Shorts Remover

Browser extension that removes YouTube Shorts from the interface and redirects Shorts URLs to the standard video player.

Features

• URL redirect — visiting /shorts/VIDEO_ID automatically redirects to /watch?v=VIDEO_ID (works for typed URLs, external links, and in-app navigation)
• Hides Shorts from sidebar — removes the "Shorts" button from the left navigation panel
• Hides Shorts shelf — removes the Shorts section from the homepage
• Hides Shorts from search — removes Shorts filter chips, tabs, and individual Shorts results
• No UI — install and forget, no popup, no settings, no configuration
• No tracking — zero analytics, zero backend calls, zero data collection
• Minimal — 3 files, no dependencies, no frameworks, no build step

Install

Chrome / Edge / Brave (Chromium)

1. Open chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode (toggle in top-right)
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select the shorts_remover folder

Safari (macOS & iOS)

Requires Xcode (free from the App Store, macOS 11+).

1. Open Safari/ShortsRemover/ShortsRemover.xcodeproj in Xcode
2. Select the target matching your platform:
   • macOS — choose ShortsRemover (macOS) scheme
   • iPhone/iPad — choose ShortsRemover (iOS) scheme
3. Build and run (Cmd+R)
4. In Safari → Settings → Extensions, enable ShortsRemover and grant permission for youtube.com

Simulator first-time setup: Safari → Settings → Advanced → check Show features for web developers, then Safari → Settings → Developer → check Allow unsigned extensions.

Real iPhone: Requires an Apple Developer account for code signing. The iOS simulator works without one.

macOS 10.14 (Mojave) note: Safari Web Extensions require Safari 14+ (macOS 11+). Mojave cannot build or run this extension. Use the Chromium version instead.

How it works

Mechanism	What it does
rules.json	Declarative net request rule: regex captures video ID from /shorts/(ID) and redirects to /watch?v=ID
content.js — yt-navigate-finish listener	Catches SPA navigation within YouTube and redirects to /watch
content.js — MutationObserver	Watches for dynamically loaded Shorts elements and hides them immediately
content.js — DOM queries	Hides sidebar entry, shelves, chips, tabs, and individual Shorts video results

Project structure

shorts_remover/
├── manifest.json         Chrome Manifest V3
├── rules.json            DNR redirect rule
├── content.js            Content script (runs on youtube.com)
├── icons/
│   ├── icon16.png
│   ├── icon48.png
│   └── icon128.png
└── Safari/
    └── ShortsRemover/
        ├── ShortsRemover.xcodeproj   Xcode project (macOS + iOS)
        ├── Shared (App)/             Code shared across platforms
        ├── Shared (Extension)/       Extension resources (content.js, rules.json)
        ├── macOS (App)/              macOS-specific files
        ├── macOS (Extension)/
        ├── iOS (App)/                iOS-specific files
        └── iOS (Extension)/

Permissions

Only one permission: declarativeNetRequest. No storage, no tabs, no scripting, no host data access beyond YouTube.

License

MIT