Off
Hide Watch Later
hideSidebarWatchLater
Off
Hide Liked videos
hideSidebarLikedVideos
Off
Hide Downloads
hideSidebarDownloads
Off
Hide More from YouTube
hideSidebarMoreFromYouTube
Off
Hide footer
hideSidebarFooter
Off
Layout
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Fix first-column layout
removeFirstColumnClass
On
Comments & Chat
Hide comments, or filter scam and spam in comments and live chat.
Comments
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide comments
hideComments
Off
Scam & spam filtering
Hide scam, spam and unwanted comments using a built-in phrase pack or your own keywords. Everything runs locally.
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Filter scam & spam comments
filterComments
Off
Hides comments whose text or author matches the filters below. Local only — nothing is sent anywhere.
Use built-in scam phrase pack
commentScamPreset
On
Hides comments matching a built-in list of common giveaway, crypto and impersonation scam phrases. Only applies when Filter scam & spam comments is on.
Also apply my keyword blocklist
commentFilterUseKeywords
Off
Also hides comments that match the keyword blocklist you manage in the Dashboard. Only applies when Filter scam & spam comments is on.
Filter live chat too
filterLiveChat
Off
Applies the same comment filters to live-stream chat messages. Only applies when Filter scam & spam comments is on.
Appearance
Thumbnails, card details, counts, and readability.
Thumbnails
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Grayscale thumbnails
grayscaleThumbnails
Off
Color on hover
grayscaleHoverReveal
On
Only applies when Grayscale thumbnails is on.
Grayscale intensity (%)
thumbnailGrayscaleIntensity
100 (10–100)
Strength of the grayscale effect (10–100%). 100 is fully grayscale. Only applies when Grayscale thumbnails is on.
Thumbnail blur (px)
thumbnailBlur
0 (0–20)
Blurs thumbnails to reduce their visual pull. Value in pixels (0 = off).
Thumbnail transparency (%)
thumbnailTransparency
0 (0–80)
Makes thumbnails semi-transparent to reduce visual pull. Value in percent (0 = off, 80 = mostly transparent).
Hide thumbnail previews
hideThumbnailPreview
Off
Card details
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Lowercase titles
lowercaseTitles
Off
Converts video titles to lowercase on cards, neutralising ALL CAPS clickbait.
Hide published time
hidePublishedTime
Off
Removes the "2 years ago" recency label from video cards to reduce FOMO.
Hide video duration
hideVideoDuration
Off
Hide watched progress bar
hideWatchedProgressBar
Off
Counts
Hide view and like counts to reduce popularity bias.
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide view counts
hideHomepageCounts
Off
Hide view counts (all pages)
hideViewCounts
Off
Hides view counts on every page — all feeds and the watch page — to reduce popularity bias. The home-only toggle above is a narrower version.
Hide like count
hideLikeCounts
Off
Hides the like-count number shown under the video on the watch page.
Readability & motion
Readability and motion-sensitivity options. All local and CSS-based.
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Reduce motion
reduceMotion
Off
Minimises animations and transitions across YouTube, disables smooth scrolling, and stops animated thumbnail previews and the pulsing ambient glow behind the player.
Readable titles
readableTitles
Off
Makes video titles easier to read: heavier weight, a little more spacing, and a high-legibility font where available.
Focus & Wellbeing
Time limits, wind-down, and distraction nudges.
Time limits
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Daily limit (minutes)
dailyTimeLimit
0 (0–1440)
Wind-down mode
windDownEnabled
Off
As you near your daily limit, the page gradually fades to grayscale and dims — a gentle cue to wrap up before the hard stop. Requires a daily limit to be set.
Wind-down start (% of limit)
windDownStartPercent
80 (10–95)
How far into your daily limit the fade begins. 80 means the last 20% of your limit; lower values start the wind-down earlier. Only applies when Wind-down mode is on.
Break reminder (minutes)
breakReminderInterval
0 (0–480)
Distractions
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Hide notification badge
hideNotificationCount
Off
Data & Sync
Sync behavior, backup, and popup customization.
Backup & transfer
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Sync keyword blocklist
syncKeywordBlocklist
Off
When enabled, your keyword blocklist is included in the encrypted server sync payload and shared across all devices in the group.
Updates
Setting
Key
Default
Notes
Show update notifications
showUpdateNotifications
On
Warn when filters stop matching
showFilterHealthWarnings
On
CleanWatch works by matching YouTube's own page markup. When YouTube renames part of it, the filter built on that name quietly stops doing anything — there is no error to notice. This checks in the background as you browse and, once something has failed to match across several page views, shows a heads-up in the popup with the details on the Dashboard. Everything is checked and stored on your device; nothing is sent anywhere.
SponsorBlock
SponsorBlock is a crowdsourced database of in-video segments — sponsors, intros, self-promotion, reminders and more, with timestamps submitted and voted on by thousands of volunteers. CleanWatch uses it to automatically skip, mute, or mark those segments as you watch.