I often listen to podcasts while falling asleep, and sometimes I forget to set a sleep timer, so the next videos autoplay through the night. This worked normally for years, but recently I've been waking up to hours-long videos with titles like "Heal Yourself" or "Relaxing Music With Rain." I keep selecting "Not interested," but similar videos continue appearing. What's the best way to retrain my recommendations or prevent these videos from playing?
4 Answers
Keep marking the unwanted videos as irrelevant and avoid opening them whenever possible. The system can be persistent, especially if you occasionally listen to rain, white noise, or similar background audio, so it may take a while for the recommendations to change.
The simplest fix is to disable autoplay. If you still want something playing overnight, make a playlist containing only your preferred podcasts, or start a queue manually instead of letting recommendations choose the next video.
The recommendation system may be interpreting your late-night listening as interest in long background audio, even if you never choose those videos. Try removing the unwanted relaxation videos from your watch history, then deliberately watch or play more of the podcasts and channels you actually want recommended.
Use your subscriptions or a custom playlist rather than the general home recommendations. A playlist with familiar podcast episodes is much less likely to suddenly switch over to unrelated three-hour meditation or relaxation videos.
A dedicated playlist sounds like the safest option, especially since I mainly want something familiar playing while I fall asleep.