How to Clear Recently Watched on the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Cube

If you’re looking for the easiest way to watch new media platforms like Netflix or Hulu, the Amazon Fire TV line of devices is a great place to start. Though there are several different devices to choose from, it’s the Fire Stick that many users have become accustomed to fore watching movies and TV shows.

The Fire Stick is an easy piece of technology to learn how to use, but sometimes, it can be complicated for newcomers to the platform. Case in point: why does your Recently Watched list get bogged down with so many titles you checked out previously? This article explains how to clear out your Recently Watched list so you can start over and make it easier to browse.

How to Clear Items from Recently Watched List on a Fire TV Stick

Let’ say you’ve been watching your favorite documentary series, your mom watched her soap, dad binged on his favorite reality show, and you accidentally started the wrong stream. You also had some friends over and everyone watched football and a couple of action movies. With all the shows and movies heaped on top of each other, the “Recently Watched” list might look a bit hectic and hard to navigate when you’d like to find an episode of that documentary series and watch it again.

There’s a quick and easy solution to clean up your Recently Watched list. Before starting, ensure your TV is on, and your Fire TV Stick is appropriately connected. Then you can dive into various ways to clear up your history.

Clear Recently Watched Directly from the Home Screen

The Home Screen on your Firestick tends to get crammed with the Recently Watched section that appears at the top. The Fire TV Stick displays a set of recommendations in the “Recently Watched” section based on your activity. The recommendations get shown in the form of a sliding carousel.

You can remove entries one by one only unless you reset the Firestick or cube. Furthermore, deleting an item from the watched list does not remove it from the library or your device. You can always launch it in the future from the list wherever it resides, such as Action or Comedy sections. If you’d like to remove an item from the history section, follow the steps below.

To cut straight to the problem of too many recently watched items on your Fire Stick, do the following:

1. Launch your Fire TV Stick and select the desired profile.
2. From the “Home” screen, scroll down to the “RECENTLY WATCHED” section.
3. Find the item you want to remove and press the “hamburger icon button” on your firestick remote.
4. Scroll down the menu in the bottom-right section and select “Remove from Recently Watched.”

By completing the steps above, you can reduce the number of items in your “Recently Watched” section, get more organized on your “Home” screen, and take control of your watched list so it suits your needs and persona. After all, you probably had several other people use your profile from time to time, or they just preferred to use yours for some reason.

So, how do the above steps get you more organized on your Firestick or cube and have more control? Well, aside from the “Recently Watched” section on your “Home” page, your viewing history gets used to display recommendations in several sections. Sliding carousels labeled as “Because you watched…,” “…we think you’ll like,” etc. utilize your viewing history to provide suggestions. By tweaking your “Recently Watched” section directly, you fine-tune other areas over time so that they match your needs.

For a quicker way to clean up your “Home” screen, you can go into the personalized sections that used your watch history and clean them up rather than waiting for weeks for all the adjustments to occur. Here’s what to do.

Remove a Recommended TV Show or Movie

Since it takes time for the recommendations lists to adjust to your updated watch history, you can manually remove the items in each category. You can’t delete movies, TV Shows, etc. from generally populated sections, but you can remove entries that were created based on your watch history.

If you want to remove a TV show or movie from the “Because you watched…,” “TV Shows we think you’ll like,” etc. sections, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the desired, personalized category, such as “Because you watched Family Matters.”
2. Browse the suggestions and find one you want to delete. Highlight it and press the “hamburger icon button” on your Fire Stick or Fire Cube remote.
3. Scroll down through the menu options at the bottom-right section and choose “Remove from List.” Remember that you can’t delete entries from standard categories like “Next Up for You,” “Popular Movies,” etc.

Having a messy “Recently Watched” list can be genuinely inconvenient, especially for users who share their Fire TV Stick with roommates or family. It is, therefore, handy to know how to clean it up from time to time. Plus, since the watched history floods personalized sections with suggestions, cleaning those categories helps reduce clutter and lets you create a more personalized “Home” screen faster. Hopefully, you found this article interesting and helpful.