Can I get my YouTube subscriptions back after unsubscribing?

Last reviewed: October 10, 2026 · Markdown version

Only by subscribing again, channel by channel. YouTube's help describes no undo for an unsubscribe and no record of the channels you have left. Its unsubscribe steps finish with a notice and nothing more: “At the bottom of the screen, you’ll get a notification confirming you’ve unsubscribed” (YouTube Help: Subscribe to YouTube channels, read 10 October 2026). That page offers no restore button and no list of past unsubscribes, so the real work is remembering which channels they were.

First, make sure they are actually gone

A list that suddenly looks short is not always a list that shrank. Being signed in to a different channel, or browsing in Incognito, hides your usual subscriptions without removing any; why can't I see my subscriptions? walks through those checks. If channels vanished without you touching anything, does YouTube unsubscribe you from channels? covers the documented causes, from removed channels to apps holding access to your account.

Working out which channels they were

A fresh Google Takeout will not tell you. An export reflects your account on the day you make it, and the Takeout page says “we do not currently support exporting data for certain time frames” (Google Account Help: How to download your Google data, read 10 October 2026). The same page never mentions subscriptions by name. So a new archive lists only the channels you still follow, while an archive you saved before unsubscribing still holds the list as it was; our export page explains how to find your way around one.

Your watch history is the better trail. YouTube's watch-history page describes history as a record of the videos you watched and says nothing about entries changing when you unsubscribe, and it documents a search through them: open My Activity, choose YouTube History, then Manage history, then Search (YouTube Help: View, delete, or turn on or off watch history, read 10 October 2026). Typing a topic or a remembered channel name there turns up the videos, and each one leads back to its channel. The trail has gaps by design: “Any videos that you watch while history is turned off won't show up in your history,” and entries you deleted are not there to find.

Subscribing again

There is nothing special about a re-subscribe. The help page notes “You can find a Subscribe button under any YouTube video or on a channel's page.” Two details from that page are worth knowing before you rebuild a long list (YouTube Help: Subscribe to YouTube channels, read 10 October 2026):

Your bell settings start over. “Note that if you unsubscribe and then re-subscribe to a channel, your notification settings will be reset.” If you had all notifications on for a channel, set that again.
There is a daily cap. “You can only subscribe to 75 channels per day.” Rebuilding a few hundred channels takes several days.

If you removed them with Adinand Channel Sorter

Adinand Channel Sorter shows you exactly what will be removed before anything happens, and you approve every removal; nothing is removed automatically. Changed your mind? Undo re-subscribes you and puts the channel back in its category. Undo belongs to Adinand Channel Sorter's own removal flow, so it has nothing to offer for a channel you left inside YouTube itself.

Our suggestion: if you are about to prune a long list, keep a copy first. Adinand Channel Sorter can export your whole channel list as a CSV from Settings; the file is made on your phone and nothing is uploaded. It is a snapshot of the channels you follow, not a log of what you later remove, and it restores nothing by itself: treat it as the list you rebuild from by hand. The free way to unsubscribe never goes away: open any channel in YouTube and do it yourself, unlimited and never metered. Adinand Channel Sorter works on iPhone and Android and is not affiliated with YouTube; it is an independent tool.