YouTube blocked in Chrome on a Mac, the Shorts tab in the sidebar and no video loading

Guide

How to block YouTube Shorts on your Mac

There are three ways to block YouTube Shorts on a Mac: what's built into macOS, a browser extension, or a system-level blocker. A browser extension can block just Shorts and leave the rest of YouTube alone. The other two can only block YouTube as a whole, which is probably a good idea anyway. Here's how each one works so you can pick the best one for you.

Updated September 2026

Your options

Three ways to block YouTube Shorts on a Mac

Screen Time

Built into macOS, free.

Good when you only use Safari and want less YouTube overall. Screen Time works on whole websites, so adding youtube.com blocks all of it.

Falls short when you want Shorts gone and the rest of YouTube kept, or when you open Chrome or any other browser.

Setup: Apple's guide to content restrictions

A browser extension

Unhook, LeechBlock NG, StayFocusd.

Good when you want Shorts gone and the rest of YouTube kept. Unhook hides Shorts from YouTube. StayFocusd has a Shorts blocker built in, and LeechBlock NG can block the youtube.com/shorts path.

Falls short when a second browser is open, or when the extension's own settings page is two clicks away at the moment you least want it to be.

Setup: Unhook·LeechBlock NG·StayFocusd

Our recommendation

A system-level blocker

SelfControl (free), Cold Turkey, or Focus Firewall, the one we make.

Good when Shorts is the symptom and YouTube is the problem. These sit below the browser and block by domain, so all of youtube.com goes, in every browser, on a schedule.

Falls short when you want to keep the rest of YouTube. None of them can block a path on its own.

More of this kind: our roundup of focus apps for Mac

Our recommendation

Focus Firewall

Disclaimer: this is our app. Focus Firewall is a system-level blocker we built with a lot of care, and the rest of this page is about using it to block YouTube, and to keep it blocked on a daily basis. If it's not for you, the alternatives above are good, and our blog compares them in more depth.

How we got here: we tried the others first, for years. Screen Time is Safari only. Extensions cover one browser. The strict ones lock you out cold turkey-style, no exceptions. It's not uncommon to give up in a few days and go back to square one. The full-featured ones have too many knobs: timers, sessions, modes, endless tweaking, until the tweaking is the distraction. So we wrote our own.

How it's different: it runs on a schedule so there's nothing to start, and stopping it asks for Touch ID. The rest is in the table, and the setup is right below.

Screen
Time

Browser
extension

Focus
Firewall

Blocks YouTube in every browser

Safari

Blocks Shorts and keeps the rest of YouTube

Survives switching to a new browser

Turns on and off by schedule

Some

Asks for Touch ID to stop

Comes back on its own after a pause

Shows it's on, from the menu bar

Counts your time on YouTube, hour by hour

Safari

Some

Covers youtu.be and the video servers too

You list them

Needs an account or sends data anywhere

Varies

Setup

Blocked in under a minute

If keeping the rest of YouTube matters more, an extension from the list above is the better fit. To get rid of YouTube entirely:

InstallDownload from the Mac App Store. macOS asks once for the permission that lets Focus Firewall filter traffic.
Pick Streaming Video during onboardingIt's one of the lists on the "What distracts you?" screen, and YouTube is already in it.
Set your work hours and start blockingYou're done! Once blocking is active, you won't be able to access YouTube.

The Focus Firewall blocklist window, with Social Media, Streaming Video and the other categories in the sidebar and a switch per site

Menu bar popover with Social Media, Streaming Video, News and Shopping switched on

macOS asking for Touch ID because Focus Firewall is trying to turn off blocking

Menu bar popover with the pause menu open: 1, 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes, 1 hour, or until tomorrow

When you need a break

Off takes a deliberate step. Pause takes one click

Stopping the block asks for Touch ID or your password. Pausing is easy on purpose: pick one, five, ten, fifteen or thirty minutes, or an hour, and blocking comes back by itself when the time is up. A lunch break stays a lunch break.

“The scheduler makes the app work on autopilot, blocking distracting websites during my working hours seamlessly.”

★★★★★Mac App Store review

Browsing Report

See how much YouTube actually gets

Time on each site, hour by hour, with every blocked attempt marked as a dot. It's a quiet way to notice the 10 AM YouTube reflex, and to watch the number fall once the block is on. Everything stays on your Mac.

More about the Browsing Report

Browsing Report timeline: blocking on from 10 AM to 5 PM, with blocked YouTube, X and Instagram attempts marked as dots

YouTube blocked in every browser you own

No extensions, no account. Nothing leaves your Mac.

Free download. Plans from $2.99 a month or $29.99 once.

Questions about blocking YouTube Shorts

No. Focus Firewall blocks by domain and Shorts lives on youtube.com, so it blocks the whole site, Shorts included. If you want the rest of YouTube to keep working, an extension such as Unhook hides the Shorts shelf in one browser.

Yes. Focus Firewall filters traffic at the system level, so Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, Brave and every other supported browser are covered at once, with no extension to install.

Yes. YouTube Studio stays reachable while videos, Shorts and the rest of YouTube are blocked. Signing in to Gmail keeps working too, even though Google routes that sign-in through a YouTube address.

Pause from the menu bar for five, ten or thirty minutes and blocking comes back on its own. You can also switch off Streaming Video from the menu bar for a while, and ask for Touch ID on that switch too if you'd like the extra friction.