How to download your YouTube watch history

~10 minutes (mostly waiting on Google)

Google Takeout is the only way to get your full YouTube history. It takes about 10 minutes — most of it just waiting for Google to email you the file. Follow the steps below, then come back and upload the file to see how much time you wasted on YouTube.

Open Google Takeout →Skip — I already have my file

Step 1 of 119%

Go to takeout.google.com and sign in with the Google account whose YouTube history you want.

Tip: use the Open Google Takeout button above — it pre-selects YouTube for you and saves a few clicks.
On the destination page:
- Transfer to: Send download link via email
- Frequency: Export once
- File type & size: .zip, up to 2 GB
Then click Create export.
Open the .zip. Inside, navigate to:
```
Takeout/YouTube and YouTube Music/history/watch-history.json
```
That single file is what WoYT needs.

1. Open Google Takeout

Go to takeout.google.com and sign in with the Google account whose YouTube history you want.

Tip: use the Open Google Takeout button above — it pre-selects YouTube for you and saves a few clicks.

2. Click "Deselect all"

Near the top of the list of products, click Deselect all. This is the trick — otherwise Google exports everything (Gmail, Drive, Photos…) and the file is huge and takes hours.

3. Scroll down and check "YouTube and YouTube Music"

Find YouTube and YouTube Music in the product list and check the box to its right.

4. Click "All YouTube data included" → keep only "history"

Click the All YouTube data included button. In the popup, click Deselect all, then check only history and confirm with OK. (You don't need comments, subscriptions, playlists, etc. — just the watch history.)

5. Click "Multiple formats" → choose JSON for "history"

Click the Multiple formats button. For the history entry, change the format from HTML to JSON. (JSON is smaller and faster for WoYT to process. HTML works too if you already exported.) Close the popup.

6. Scroll down and click "Next step"

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Takeout page and click the Next step button.

7. Send via email, .zip, 2 GB, Create export

On the destination page:

Transfer to: Send download link via email
Frequency: Export once
File type & size: .zip, up to 2 GB

Then click Create export.

8. Wait for the email

Google will email you a download link when the export is ready. They say minutes to hours; for a normal account it usually arrives in 5–15 minutes. Heavy users with millions of watches may wait longer.

You can leave this tab open — we'll be here when you're back.

9. Download the .zip from the email

Open the email titled "Your Google data is ready to download". Click Download your files, sign in again if asked, and save the .zip to your computer.

10. Unzip and find the history file

Open the .zip. Inside, navigate to:

Takeout/YouTube and YouTube Music/history/watch-history.json

That single file is what WoYT needs.

11. Drag the file into WoYT

Come back here and drag watch-history.json into the uploader (or use the file picker). In a few seconds you'll see your total hours wasted on YouTube. 🎉

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