We all use YouTube to watch videos and subscribe to channels that match our interests. Over time, as we discover more creators, our subscriptions grow, sometimes into the hundreds. Managing this large list of channels can become overwhelming, especially when you are trying to find a specific one. By default, YouTube does not organize these channels in alphabetical order. Instead, it uses an algorithm to place the “most relevant” or frequently watched channels at the top of your subscription list. While this might be helpful in some cases, it can make it difficult to quickly locate a specific channel you have subscribed to.
Thankfully, YouTube offers a way to manually sort your subscriptions alphabetically, though this option is not immediately apparent. By following a few simple steps, you can organize your subscription list for easier browsing.
Steps to Display YouTube Subscriptions Alphabetically:
- Open YouTube in your web browser and navigate to the Subscriptions page by going to: https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions.
- In the upper right corner of the subscriptions section, click on the Manage link. This link opens up additional controls for organizing your subscribed channels.
- Once you have clicked on Manage, a drop-down menu will appear. From this menu, select the option that sorts channels from A-Z. Now, all your subscribed channels will be displayed in alphabetical order, making it much easier to find what you’re looking for.
Important note about Live channels:
While sorting subscriptions alphabetically is a useful feature, there is one caveat: channels that are currently live-streaming will still appear at the top of the list, above the alphabetical order. This allows you to quickly access live content, but it means that the strict A-Z sorting is only applied to non-live channels. But usually not many channels live-stream and they are usually limited to 5 or 6 only unless you have subscribed to channels that live-stream a lot.
Works for me – accessing youtube via Safari Browser. ‘Was easy’ once I knew where to look thanks
I’ve tried everything to change the subscriptions to show in alphabetical order, even linked my phone (where it is in alphabetical order) and it still doesn’t work. Why did it change? Why won’t they fix it?
This method worked on my phone and tablet but not on my TV. A while ago our YouTube subscriptions flipped from alphabetical to just a jumble with no apparent organization to it. I can’t find any way to change it on the TVs, although I was able to re-alphabetize the lists on my devices. Any ideas?
Unfortunately, the TV apps might not offer the same options as those for other platforms. Possible future updates could bring this option.