How to view all your YouTube comments: Where your digital history is hiding

How to view all your YouTube comments: Where your digital history is hiding

You probably forgot that comment you left on a Minecraft tutorial in 2012. Or that heated debate about whether a certain phone's camera was actually good. We all do it. We scream into the digital void, hit "comment," and move on. But Google doesn't forget. It keeps every single word. Finding them is surprisingly easy once you stop poking around the main YouTube settings menu and look in the right spot.

Learning how to view all your YouTube comments is basically like opening a time capsule you didn't know you were building. It’s a mix of nostalgia, cringing at your younger self, and realized how much time you've actually spent on the platform.

Most people think they have to scroll through every video they’ve ever watched. That's impossible. Instead, YouTube buries this data inside the Google My Activity dashboard. It’s not just a list; it’s a fully interactive log where you can delete old mistakes or just remind yourself what you were thinking five years ago.

The quick path to your comment history

Forget the complex menus. If you’re on a desktop, the fastest way is through the "History" tab on the left sidebar of the YouTube homepage. Once you’re there, look to the right. You’ll see a link for "Comments." Clicking that teleports you straight to the Google My Activity page specifically filtered for your YouTube interactions.

It's a bit jarring at first. You'll see the text of your comment, the date, and a thumbnail of the video. If the video was deleted or made private by the creator, your comment might still show up in the log, but the link won't take you anywhere. That’s a common frustration for people trying to clean up their digital footprint.

On mobile, it's slightly different. Open the app, tap your profile icon (now often labeled "You" at the bottom right), and hit the settings gear. From there, find "Manage all history." This opens an in-app browser window that leads to the same My Activity hub. You have to tap the "Interactions" tab. It’s tucked away. Most people miss it because they’re looking at their watch history instead.

Why bother looking back?

Honestly, privacy is the big one. We change. The person you were three years ago might have had some pretty loud opinions that don't represent you now. Digging through this history lets you scrub away the stuff that doesn't fit your current vibe. It’s also useful for finding old advice. Maybe you left a helpful comment on a DIY video and now you can't remember the exact measurements you used.

Sometimes, people just want to see if their comments are still there. Shadowbanning is a real thing, even if YouTube doesn't always like to talk about the specifics. If you can see your comment in your history but it doesn't show up when you open the video in an incognito window, the creator’s filters or YouTube’s automated systems might have hidden it.

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The Google My Activity factor

Everything you do on Google is connected. Your YouTube comments are stored alongside your search history and Maps data. This is why the "how to view all your YouTube comments" process feels like leaving the YouTube app. You're entering the core of your Google account data.

Inside this dashboard, you can search for specific keywords. Want to see every time you mentioned "Star Wars"? You can do that. You can also filter by date ranges. It's powerful, but it's also a reminder of how much data is being tracked.

Dealing with the "Comment Not Found" glitch

You might find a comment in your history, click the link, and... nothing. The video loads, but your comment isn't at the top. This happens because YouTube’s "highlighted comment" feature is finicky. Usually, clicking the link in your history creates a special URL that is supposed to jump you straight to your post.

If it fails, it’s often because of the comment thread structure. If you replied to someone else, and that person deleted their original comment, your reply might be orphaned or hidden. It's an annoying technical limitation. You know you said it, Google knows you said it, but the video page just won't show it.

Managing your interactions at scale

If you're trying to delete hundreds of comments, I have bad news. There is no "delete all" button for comments specifically. You can delete your entire YouTube history, but that's like burning down the house to get rid of a spider. You'd lose your watch history and your recommendations would be ruined for weeks.

The manual way is the only official way. You click the "X" next to each comment in the My Activity list. It’s tedious. It’s boring. But it’s the only way to be precise.

There are third-party browser extensions that claim to automate this. Be careful. Giving a random extension access to your Google account is a massive security risk. Most experts, including those from sites like The Verge or 9to5Google, generally advise against using unverified scripts to manage account data. It’s better to spend twenty minutes clicking "X" than to lose your account to a phisher.

How to view all your YouTube comments on different devices

Let's get specific. The UI changes constantly.

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On a Desktop:

  1. Go to YouTube.com and make sure you're logged in.
  2. Click the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top left.
  3. Click "History."
  4. On the right-hand side, under "Manage all history," click "Comments."
  5. This opens the Google My Activity page. Scroll and enjoy the cringe.

On iOS and Android:

  1. Open the YouTube app.
  2. Tap your profile picture or the "You" tab.
  3. Tap the Settings icon (the gear).
  4. Tap "Manage all history."
  5. Tap the "Interactions" tab at the top.
  6. Select "Comments & replies."

It’s worth noting that if you have multiple Brand Accounts under one email, you have to switch to the specific account first. Your history is segmented. Your professional-sounding comments on a work-related channel won't show up in the history of your personal "gaming" account.

The mystery of the "Ghost" comments

Ever left a comment and it just disappeared? You check your history and it's there, but it's gone from the video. This usually isn't a bug. YouTube uses aggressive AI to filter spam. If your comment had a link, too many emojis, or certain "trigger" words that the creator has blacklisted, it gets moved to a "Held for Review" folder.

Creators have a "Review" tab in their YouTube Studio. Your comment might be sitting there waiting for them to hit "Approve." If they never do, it stays in a digital purgatory. You see it in your history because you did post it, but the public never sees it because it didn't pass the gatekeeper.

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Why you can't see comments on "Made for Kids" videos

If you're looking for a comment you left on a video that has since been marked as "Made for Kids" (usually due to COPPA regulations), it's gone. YouTube disables comments on all kids' content. Even if you left a perfectly normal comment years ago, once that "Made for Kids" flag is toggled, the entire comment section is nuked. Interestingly, these often still appear in your My Activity log, but they are completely inaccessible on the actual video page.

The role of YouTube Studio

For those who are actually creators, seeing comments left on your own videos is a totally different ballgame. You don't use the My Activity dashboard for that. You go to YouTube Studio. There, the "Comments" tab gives you a massive table you can filter by:

  • Search terms
  • Questions (the AI identifies if the comment is a question)
  • Subscriber status
  • Member status

This is a professional-grade tool. If you're looking for what other people said to you, this is the place. But for your own outgoing comments, you're stuck with the Activity log.

Actionable steps for your digital cleanup

If you're serious about managing your presence, start with a targeted search. Go to your comment history and use the search bar to look for names of people you no longer talk to or old political debates that might not look great to a future employer.

  1. Audit your history once a year. It sounds overkill, but digital footprints last forever.
  2. Use the "Interactions" tab to check not just comments, but also your "Likes" and "Dislikes." These are also stored in the same place and can reveal a lot about your past interests.
  3. Check your "Live Chat" messages. These are separate from standard comments. In the same Interactions menu, there’s a specific section for Live Chat. If you’ve been active in streams, this is where that history lives.
  4. Be wary of "Comment Editing." If you edit a comment, the history log usually shows the latest version. It doesn't always keep a version history like a Google Doc would.

Ultimately, knowing how to view all your YouTube comments is about taking control of your data. Google gives you the tools, but they don't exactly put them front and center. Taking ten minutes to look through your history can be an eye-opening experience. It’s your data. You might as well know what’s in it.

The most important thing to remember is that deleting a comment from your history removes it from the video instantly. There’s no delay. If you want something gone, the My Activity page is the most reliable "delete" button you have.

Go through the list. Delete the stuff that makes you wince. Keep the stuff that brings back good memories. It's your history, after all.