“Don’t recommend channel” vs blocking a channel

What “Don’t recommend channel” does

You’ll find it in the ⋮ menu next to a video on Home or in Up next. YouTube’s help page lists it with “Not interested” as feedback it may use to tune your recommendations. In practice:

• Home and Up next show the channel less, often not at all for a while.
• Search is untouched. Look up the topic and the channel’s videos are right there.
• Subscriptions, links and comments are untouched too.
• Undo isn’t per channel. There’s no list of channels you’ve marked; you clear the feedback in your Google account’s activity, and it goes all at once. If a channel keeps coming back, see why “Don’t recommend” stops working.

The upside is that it’s tied to your account, so it applies in the YouTube app on your phone and TV as well.

Other buttons that sound like blocking

• Not interested works on one video. It leaves that feed and nudges what YouTube suggests next.
• Block user on a channel stops that person from commenting on your videos. It doesn’t hide anything they upload.
• Report is for rule-breaking content. It sends the video for review and changes nothing on your screen.
• Block channel for kids is a real block, but it exists only for supervised accounts, where a parent sets it from their linked account.

Side by side

When “Don’t recommend” is enough

If a channel bothers you only because Home keeps pushing it, and you mostly watch on your phone or TV, use YouTube’s option and move on. It costs nothing, follows your account everywhere, and there’s nothing to install.

When you need a real block

Feedback stops working the moment you go looking. Search for a topic and the channel you waved away is back near the top, often with a thumbnail designed to make you click. A block is the better tool when:

• a channel keeps showing up in search, not just on Home;
• you want its comments gone under other creators’ videos;
• a kid uses the computer and you want a list that stays put;
• you want to see and undo what you’ve blocked, one channel at a time.

With FeedCut it’s one press of Block channel on any video, channel page or comment. The channel blocking guide covers the details.

Questions

Updated November 6, 2026