How To View All Your Netflix History

Just like video killed the radio star at the dawn of the 80s, streaming has become the downfall of linear TV, both network and cable. The reason? It’s simple: availability. People have gotten sick and tired of being fed whatever the TV serves them and have started customizing their schedules, instead.

Perhaps the only downside to this is, well, the absolutely hectic viewing experience. You can binge watch the entire series in a single day, or you can watch a bunch of different series and movies consecutively. In fact, there is so much content out there, that no one could really blame you for having forgotten what you watched hours ago.

Why Is Netflix History So Important?

Nowadays, we rely on the streaming services we use to tell us what might be an interesting watch for us based on our taste. This is essentially why Netflix keeps a list of all the things that you’ve watched. That way, their algorithm can recommend you content that’s most similar to other shows and movies you’ve watched.

If you also took time to rate every single thing you’ve seen, by giving it either thumbs up (like) or thumbs down (dislike), Netflix’s algorithm will be able to filter out the recommendations that you might not like and only serve those you are most likely to end up enjoying.

How to Find Your Netflix Viewing History

See, like everything else, Netflix has made this very simple. All you need to do is go to Netflix.com, log in to your account, and enter your account page by hovering the cursor over your profile name. Once you’ve selected the Your Account option from the drop-down menu, continue scrolling until you’ve reached the bottom of the Your Account page. Now, select Viewing Activity, and there you have it.

This list shows you the titles of the shows/movies that you’ve watched, as well as the dates you’ve watched them on. There’s also a ‘Report a problem’ button, as well as the ‘so-called ‘no symbol’ (Ø) for list item removal.

How to Delete Your Viewing History

Netflix pretty much works on a basic principle of recommending you new stuff to watch, based on what you’ve watched earlier. Why would you bother deleting your Netflix viewing history? Well, primarily, because you don’t want your recommendations to be influenced by the shows you’ve given up on after a few episodes. Additionally, the shows that you haven’t removed will keep popping up in your Continue Watching slider. In order to filter through the things that you’ve liked and the things that aren’t to your taste, just click the ‘Ø’ symbol next to a title in your Viewing Activity to also delete it from your Continue Watching/Recently Watched rows.

When it comes to TV shows, which is the majority of Netflix content, every episode will be listed individually. To remove the entire TV series from your Netflix viewing history, just click on the ‘Ø’ symbol as explained above, and a new prompt – ‘Remove series?’ – will appear. If you want to remove the entire show, click the new prompt.

Deleting Your Profile

Now, why would you want to delete your Netflix profile? Well, because deleting your entire viewing history at once is impossible on Netflix. Say you are someone who starts watching a bunch of shows but never finishes any. Say you want to change that, and filter quality through your streaming experience, instead of mind-numbing quantity. You’ll want to start anew, and wasting hours on clicking a bunch of ‘Ø’ symbols is no way to do it.

Just log into your Netflix account, choose Manage Profiles, and click the pencil icon on your profile. Now click the Delete Profile button and confirm twice. Don’t worry, because making a new profile is as simple as clicking the Add Profile button. Now, you can start fresh – clear history, no clutter. Be careful not to create a mess out of your viewing history again, though. Also, bear in mind that you can only delete your secondary profiles, never your main one.

Checking Out Your Netflix Viewing History Pays Off

So, to sum it up, why go through all the trouble of the viewing history in the first place? Well, because Netflix recommendations are an awesome thing, because you’ll want to avoid the clutter of useless recommendations, and because you’ll want to boost your viewing experience.

Do you remove titles from your Netflix history? If so, do you do it because you don’t want them influencing your recommendations or, say because you don’t want others who share your account to see what you’ve watched? Tell us about it in the comments below.